Speaking on the Indirect Podcast, Tim Ream has been discussing how to stay fit and what he actually heard about Marcelo Bielsa’s regime at Leeds United.
Ream says that under Marco Silva at Fulham things are quite strict and that every player has to be weighed every single day.
However, Ream has also heard that things were even more strict under Bielsa at Leeds United.
The story Ream has heard sounds awful, stating that players would be weighed in and out every single day, and if they were found to have put on weight, they would have to do extra sessions.
Bielsa’s gruelling regime
Ream spoke about Bielsa’s ways.
“I don’t have the full story, but I do know that they would be weighed out in the afternoon to leave training and they had to come back in the next morning and weigh similar or below what they did the afternoon before,” Ream said.
“It’s weighing yourself when you leave work, having dinner with your family, maybe a lazy night and if you come in the next morning and you’re over, you are put on a line and put into fat club and had to run. That’s what happens at Fulham as well, you have to do extra running and extra sessions to run it off and it becomes an extra training session for the day.”
When asked about the daily checks, Ream replied:
“I don’t know, that doesn’t happen where we are. We weigh in everyday to make sure there’s no major fluctuations and our body fat every three or four weeks. I agree, it’s difficult if you have dinner and then breakfast at home, we were very surprised to hear how strict it was.”
Poor Dan James
Ream has probably heard this story from Dan James who is the only player to have played for both Bielsa’s Leeds and this Fulham team in recent years, and we can’t help but feel sorry for the Welshman.
He had months of working under Bielsa being weighed every single day, and after getting a bit of respite with a move to Fulham, he’s put under exactly the same sort of regime – albeit not as strict.
To be fair, this way of tracking a player’s fitness must work. Leeds were the fittest team in the Premier League under Bielsa, and Marco Silva seems to have gotten a similar level out of this Fulham side.
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