Football Conditioning Reference

1How to use this guide

This guide gives every conditioning session three labels: what it builds, how hard it is, and how much of it to do. Pick the outcome you need, check the week can take the intensity, then set the dose by stage.

1. Test the player. Use one of the five running tests in Section 3, or the effort route if there is no test. Keep the same test all season.
2. Choose the outcome. Recover, Base, Engine, Surge, Repeat, Speed Endurance or Speed (Section 2).
3. Check where it fits. Use the planning tables in Sections 5 to 7 for pre-season, the in-season week, return to play and the off-season.
4. Set the stage. Start at the stage that suits the player (Stage 1 to 5) and progress by the rules in Section 2.
5. Get the targets. Enter the player's test results in the library calculator (Section 11). Every card then shows their distances, speeds or power.
6. Check and adjust. Compare effort, heart rate and GPS against the card, then adjust the next session.

Conventions: speeds in km/h and m/s, distances in metres. Bronco speed = 1200 m divided by Bronco time. Estimated MAS from Bronco = 1200 / (time - 20.3), or - 29 at 100 kg or over. VIFT = final speed on the 30-15 Intermittent Fitness Test. VTM = final speed on the 30-15 treadmill test. MAS = maximal aerobic speed. MSS = maximal sprint speed. MAP = maximal aerobic power on the bike. MD = match day.

2The framework

Seven outcomes

Each outcome is a physical quality football demands. The labels are written for players; the science term is for staff.

Intensity 1 to 5: how hard

Intensity is the same for everyone because it is set as a percentage of each player's own test. A Level 4 session feels very hard to a senior professional and to a 15-year-old, even though their speeds differ.

MAS percentages apply to the 2000 m trial and the 6-minute run. VIFT percentages apply to the 30-15 field test. Treadmill (VTM) sessions use the VIFT bands as a provisional starting point.

Stage 1 to 5: how much

Stage sets how much work is done at a fixed intensity. Stage 3 is the standard dose from the research. Stage 1 is about half of it, Stage 5 about 25 to 50% more, or the same volume with shorter recovery.

Weekly limits

• No more than two Intensity 5 sessions (Repeat or Speed Endurance) in a one-match week, and no more than one in a two-match week.
• At least one Speed session reaching above 95% of MSS every week, all season.
• Keep Intensity 4 and 5 running away from MD-1, and keep high-turning sessions (SUR-03, REP-02) away from MD-2 and MD-1.

Standard warm-up

2 min very easy, 2 min easy, 2 min steady, 2 min hard, 2 min dynamic mobility, 2 to 3 strides to about 80% speed. Start the first rep within 2 minutes of finishing the warm-up so heart rate is already up. For Intensity 5 sessions add 3 to 4 progressive sprints building to about 90% speed.

3Setting intensity

Five running tests set intensity. They give different numbers for the same player, so each session card lists a separate percentage for each one. Never apply a 30-15 IFT speed to a percentage written for MAS, or the other way round.

Which test to choose

• 30-15 IFT (field): the best anchor for shuttles and turning sessions, because the score already includes the cost of changing direction (Buchheit, 2008). It sits roughly 3 km/h above treadmill maximal speed on average (Ghazzagh et al., 2026).
• 2000 m time trial: the best straight-line estimate of MAS. Trials of 1200 to 1400 m come out faster than true MAS, so they would make every session too hard (Bellenger et al., 2015).
• 6-minute run: the simplest test for players working alone. It gives a slightly lower MAS than an 1800 m trial (Smith et al., 2025).
• Bronco test: the lowest-equipment option: four cones and a stopwatch. It is widely used in rugby, where elite Super Rugby men average about 5:11 and women about 6:19 (Weakley et al., 2026). It correlates very strongly with the Yo-Yo IR1 (r = -0.88), but the Yo-Yo related better to match demands (Sant'Anna et al., 2023). It has been used to track fitness in Premier League U23 players (Kavanagh et al., 2025). The score includes pacing and turning skill, so it is best used for benchmarking and for the two Bronco sessions (SUR-10, ENG-09). If it is the only test you have, MAS can be estimated as 1200 / (time - 20.3), or 1200 / (time - 29) for players of 100 kg or more; the deduction allows for the 29 turns (Baker and Heaney, 2015). Treat this as a starting point: agreement between the Bronco and other running tests is only moderate (Sella et al., 2021), and the formula has not been validated in footballers. Confirm with a 6-min run or 2000 m time trial.
• 30-15 treadmill test: useful for rehab and individual work. With no turns the final speed is higher than the field score. It is not interchangeable with the field test, and its percentages are provisional.

