At the grand old age of 36 (ancient for a footballer) and of course a Dad of 4, Cristiano Ronaldo is still going strong. In a career that has seen him win 15 trophies and while at Madrid alone he scored a staggering 360 goals. He’s still winning trophies and until Portugal were dumped out of this years EUROs he was on track for the competitions golden boot. He’s likely to get at least one more big money transfer and who would bet against him appearing in the next world cup? For a striker that is staggering longevity. When many players hit their 30’s and start losing their edge and fitness, often disappearing off to America, Ronaldo just kept getting better.
So how does he do it? Being a millionaire and having access to the best people and facilities on the planet probably helps, and of course we could have all been like Ronaldo had we got our breaks, but there some things he does from which we could learn a bit.
1.Food & Drink. Whilst a deep-fried mars bar or a donner keebab sounds great on the way back from the pub on Friday night, it’s not the best fuel for a Dad athlete :). Ronaldo sticks to a high protein foods and lots of whole grain carbs, fruit, and vegetables. So Chips are probably a better choice 😁! And as he says himself ‘drink water not coca cola’ after each pint of beer 🤣.
2. Warm-up before a match. Have you ever seen Ronaldo head straight for the penalty box to practice his over head kicks from balls whipped in by his mate who hasn’t kick a ball for 15 years? No?
Realistically for us, a simple lap of the pitch and light stretching could help prevent injury. If your late to the game start slowly and warm yourself up into the game, don’t start at 100 miles an hour. Most injuries start at the beginning of our games. If you have time warming down after a match with a lap and stretch will help you recover, ready for next weeks game !
3. Good sleep. rarely possible with kids and or life’s stresses right, but getting a decent night sleep can help you recover from sport and fatigue. Ronaldo might have (used to, allegedly) taken different attractive women to bed to help with that, which admittedly might not go down too well at home.
If you can, get a nap in every time your backside hits a chair, wear ear plugs to cut out children noises and consider removing the other half to the spare room to remove disturbance, which has the benefit of clearing space for that future new attractive sleep aid 😁.
While realistically we can’t and probably don’t want to live a life so dedicated and committed to fitness like Ronaldo and we admire him for that, but it certainly would help us all a bit if we moved even a little bit closer to how he lives his life, we’d be able to KEEP PLAYING for longer, KEEP OTHERS PLAYING FOR LONGER and most likely and importantly, ultimately the extend number of years we have left.
