Wayne Bridge - Training Zone

Wayne Bridge laughs as he tries to defend himself but knows his teammates at Manchester City are spot on. “They think I’m a bit of a gym monkey,” says the 28-year-old left back, with 32 England caps to his name. “They might be right,” he adds.


Indeed they might, because however fit his superstar friends at City may be, nobody quite does fitness like Bridge.
Part of it is because, with former Chelsea temmate Ashley Cole as competition for his place in the England team, Bridge needs to find any edge he can.


But the main reason is simply that Bridge loves to feel fit, and when you hear him explain how his week pans out, assuming he has a game from Saturday to Saturday, then it is no surprise to discover just how fit professional footballers tend to be these days.


“If I’ve played on a Saturday I’ll usually have the Monday and Tuesday off,” Bridge explains, making it sound like he has it easy. He guesses this thought. “You’ll see why we need to relax when I go through the rest of the week.


“Training tends to start at around 11.00 a.m on a Tuesday, but I’m in two hours before because I like to do more. This always begins with a series of hot and cold plunge baths, normally two minutes in each five times, which helps the blood flow.


“Then I start my own circuit, which normally means 45 minutes on an exercise bike, with a minute sprinting, then a minute slow, or sometimes a good, consistent pace to get a sweat on.


“Then it’s on to leg weights, using one-legged squats with no weights, then 5 kilo medicine balls, then 10 kilo balls, usually in reps of six times two. The legs for a footballer, especially a defender who needs to make big tackles and long clearances, are massively important, so we need to look after them well.


“In addition I’ll do some bounding exercises, using big jumps on to a bench, to increase my power, and some cable work to strengthen my upper body. I balance on one leg and then use the cable like a backward wood chop, as well as doing the same thing balancing on a Swiss ball for core stability. It sounds a lot before I start official training, but it sets me up for the day.”


Then proper training begins, which tends to be gentle for the first day back. We have a circuit which we repeat, which involves a series of 30 second exercises on the training field. The aim is to work on quick feet, changing direction, heading, volleying and a few skills, and this will include using the ladder on the ground and a series of abs exercises. The morning will end with an ice plunge to aid recovery.”


Wednesdays tend to be more skills based, although Bridge will have again already trained for two hours prior to the official period. “I do pretty much the same stuff each morning although not always weights depending on how tired my body feels. On the field we have keep ball sessions, then a short game between defenders and attackers. The defenders then head off to work on their specific job, which means heading and clearing, while the forwards tend to focus more on crossing and shooting. Training will last two hours and, on the Thursday, ninety minutes.”


Once again Bridge has already been at City’s training ground for a couple of hours beforehand on the bike and in the gym. “Then it’s down to skills and tactics. We’ll play some keep ball, with two in the middle and the rest one-touch passing around in a small box, before a match between two eleven-a-side teams. Afterwards I’d have a massage after three days of training.”


The day before the big game tends to be short and sweet. “I won’t do my own thing before training on a Friday, and the training session usually last an hour. We’ll do some more keep ball exercises, and a short, one-touch game of two in the middle, before a five-a-side game just to keep up our skills up there for the next day. The morning ends with another plunge bath.”


On the Saturday the players tend to stay relaxed until fifteen minutes before they go out on to the pitch to warm up. “That’s when I undergo a number of stretching exercises in the dressing room, concentrating mainly on my hamstrings, glutes, quads, calves and groin. I wouldn’t class myself as an old man but at 28, and with all the football behind me, I definitely notice the stiffness in my lower back. At 21 when I played at Southampton I felt like a whippet, but not any more.”


The warm-up period before kick-off is crucial, and surprisingly intense. “We stretch every major muscle group again to be nice and loose, then have a series of sprints across the width of the pitch with high knees and heel flicks, and side to sides when we side-step across the pitch, before a longer stretch. Now there’s no danger of pulling a muscle so we’ll practice some long-kicking, just enough to work up a sweat.”


In the 90 minutes of a football match Bridge tends to run between 11,000 and 12,000 metres, mainly in short bursts of speed, and can lose up to 4 kilos in weight. “It’s crucial to possess both speed and stamina,” Bridge says. “That requires power, and good core strength, with strong muscles to deal with all the twisting and turning.”
Like any footballer he has suffered from niggles, but Bridge has only been badly affected by two injuries. “Three years ago I dislocated my ankle and had some major ligament injuries as well in the February, and didn’t come back until the start of the next season in August. Even then it didn’t feel right until Christmas. They said it could have been a career-threatening injury, but I worked extra hard in training and rehab to get myself back. I’d lost a lot of leg muscle so getting it back was the biggest part of the rehab. It was the same when I had a hip operation. The prognosis was twelve weeks out, but I made it back in eight.”


When injured Bridge never touches alcohol, nor enjoys the “blow-out” that every footballer treats himself to now and again. “We’re talking fish and chips, or maybe a burger, but only after a game,” he explains. “The rest of the time it’s a highly nutritious diet which has changed beyond recognition in the past three or four years in football.”


Bridge’s food intake is large, which underlines how much work he puts in to his profession, judging by his 80 kilo weight, and 7% body fat ratio. “I never used to eat breakfast, whereas now it’s scrambled eggs and ham on brown toast, then a lunch with a third carbs such as pasta, a third protein such as chicken, and a third vegetable, which tends to be broccoli, with a yogurt and fruit. In the evening there are less carbs. I tend to eat a chicken or pork steak, with plenty of veg or salad. All day I’m also drinking water, weak squash, isotonic drinks and protein shakes. In a game it will half a litre at half time, and two litres immediately afterwards. If we win, and it’s two and half days before training, I may treat myself to a glass of wine, but games come so thick and fast these days, even that’s a rare.”


Long gone, then, are the days of footballers with a paunch, with a pint of beer and steak and chips after games. The modern Premiership footballer is a sleek, fitness machine, highly-educated in the art of keeping fit and well-nourished.


Wayne Bridge, it seems, is the perfect example of today’s football star, and even his former assistant manager at Chelsea, Ray Wilkins, is impressed.
“Ray calls me his super-middleweight,” he reveals, with a laugh. Quite clearly Bridge packs a punch.