Converting between tests

MAS is roughly 85 to 87% of VIFT, but even with that conversion 30-15-derived MAS sat about 0.5 m/s above time-trial MAS in academy players (Smith et al., 2025). Use conversions only to fill a gap. A change of one 30-15 stage (0.5 km/h) is a real change for most players (Čović et al., 2016).

Setting individual targets

To convert km/h to m/s, divide by 3.6. Round each player's distance to the nearest 5 m and group players into three or four bands so cones are set once. The calculator in Section 11 does this for every session.

Anaerobic speed reserve

Two players with the same MAS but different top speeds will find the same fast intervals very different (Sandford, Laursen and Buchheit, 2021). Keep players with a small gap between MAS and MSS at the lower end of each range, and fast players at the upper end.

When there is no test

Every session also carries an effort (RPE 0 to 10) and heart rate target. Session RPE is a valid way to measure training across very different types of exercise (Foster et al., 2001). Use the highest heart rate seen in a test, match or all-out run as HRmax; use an age formula only as a last resort.

4What the evidence supports

Interval formats with similar heart rate responses can differ greatly in anaerobic and neuromuscular cost, so the outcome and the cost both decide the session (Buchheit and Laursen, 2013a, 2013b).

5Planning the season

Six-week pre-season

Move from aerobic volume in straight lines towards short, fast, football-like efforts, with maximal speed every week from the start. Football training and friendlies carry much of the load; conditioning tops up what the football does not provide.

Progress one variable at a time, move from straight lines to shuttles to multidirectional work, and build aerobic work before speed endurance (Buchheit and Laursen, 2013b). By week 5 each player's weekly high-speed running and sprint distance should be close to their expected in-season total.

The in-season week

For a one-match week with the game on Saturday:

Top-ups by minutes played

Typical top-ups fall well short of match demands: non-starters covered less than half of match values for most running metrics in one top-flight squad (Ribeiro et al., 2025). A structured post-match interval session of about 925 m raised unused substitutes' high-speed running from 33 m to 261 m, against 585 m for starters (Ramirez et al., 2026). Top-up content also shifts with fixture congestion and stage of season (Hills et al., 2020), and its long-term effect is still poorly studied (Clemente et al., 2024).

The top-up percentages are practical starting points, not published thresholds. Check them against your own squad's data.

Congested weeks

With two matches in a week, starters do no extra conditioning. Non-starters get one short Surge session and one Speed exposure between games. Academy players often play extra games for school or other age groups; log those minutes before planning top-ups.

6Return to play

Reconditioning moves from controlled, linear running towards unpredictable, game-speed football, and the player should be back at their pre-injury running load before full team training. This follows the control-chaos continuum used in elite football (Taberner, Allen and Cohen, 2019; Taberner et al., 2025). Medical staff decide when each stage opens; this section covers the conditioning within each stage.

Pre-injury test values overestimate current fitness after more than two or three weeks out, so start at the low end and confirm with heart rate. Retest with a straight-line test at Stage C and the 30-15 IFT at Stage D.

In 95 elite players returning from hamstring injury, introducing high-speed running, sprinting and hard accelerations later in rehab, then building steadily, was linked with lower reinjury risk; total volume was not (Pecci et al., 2026). Before team training, aim for weekly running loads back at the player's own pre-injury four-week average and at least two sessions above 95% of pre-injury MSS (Taberner et al., 2022).

7Off-season

A short full break followed by two interval sessions and one speed session a week limits most of the off-season loss. Stopping completely does more damage, particularly to VO2max and repeated-sprint ability (Clemente et al., 2021). Two weeks of complete rest cut Yo-Yo IR2 and repeated-sprint performance, while three short high-intensity sessions a week held fitness (Joo, 2018). In U19 players, twice-weekly HIIT was the only programme that protected Yo-Yo performance (Liu et al., 2024). Keep objectives clear and tools simple so players do it (Silva et al., 2016).

