Premier League
Strength &
Training Guide
The complete strength and conditioning blueprint for footballers. Four pillars of performance, three full training programmes and the Spine Series, written to run alongside your normal football week.
60 day results guarantee. Complete the pathway you select over at least 60 days and see no physical improvement, and we will refund you in full. Dated training logs and test scores are required. Full conditions in our terms.
The Four Pillars of Performance
Four physical qualities decide what a footballer can do on the pitch. They are not trained in sequence. All four appear in every week of training, and only the emphasis changes.
Strength
- Bodyweight Strength
- Movement Competence
- Key Lifting Skills
- Site Specific Focus
Relative strength is the metric that matters, not what you can lift in a vest. Full loading tables from movement quality to maximal strength, plus the eccentric hamstring work with the strongest evidence base in injury prevention.
Energy Systems
- Long Intervals
- Short Intervals
- Repeated Sprint
- Speed Endurance
Four conditioning methods, each written as a real prescription with distance, reps and work to rest ratios. Plus where every session sits in a week that already contains matches and team training.
Power
- Landing Skills
- Plyometric Activities
- Ballistic Exercises
- Olympic Lifting
Ground contact in a maximal sprint lasts around a tenth of a second, which is less time than it takes to reach peak force in a heavy squat. Rate of force development is the quality that transfers, and this is how you train it.
Speed
- Acceleration
- Maximal Velocity
- Multi-Directional
- Position Specific Game Speed
Speed exposure never disappears from the plan. It increases in quality as the block progresses, because the fastest way to pull a hamstring is to sprint flat out for the first time in a competitive match.
Three Programmes. Pick Your Pathway.
These are alternatives, not stages. Choose the one that fits your situation, your equipment and your training history. A selection table inside the guide matches your circumstances to the right pathway in one page.
The Foundation Programme
- Sessions4 short / week
- EquipmentMinimal kit
- Cycle4 weeks, repeatable
- Built forNo gym access
The entry point. All four pillars at their first level with no gym required: Structure, Engine, Horsepower and Turbo, plus a clear graduation standard for when you are ready to move up.
The Four Training Phases
- Sessions4 days / week
- EquipmentFull gym
- Cycle4 weeks, repeatable
- Built forIn-season use
Push, pull, lower, trunk, rotated weekly with every load logged. Fewer variables, technique-gated loading and a structure that can be cut back to two sessions a week in a heavy fixture block without breaking.
The 12-Week Block
- Sessions3 gym / week
- EquipmentFull gym
- Cycle12 weeks, fixed
- Built forOff / pre-season
Properly periodised across three blocks: Accumulation, Transmutation and Realisation, finishing with a testing week so you can prove the twelve weeks actually moved the numbers.
Built To Be Used, Not Just Read
Real pages from the guide. Every programme is laid out as a session you can take into the gym, log and repeat, and every page is sized to print clean on A4.
Everything In The Guide
Concurrent Training, Solved
Football is already your endurance stimulus. The guide shows how to sequence gym work around it so conditioning does not blunt your strength and power, and why dropping the weights in-season makes you slower by March.
The Hamstring Protocol
Hamstring strains are the single most common injury in the elite game. Nordic curls, Copenhagen holds and calf work appear throughout the gym pathways with exact sets, reps and rest, because adherence is the whole battle.
The Test Battery
Countermovement jump, 10m and 30m sprint, 505 change of direction, 30-15 IFT, 3RM squat and the Nordic break-point. Test in week one, retest in week twelve, with printable record sheets and guidance on reading the result.
Youth & Maturation
Amber panels run through every section flagging what changes based on maturation status rather than age, plus the supervision standard for any athlete under 18 loading a barbell or sprinting at maximum.
Recovery & Load Management
Sleep, fuelling and load, in that order, with everything else ranked beneath them. Session RPE and a morning wellness check give you professional-grade monitoring without owning a single piece of equipment.
Exercise Library & Load Logs
Every exercise in all three programmes listed A to Z with its category, the kit you need, the one coaching cue that matters and exactly where it appears. Plus a full notation key and printable load-log templates.
Charlie Owen
Manchester United have had seven head coaches since 2019. The fitness department has not changed.
Charlie has delivered the first-team physical programme through every one of those transitions: different philosophies, different demands, different playing styles, while the squad continued to compete at the top of the English game.
That continuity is the credential. Preparing elite players is not one methodology imposed once. It is the daily work of keeping a squad available and physically capable across a congested calendar, whoever is picking the team. This guide is that work, written down.
Train Like The First Team
Download instantly, read it on any device, print it for the gym. Your next block starts this week.
Get Instant Access NowBacked by our 60 day results guarantee. Train the pathway you select for at least 60 days, and if you see no physical improvement, email contact@ballerperformance.net with your dated logs and test scores for a full refund. Conditions apply.