To become a professional football player, you need to be good at the game of football. But to stay at the top level for many years, you also need to be an outstanding athlete. This sentiment has been proven true by legends of the game like Cristiano Ronaldo, Sergio Ramos, and even the incredibly talented Lionel Messi.
However, to be a great athlete, you need to do more than just train on the football pitch - you need a well-developed gym routine designed to make you more explosive, faster, and stronger. That is exactly what Real Madrid and Germany international Antonio Rudiger does for his weekly workouts.
In this article, we’re going to take a look at Antonio Rudiger’s gym workout and his diet based on what he has shared on the Internet in an attempt to dive deep into all the ways professional footballers take care of their bodies during the long season.
So, if that piqued your interest, keep on reading.
If you watch any game that Antonio Rudiger plays in, then one thing becomes clear immediately - the guy is strong, fast, and agile. It’s no wonder that he’s considered to be amongst the best defenders in the game, ones who are able to play multiple positions and help out their team in more ways than one.
Early on in his career, Rudiger was known to be slightly injury prone - something that cost him not playing important games or missing entire parts of the season entirely, but ever since his move from Chelsea to Real Madrid, the defender has taken his nutrition and training to the next level, which leads to him being hardly ever injured now.
When it comes to his diet, we don’t have any massive evidence of him following a particular type of eating - he’s not listed as vegan, vegetarian, or pescatarian. However, due to the fact that he’s Muslim, we can certainly say that he avoids pork and all other kinds of fatty meats - a smart move as a footballer who needs more carbs and proteins compared to fats. When it comes to supplementation, it’s more than likely that he goes for the typical ones most athletes use - pre-workout powders, protein powders, and creatine. Anything else would have to be recommended by a doctor and checked if it's allowed to be used by professional footballers.
When it comes to his workouts, he has a strong build overall - a clear indicator that he trains not only his lower body muscles but the upper body ones as well, which gives him a balanced foundation. As a defender, it’s important to be able not only to run fast and to be agile but also to be strong, as that’s the only way to push other players off the ball and to win aerial duels without making fouls.
From what we can see of his training program in the videos he shares online, Rudiger focuses on quick and explosive movements for the legs. That includes box jumps, skipping rope, and high jumps. Along with that, he does a lot of unilateral exercises for the legs so that he can fix any muscle imbalances. Additionally, as most footballers do, Antonio Rudiger incorporates light cardio, such as cycling and swimming, in order to speed up the recovery process and keep the blood flow going, even on days off.
Having said all of that, perhaps the most surprising part of Antonio Rudiger’s physique is his incredibly strong core. There are multiple videos online of his teammates stepping on top of his stomach and him being able to hold them off - seemingly without any major difficulties. Of course, having a strong core is an absolute must, not only for footballers but for all professional athletes, as the core muscles in your body are the ones that help you run faster, be more agile, more able to hold your ground, and more often than not less injury prone.
Much like almost all professional footballers, Antonio Rudiger has to follow a particularly strict diet and exercise plan, especially during the season. By doing so, he not only enables himself to stay fit and healthy but also consistently to improve and become better as the season progresses.
With that said, if you dream of becoming a professional footballer and you want to know what kind of nutrition and training plan you need to follow, the one we just shared is a terrific start. Just remember, even if you don’t follow it to tea, or you slip up from time to time if you stay consistent 90% of the time, the results will come - consistency is always better than perfection.
