Forget politicians; Sergio Ramos is holding Madrid – and arguably the entire Spanish national identity – together, one tackle at a time. But even as his task has been made easier in recent years, with an aging, mismanaged Barcelona squad to defend against, the 34-year-old centre half is hardly getting any younger himself.
Experience pays dividends, but so do fresh legs. This is something the Madrid captain is well aware of, with Los Blancos having pipped their Catalonian rivals to the La Liga title this last season, but having failed to live up to their bona fides in prestigious extracurriculars like The Champions League.
To that end, it appears Ramos has been taking strides to keep himself in incredible off-season form, taking to Instagram over the weekend to showcase some of the workouts that keep him rippling with strength.
Ramos yesterday posted a video of an “unchained” workout reminiscent of Mr. T, which involves his hardcore version of single-leg box steps. Unlike most mere mortals, who step up onto small plastic steps, Ramos steps onto a bench, with a chain around his neck to add extra weight (and strength), quite literally, ‘to boot.’
This is a great way to teach your glutes, hamstrings, quads and calves (not to mention abs) to work together, and is an excellent example of a compound exercise which endows transferable strength, co-ordination and skills (unlike isolated machine exercises which can help with bulk but are not always optimal for achieving athletic strength).
Not satisfied (apparently), Ramos then in the early hours of this morning (last night over there in Spain) posted a video of one of his hill sprint sessions, similar to the one ex-team mate Ronaldo was seen doing earlier this year.
As we have reported previously, hill sprints not only work to strengthen your leg muscles, but they can improve your stamina and – because they’re a HIIT exercise – boost your metabolism which subsequently keeps your body working for the rest of the day to help you lose fat.
Besides those calories, what have you got to lose?