Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the fittest looking, ripped and toned soccer players around. He actually has better muscle definition than David Beckham. He is obviously not an average player. So, how does Cristiano Ronaldo workout to get such a fit, toned and athletic body?
Cristiano Ronaldo (full name Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro), like most players in the UK premiership league, follows a strict football training regime, five days per week. Footballers can receive fines and pay deductions, as well as being placed on the bench, if they miss training sessions. However, dedicated players will also supplement the team training with additional workouts, usually of a weight training variety.
Footballers need to combine all the main elements of fitness – endurance, strength, speed, agility and flexibility. Football training lasts for approximately three hours per day, and includes all of these aspects, as well as game skills, tactics, set plays and practice games.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s Training
Cristiano Ronaldo’s training follows a similar pattern to David Beckham’s workouts, plus of course aspects of the following football specific training – see Football Training Drills and Soccer Workouts for more.
On pitch training includes intensive interval training, with emphasis on sprints and acceleration. Flexibility and agility are essential skills to help prevent injury. Typically sprints will be interspersed with bodyweight training, such as: press ups, sit ups and leg raises, with additional plyometric exercises to develop power, such as star jumps, burpees and jumping squats, box jumps and squat thrusts.
Weight training is generally restricted to building functional athletic strength, which means compound weight training exercises: squats, deadlifts, bench press, rows, lateral raises and curls. Cristiano Ronaldo also does a lot of abdominal exercises, such as leg raises, sit ups and crunches of various varieties to target all the abs.
To get extra ripped Cristiano must also perform a lot of lateral pull-downs, maybe pull ups and chin ups, as well as incline bench press and flyes. See here for more strength training articles.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s Diet
To get ripped muscles like Cristiano Ronaldo requires a strict diet. Diet actually plays a more important role than exercise when muscle definition is concerned, as eating even just a little too much will lead to a layer of fat covering the muscles. To have a ripped body and a visible six pack, then body fat generally needs to be kept below 10%.
For most people this involves restricting all sugars and junk food, and ensuring that only enough carbohydrates are eating to maintain energy levels during football training and games, without overloading, which leads to accumulation of fat.
A typically lean footballers’ diet will be very similar to any other endurance athletes’ diet. Breakfast consists of cereals, fruits and juices. Lunch will be a healthy salad with chicken, or other lean meats. Dinner will be a more traditional meal, with fresh vegetables and fish, or something similar to lunch. Salads provide an excellent source of carbohydrates. Junk foods, which is carbohydrate based food high in sugars and fats, have to be avoided as these lead to fat.
Cristiano Ronaldo has said that he does not eat junk food, and is not a big drinker either. When the rest of the team are out on the town, he is often found to be concentrating on resting, in readiness for the next game, or the next football training session.
Professional footballers will also take supplements to ensure that they have adequate protein in their diet to maintain muscle tone, as well as enough carbs to keep energy levels up during the three hour practices sessions.
Without adequate nutrition it is not possible to complete a strict football training schedule, as well as play for 90 minutes in a game. All players at the top of their game have to maintain excellent fitness and Cristiano Ronaldo also manages to keep his body exceptionally toned.
Photo of Cristiano Ronaldo by Enrique_L.