Players working alone should use the 6-minute run as their test and log every session so staff can check compliance before pre-season testing.

8Academy players

Prescribe by maturity status first and age group second. The speeds stay individualised; what changes is the volume, the session type and how much turning and sprinting it contains.

• Growth-related injuries peak around peak height velocity (PHV), and injury incidence and burden generally rise with maturity status (Parry et al., 2024).
• Injury risk peaked at 92 to 95% of predicted adult stature, and bigger week-to-week jumps in exposure raised injury incidence (Johnson et al., 2022).
• Fast growth of 7.2 cm or more a year increases injury risk (Hall and Erskine, 2026). Players between about 88 and 95% of adult height can be classed as circa-PHV (Monasterio et al., 2024).
• High-intensity intervals still improve aerobic fitness in young athletes, so shape the dose rather than avoid it (Engel et al., 2018).

Measure standing height, sitting height and body mass every 6 to 8 weeks and estimate percentage of predicted adult stature (Towlson et al., 2021).

Stage limits for academy players are practitioner guidance, not published thresholds. Each session card lists its own academy notes.

9Monitoring and retesting

Relative GPS targets

Express targets against each player's own references so they work with any provider's speed thresholds: the player's full-match averages (distance, high-speed running, sprint distance, hard accelerations and decelerations) and their MSS.

Watch the threshold trap. A player with MAS 4.5 m/s running at 120% MAS moves at 19.4 km/h, just under a 19.8 km/h high-speed threshold, while a fitter team-mate on the same card sits above it. Judge Surge sessions by time at intensity and heart rate, not by high-speed running totals.

Relative targets and steady week-to-week progression are used instead of the acute:chronic workload ratio, which has well-documented statistical problems (Lolli et al., 2019; Impellizzeri et al., 2020).

Retesting

Retest every 6 to 8 weeks with the same test, surface and time of day. One 30-15 stage (0.5 km/h) is a real change for most players.

In the 30-15 tests, record heart rate at the end of each stage. At retest compare heart rate at the same three speeds (e.g. 13, 16 and 19 km/h). A lower heart rate at the same speed shows aerobic improvement even if the final speed has not moved. Submaximal exercise heart rate is one of the most useful and practical monitoring measures (Buchheit, 2014).

10Treadmill and off-feet work

Eight sessions use a treadmill and three use a bike. Use them for rehab, poor weather, players working alone, circa-PHV players and extra volume without extra ground contacts.

• Incline: run at 1%. A 1% grade matches the energy cost of outdoor running (Jones and Doust, 1996). SPE-03 raises the incline instead of the speed.
• Safety: use the safety cord, and step on and off using the rails. Every treadmill card explains how.
• Not on a treadmill: Repeat and Speed work. Belts cannot change speed fast enough for repeated sprints, and top speed on a belt is not the same as over ground. Those stay on grass or the bike.
• Bike: set from MAP on a ramp test, or heart rate. Lowest impact and least eccentric load, so best for lower-limb injuries and circa-PHV players.
• No machine replaces maximal speed. Get players back to SPD-01 as soon as they are cleared.

Every running card lists an off-feet swap for days when running is not possible.

11Session library

Enter a player's test results to see their targets on every card. Leave a test blank if it was not done. The example values are a hypothetical player, not real data.

Targets on each card are shown for the example player (VIFT 19.5 km/h, MAS 4.5 m/s, HRmax 200 bpm, Bronco 5:00). Use the online calculator at appliedsportscience.co.uk/conditioning-guide to get targets for your own players.

AAppendix A: small-sided games

Small-sided games are the most football-specific way to condition a group, but the load depends on pitch size, player numbers, rules and how competitive the game is. They are not in the library because they cannot be prescribed to one player. Use them with groups, alongside the running sessions.

Games give more accelerations but less high-speed running and sprinting than running drills, so combine the two when topping up non-starters (Díaz-Serradilla et al., 2023).

BAppendix B: test protocols

References

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