Pre-season training has changed beyond all recognition over the last decade, across every level of football.
Over the last few years those at the very top are taking their preparations further than ever before, and stars of the Premier League seeking an edge ahead of the new season do not stop over summer.
With elite football growing ever more taxing and intense as each year passes, players are now looking to return to their clubs in prime condition before being put through the rigours of pre-season. As each season ends, players - armed with instructions from their clubs - head to each and every corner of the world and place their bodies and trust in the hands of personal trainers in hope of reaching new heights over the 12 months ahead.
Few, though, would expect England internationals to be heeding advice from a non-league full-back when it comes to fine tuning themselves for a new season, but that is exactly where Alex Parsons comes in.
The fully qualified personal trainer, who turns out for Worthing FC on his weekends, lives a peculiar double life, spending the season in non-league and the summer gearing up for a Premier League campaign with close friend and his main client, Danny Ings, and more recently Liverpool’s Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
“It is weird but it is fantastic because, especially with Dan, I know the journey he has been on to make it,” Parsons told the Standard. “I know they have to sacrifice so much, work so hard and be determined. A lot of people don’t see the lows they go through to get to where they are, knowing that is important to me. To know the kind of journey they have been on, to see them playing in the Premier League and seeing how hard they work is special.”
With both having endured their own injury problems over the past two seasons, the work they have done ahead of pre-season will be vital as the season ramps up.
“Alex is raring to go for this season,” says Parsons. “After missing a load of football last season, because they have missed all that they want to play all the football they can, so it is important to keep fit in the off-season, keep ticking over.
“It is going to be around Christmas time [that the work pays off], when games are every two or three days and the games are 100mph, then you look back at the off-season and say ‘they were the foundations’.
Read More
“That’s what we do in the off-season, we just build the foundations slightly for the boys to go on and then their clubs take over. The rest and recovery is important, as well as the training, but there is no way the players would go back in bad shape now.
“You can see from social media that a lot of players do a bit in the off-season and I think the ones who don’t will get found out very quickly when they go back.”
Parsons, 26, has experienced a playing career in his own right on the way to fine-tuning stars of the Premier League. He progressed through the Bournemouth academy alongside Ings, with whom he used to clean changing rooms and share digs, before being release and moving into the Nike Academy, where facing Barcelona and a young Adama Traore left a lasting impression.
A move into non-league, which saw a spell with Bognor Regis before Worthing, meant other income was needed. Parsons worked in sales and as a plumber before turning his experience and knowledge to something he loves. His knowhow after experiencing a scaled down version of what the likes of Ings and Oxlade-Chamberlain go through on a day-to-day basis adds inspiration for regular clients and a new level of understanding with athletes.
“You have the highs of signing a first pro deal and then the lows of not getting picked or getting in the team, then to get released,” he says “There are more downs than ups 100 per cent. Mentally it is really tough to pick yourself up after being released, I’ve gone through a couple of jobs before this one.
“I had short spells as a plumber, in sales and football coaching which was all character-building.
“When I used to do plumbing you’ve got your head behind sinks, but then you realise what you’ve learned and what you spent so long doing, so I went and got my qualifications to become a personal trainer and to now work with athletes is phenomenal.
“I think my experience does help, especially with previously spending time with top trainers from around the world. I am really close to Dan and can see what he goes through before, during and after games much of which I can relate to which makes it easier to gain their trust, I know what they go through.
“As a football fan and being a trainer, to be able to work with Premier League footballers is the best, what more could I want?”
With players continually looking for ways to improve year-on-year, lot lies ahead for Parsons. While building up a list of top level clients, the enjoyment of playing football won’t be pushed aside just yet.
“I still just love playing, I think at the moment it is nice to have my own games to play and enjoy myself, rather than seeing it as a career after I left school.
“Personal training is my career and with helping my clients lead healthier lifestyles my own sport may have to go on the backburner.”
Alex Parsons worked with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in his role as an ambassador for Supreme Nutrition and works out of we11 on London’s Great Portland Street.