Footballers actually earn their money…

Footballers lead a blessed existence - the money, the girls, the adulation. But for every upside there is a downside, for every yin a yang, for all the pleasure, there is pain. Especially up in Liverpool, where the players are forced to undergo a series of deeply humiliating training rituals.

Obviously taking his cue from Rocky VI - the most overtly political of the boxing films, in which Sly Stallone trained using not cool things like rowing machines and cross trainers, but instead massive logs, cold meats, and snow - Rafa Benitez has incorporated everyday household objects like boxes and strange poles into his regime. Dirk Kuyt, for one, was forced to balance on a box, as his out-of-view team mates guffawed and poked fun at him. While Steven Gerrard and Jermaine Pennant jumped up and down like looneys.

More horrific images after the jump…