Zidane makes players run the stairs of the Bernabeu Real Madrid Back to basics for the world champions

New Year's Eve was full of celebrations for most people around the world, but not for the Real Madrid squad who spent the day hard at work under the orders of Zinedine Zidane and some unusual training techniques.

After the work with the ball came to an end, Zidane told his players to take off their boots, put on trainers and begin running up and down the stairs of the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu.

The coach and fitness coach Antonio Pintus watched on as the squad took part in an activity which was completely new to much of the team, even the most experienced of them.

The run went from the very front row to the rear of the lower tier, some 40 metres away from the turf of the playing surface.

The orders were clear, that the players must go step by step and were not even permitted to skip a single one.

Like Rocky Balboa

Players were sent from the front row to the back, up and down, without any break in between in an exhausting exercise.

The exercise, that looked similar to Rocky Balboa's work out, has debateable value according experts who MARCA have spoken to, with some saying it does not reflect movments on the pitch and can cause some physical strain.

Plans for January

Zidane has been working on mini-preseasons for his players where they are looking to build up the physical fitness of the players and this is a tactic which has worked well in recent seasons.

Real Madrid visited the site in Rocky in 2011

Interestingly, the scene where Rocky runs up the steps is in Pensylvania where Real played in 2011 and several of the players actually ran up the steps including Sergio Ramos.