To achieve today’s success, besides his natural talent, Lionel Messi also trained hard in every aspect. What is the secret to fitness and diet for the male player? Let’s find out with ELLE Man through the following article.Lionel Messi is not as fitness-heavy as his former La Liga rival Cristiano Ronaldo , who is known for his rigorous training regime. However, he still has to follow some regular training plans under the supervision of a trainer. Let’s find out with ELLE Man through the following article.
How does Lionel Messi train fitness to reach the top?
How does Lionel Messi train?
According to Pinata magazine, Messi’s training mainly revolves around ensuring his body is always up to speed. He focuses on maximizing his agility before each match day and improving his linear speed.
To increase his speed, Messi’s workout is divided into different parts that include exercises. For basic movements, he does pillar bridge-front, lunges, hamstring stretches, and pillar skips. Messi also does hurdles, split squats to strengthen his core and leg muscles. To finish off the workout, he does different acceleration exercises to increase his speed.
The next step in linear speed training is to maximize Messi’s multi-directional movement. The player uses pillar skips, jumping rope, and squats to strengthen his leg muscles. For agility, he jumps over obstacles and jumps over spikes. At the end of each training session, Lionel Messi drinks plenty of water to stay hydrated and then jogs for 5 to 10 minutes to cool down.
Photo: @leomessi
What is the diet like?
Italian nutritionist Giuliano Poser has been working with the Argentina international since 2014. He has identified five main foods: water, olive oil, whole grains, fresh fruit and fresh vegetables, which form the basis of Lionel Messi’s diet.
Poser advises his clients to cut back on sugar. It’s the worst thing for muscles. Refined flours are also a big problem, as it’s hard to find uncontaminated wheat these days.
Like many nutritionists who work with athletes, he advised against eating too much meat.
Messi’s “favorite recipe” is grilled chicken with vegetables. The recipe is as follows:
– 30g olive oil
– Salt
– Four cloves of garlic, crushed
– An onion
– A few carrots
– A leek
– 700-800g potatoes
– Four chicken thighs
– A little fresh basil
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius, add oil and salt to a baking tray, then add the vegetables and chopped chicken. Once prepared, bake for 45 minutes at 190 degrees.
Lionel Messi has also confessed to being a fan of the Argentinean dish Milanesa (thin beef fillet fried in breadcrumbs), and he has previously admitted the difficulties of cutting out regular meat from his diet : According to AS magazine, the striker was also asked to give up pizza, one of his favorite foods.
What other secrets does Lionel Messi have?
Of course, Messi’s natural talent, ability, and skill are what make him such a talented player. His incredible technical ability is one in a million, and it’s inborn. There are plenty of fitness exercises and health regimes you can try in the hope of becoming a player like Messi, but there’s a reason he’s called the GOAT – he’s just a unique, innate talent.
Photo: Maja Hitij/FIFA/Getty Images
However, director at Athletes’ Performance, Craig Friedman has explained the mystery behind Messi’s speed and agility.
“First you have to be explosive and powerful,” Friedman told ESPN. “Then you have to stabilize your body through your ankles, hips, and torso to be able to transfer that power to the ground efficiently. And finally, you have to transfer that power to the ground in the right direction, and that requires proper technique.”
“He’s a small guy, but his force development rate is very high and his power-to-weight ratio is incredible,” Friedman continued.
