Referee matchday primer session in the gym
How do you do a referee matchday primer session in the gym? On the Instagram of Martin Nugent Elite Performance I saw a nice exercise from English top referee Rebecca Welch. In this blog post you’ll get some great ideas to do a session the day before your game in the gym.
If you want to do it on the pitch? Check the matchday -1 sessions from Werner Helsen.
Martin was so kind to respond on Instagram and explain some things. “So now within elite sport and professional football a MD-1 primer is common practice”. The sessions, similar for the ones on the pitch. are there to get you ready for your game. “The session is designed to begin stimulating the muscles which will be utilised during the match. By doing so it helps to enhance neuromuscular performance, meaning athletes can find large improvements within explosive performance actions such as sprinting/ Jumping/ or even some deceleration actions.”
Key muscles you activate with the primer
The key muscles we would look to work on within primer sessions would be:
- Glutes
- Hamstrings
- Quads
- Calves
But why are you training these? “These are the most highly used muscles involved within football. We would pay particular attention to exposing the body to some form of rapid deceleration work also as these would be some of the most injury prone actions players or officials would go through during a game.”
Watch video with Rebecca Welch on Instagram and read more about MN Elite Performance.