It’s hard work being an MLS Ironman.
Goalkeeper Luis Robles, who’s started and played the full 90 minutes in 148 consecutive MLS regular season games, trains hard in practice each day to maintain his fitness and prevent injuries.
“[I’m] in the weight room every day, but it doesn’t mean I’m doing weights every single day,” Robles told MSG Network’s Tina Cervasio. “Once I hit about 30, all the heavy weights were completely out the door and now I rely more on body weight stuff.
“Every other day I’m on the leg press, leg extension, doing wall sits, e-centric exercises…because of the workouts, the stretching, and all the ins and outs of my daily routine, I think I’ve been able to escape some major injuries just because of the strength in my quads and my calves.”
One addition Robles made to his daily training routine is yoga stretches, in an effort to ‘prevent injury’ and help with ‘mobility.’
“Stretching is a part of the regular routine…I have to be mobile and one of the things that helps with mobility is flexibility. And that’s why employing the yoga poses during practice has helped a lot.”
Despite holding nearly every Red Bulls goalkeeping record in the book, the 33-year-old emphasized his focus on continuing to improve every day.
“Part of my philosophy is to improve every single day. It does help that I feel like I have a lot of energy and that may come from what I eat, and how I sleep…don’t settle. Don’t become complacent. Just continue to improve.
“At the end of the day, everything I do is preventative. The way that I look at it, if I can do all the little things to prevent it, it puts me in a better position to keep playing.”
