Written By: Nirmalya Dutta | Published : June 12, 2014 11:52 AM IST
Neymar da Silva Santos J nior may just be 22 but he has perhaps the most unenviable task at the FIFA World Cup 2014; he carries the burden of the Crown Prince of Brazilian football. Lead his country to glory and he will be considered a worthy heir to Pele, fail and he will be deemed a pariah in Brazil till the next World Cup comes up. While he was amazing in the FIFA Confederations Cup as he led Brazil to a thumping victor over Spain, the World Cup is a different ballgame. Here's a little peak at the Barcelona forward's fitness regime:
The youngster admitted that playing football and training is a lot of hard world. During his time at Santos he told redbull.com, 'I wish I could eat what I like, but as we have matches almost every weekend, we must eat a balanced diet, with protein, carbs, and salads every single day. But essentially I think that doing what you love is the key to great performance, and I love playing soccer. This is my job, but it's also lots of fun.'
When Neymar joined Barcelona to team up with Lionel Messi, the club designed a training regime for the youngster, which included lots of rest and weights. The staff had also estimated he needs to bulk up and that would require hitting the weights since he needed to work on his upper body strength. He also keeps fit with cardio exercises like tennis, cycling, golf, running and swimming. And finally his diet was tweaked to include more carbs to build up his physique.
According to Neymar, the training ensures that players are totally fit and in perfect form for a 90-minute match. 'When we don't have matches we do a lot more gym work,' says Neymar, 'but during the season a lot of your training comes on the pitch.'
His first workout consists of stretching followed by flexibility and strength-building exercises. This includes squat jumps, rope skipping, hopping hurdles, short sprints and a five-minute run. All these exercises are designed make him extremely quick on his feet.
His second workout consists of movement preparation which includes pillar skip, forward lunges and multi-directional lunges. A pillar skip is style of running, with your feet high in the air. Along with this he does a final run of ten minutes. All these workouts are designed to enhance quick movement over the pitch and also build up core strength, a primary requisite for a professional footballer.
His diet is also rich in foods like spinach (for iron), pistas, pizza, Spanish tapas, gummy worms and cotton candy. He also loves eggs, rice, beans and ham along with spaghetti, hamburgers and string cheese along with other milk products.
Caution: While some might find the diet mentioned here pretty amazing in the gustatory sense (who doesn't love pizza, pasta, hamburgers and cheese?), you've to remember that he spends the better part of his day training and running which will help him burn off all the calories along with the fact that top professional footballers are usually gifted with exceptional metabolism which allows them to burn fat.
References: Red Bulls.com, ESPN
Picture Source: Instagram
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