Getting in shape to play soccer, near middle age edition?

April 12, 2022 12:34 PM

I'm hoping to start playing casual pickup soccer weekly with some other men who are similar ages (35+). What can I do to make it more likely I have fun and less likely I get hurt?

I'm turning 40 this summer and some stories of friends getting hurt have started to worry me (a friend tore his achilles playing basketball). My current state of athleticism is that I run 4-5 miles a week at 15/min pace, rarely stretch, do no strength training, last played soccer 3.5 years ago where I pulled a calf and had to go to physical therapy.

posted by sandmanwv to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (11 answers total)

Start stretching and doing strength training. ;) Talk to your physician first as well too, perhaps even seeing a sports injury doc.

If the people you are playing with are already doing this, talk to them as well; they likely have their own tips.

Good luck and get moving!

And when you do get hurt, resume once you are finished with physical therapy.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 12:40 PM on April 12, 2022 [2 favorites]

Start taking some yoga classes. There are many free on YouTube. It's a great balance for the pure cardio you're doing already and will build flexibility, strength and body awareness to protect your joints.
posted by latkes at 1:03 PM on April 12, 2022 [1 favorite]

NGL, I gave up around your age, because whenever I got hurt it took _ages_ to heal. I’m 50-something now and don’t yet feel old enough for the walking football that my local side organises.

Just take it very easy. Don’t dive into the tackle, don’t chase that ball to the byline - let it go. Play like you’re playing walking football - pass to your teammate’s feet, not into space for them to run onto. Accuracy, not power.
posted by rd45 at 1:16 PM on April 12, 2022 [4 favorites]

I can't offer any soccer specific advice, but one experience I've had is that for sports I played a fair amount when I was younger, I let old reflexes take over in ways that my current body was really not accustomed to and paid badly (had a particularly bad version of this with squash). It sounds like this may apply to you with soccer, and your experience 3.5 years ago sounds kinda familiar to me. So I'd say the number one thing I've found is that you have to pay attention to yourself in a way that at least I didn't need to ~15 years ago.

Re strength training, there's a lot out there, but if you want something you could start up like tomorrow by mostly reading straightforward non-commercial things on the internet, I'm a big fan of the r/bodyweightfitness routines: minimalist routine, recommended routine. You may also want to look up specific "prehab" exercises, I don't know anything in particular for soccer-related issues but searching for "calf prehab" gets some plausible looking results.
posted by advil at 1:17 PM on April 12, 2022 [1 favorite]

I play indoor soccer, on a 40+ team. About a third of our team is injured and not playing on any given week. I am goalkeeper so I don't need the same type of fitness as the field players do, but we all need to stretch.

Our second oldest player does a lot of running. He is one of the least injured players. Not sure if any of our guys do weight work or not. But past the skills, soccer is about running and stamina. And what advil said. Go easy on the pitch until your brain slows down enough for your now different body.

And good luck! Playing soccer is so fun...
posted by Windopaene at 1:37 PM on April 12, 2022 [3 favorites]

Almost to the second, after turning 40, I started injuring my calves frequently when running. Apparently it is also the most common injury for soccer players. I mainly just do simple calf raises (on stairs) while brushing teeth or stability exericses (balancing on one foot while rocking back and forth). I throw in some squats daily to strengthen my quads.

I also discovered the getset app (also on android) which is great. You just select your sport (in this case: football) and it shows you a bunch of exercises you can do for injury prevention targeted to the specific sport. I showed it to my physio and now she is recommending the app to other patients so I guess there is something in it...
posted by piyushnz at 1:56 PM on April 12, 2022 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I'm 45 and still trying to play, but yeah, I get injured all the time since 40. I broke a wrist, sprained ankles often, once enough for crutches, broke a finger, and have piriformis syndrome I am always going to PT for. I guess accept that you will probably get hurt, at least a little.

A few things I've noticed that help me play more often than not:
- Core strength is key. Having a strong core will absolutely help you balance and avoid impact injuries.
- Being in running shape really, really helps. You get injured when you are exhausted and out of form. Your running pace and distance seems low for anything but a pretty casual game.
- Stretching is fine but make sure you know what you are doing. Randomly stretching your hamstring a few minutes before you start playing is more likely to get you hurt than help.
- This might be placebo but I wear light ankle braces, a wrist brace, it seems to have reduced the number of ankle tweaks.

Maybe most importantly for me: no more big challenges on the ball. Just let the stronger, more flexible players get the 50/50 balls.
posted by RajahKing at 2:20 PM on April 12, 2022 [2 favorites]

Yep, wear some braces I think.

Tore right ACL just hopping and landing. Currently fighting a left MCL sprain. ACL was like 7 years ago, has been fine, but I was still wearing the hinged brace I got then, until this recent MCL thing. It has shifted over...

But even a cheap neoprene brace really helped me when my left knee was "wobbly" in the morning and during the day. Can't see any reason not to brace your parts ahead of time.

And let the youngsters do the dumb aggressive tackles. Get yourself between the ball and the goal. Take a charge if you have to.

Sorry to drone on, but have the last game of the season tonight. We are unbeaten. So is our opponent. We have never played this team as they are new. We have scored the most goals but, (ahem, as the keeper), their goals against kicks our ass. And about half of our team is gone for spring break.

IT IS SO FUN!!!

Get in shape and get out there!
posted by Windopaene at 2:38 PM on April 12, 2022 [1 favorite]

A proper warm up with dynamic rather than static stretching will help. For a warm up designed to reduce the risk of ACL injury, look at the Knee Program.
posted by happyfrog at 7:39 PM on April 12, 2022 [2 favorites]

My husband is 45 and a regular soccer player who started as an adult. I'm just echoing posters above w/recommendations on improving core strength, core strength, core strength. He's had several injuries over the last few years, all which were made better by physical therapy that improved his core strength.
posted by hessie at 7:07 AM on April 13, 2022

I would gently advise against it. I'm 43, played organized indoor soccer for ~15 years as keeper. I'm that time I broke two ribs, one finger, tibia and fibula. That was with a ref trying to keep people under control. I've played some pickup and it was highly variable.

That tib-fib break required surgery and led to sciatica, between all of it, I couldn't walk well for over a year.

If you're going to do it regardless, I'd agree with the above advice to get in "running shape". 10 minute mile isn't going to blow anyone away, but might indicate a general level of fitness that lets you avoid the worst of the injuries that are coming your way.

But I'm still not going to play soccer anymore. It's not worth it to my old man body
posted by booooooze at 11:34 PM on April 13, 2022