What the beautiful game can teach industrial athletes about stamina and fatigue.

By Work Right

Soccer players cover a lot of ground over 90 minutes. It’s easy to see the demand they put on their bodies by how far they run. Now factor in their ability to sprint, stop, cut, accelerate, recover, and do it all again when the match is well underway.

Industrial athletes may not be chasing a ball, but over the course of a shift, the challenge starts to look pretty familiar. So, in the words of Dani Rojas, “Football is life!” …at least for the next few minutes, as we look at what the beautiful game can teach us about stamina, fatigue, and believing in the next moment.

Covering Some Ground

In a 90-minute match, professional soccer players cover an average of 6.4 miles, with the workload varying by position. Mixed into that distance are 10- to 30-yard sprints occurring every 45 to 90 seconds. It’s not one sustained effort, but a constant change in demand.

The industrial athlete faces a similar mix. Workload varies by job and task, and a shift can move between walking or standing and more demanding bouts of lifting, carrying, pushing, or pulling. In either arena, that’s a lot to ask of the body, particularly from the legs doing much of the work.

Keeping Your Feet

There’s a reason ankles and knees get so much attention in soccer. Sprinting and stopping or pivoting and changing direction repeatedly ask the lower body to absorb force while keeping the player stable and in control.

Industrial athletes put their legs through their own version with every movement. Strength helps meet those demands, balance and stability help keep all that strength under control.

Training For the Full 90

As Ted Lasso put it, “Taking on a challenge is a lot like riding a horse, isn’t it? If you’re comfortable while you’re doing it, you’re probably doing it wrong.”

Building stamina should challenge you. Soccer conditioning progressively prepares players for the demands of a match, and industrial athletes can use the same approach to build stamina for the demands of a shift:

• Build duration first. Increase how long you can comfortably stay active before making the activity harder.
• Then add intensity. Turn a walk into a brisk walk, add hills or stairs, or gradually increase resistance.
• Train for your work. Include strength training to prepare you for all of the pushing, pulling, and lifting you do during the day.
• Make room for recovery. Hard training creates the challenge and recovery gives your body the opportunity to adapt to it.
• Think weeks, not days. There’s no universal timeline. Your starting capacity and physical demands determine how quickly you should progress.

Stamina isn’t built by exhausting yourself once. It’s built by gradually asking your body to do more and giving it time to become capable of more.

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Be sure to check out our other blogs for further injury prevention education and tips for the industrial athlete from Work Right!