Best Exercises for Increasing Speed and Agility
If you wish to hone your athletic abilities or if you’re an athlete, agility is a talent you might want to develop. Being nimble entails having quick reflexes for movement, stopping, and direction changes. There are best activities you may do to improve your skills if you wish to be nimbler.
You can move more swiftly and easily by engaging in both strength training exercises (such as bodyweight exercises) and aerobic activities. To improve your coordination and performance in sports requiring agility, like beach volley ball, tennis, or hockey, start adding additional agility training activities to your workout program.
Clapping pushups: best workout
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Try pushing yourself to perform clapping push-ups if you can already perform several conventional push-ups. These call for the coordination of your upper body and the ability to move swiftly enough to allow you to clap in between push-ups.
Get on a carpeted floor or a fitness mat and sit down. Your hands and wrists will be more comfortable as a result.
Put your hands flat on the ground, palms up. Shoulder-width distance should separate your arms. Keep your legs straight and extended all the way behind you.
Your elbows should be extended out from your body. Keep your core tight and straight as you lower your body until your nose is just a few inches from the ground.
Box jumps: best workout
Box jumps are a strength- and precision-demanding exercise. Over time, this exercise will teach your leg muscles to become more agile while also aiding in the development of muscular strength.
In order to begin this workout, locate a fairly strong box. Start with a modest box that is just 4 inches above the ground, then progressively move up to higher boxes. You may begin by leaping up to the curb and then returning. A ply-box, a fitness box designed expressly for this exercise, is another choice; it is sturdy and won’t slide on the floor. A solid crate, a low wall’s side, or a bench are more options.
Try burpees
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Burpees are a good additional bodyweight exercise to include. You need to be quick, coordinated, and agile to complete this activity. Burpee exercises might help you become more agile in general.
Put yourself in a squat position to begin a burpee. With your toes pointed outward and little wider than hip-width apart, stand with your feet together.
Until your thighs are parallel to the ground, squat down. Hands should be placed on the ground in front of your knees.
To get into the push-up position, jump your legs straight back behind you. Perform one pushup.
Jump your feet back up to your hands as soon as possible. You should once more be in a squat position by straightening your torso.
Medicine ball throws: best workout
Try throwing medicine balls as a bodyweight exercise. This needs you to coordinate your legs, feet, arms, and eye-hand coordination even though it’s not only a bodyweight workout.
Place yourself a few feet from a fairly solid wall. It’s an excellent idea to use a building’s side or a concrete wall. Your knees should be slightly bent so that you’re practically in a squat position.
Grab a medicine ball with the right weight. It should still offer some resistance but not be so heavy that you can’t toss it or catch it.
Toss the ball at the wall by doing a chest press pass. You must push the medicine ball at the wall firmly while holding it at chest height for this kind of pass.
Ladder drills
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Ladder drills come in a variety of varieties. All versions improve quickness, agility, and overall foot-eye coordination. To assist you enhance your agility, incorporate a mix of these drills throughout your routines.
You can use a few different kinds of ladders for these drills. A ladder made specifically for agility training is available to purchase, or you can construct your own by painting the grass or spreading up wooden dowels on the ground.
Try performing side shuffles. Put both of your feet into the ladder’s first box. Step with your right foot into the following box. As quickly as you can, continue to shuffle your feet together before moving aside to make room for the next box.
Use the ladder to perform high knee jumps.
Suicide runs: best workout
These are excellent cardiovascular exercises for enhancing agility. You need to sprint as fast as you can during suicide runs, halt in an instant, and quickly shift directions.
Set up your path and then begin the exercise. Four markers should be evenly spaced apart on the ground (like a cone or bean bag). Your starting location will be the first marker. Next, set the second marker roughly 20 feet (6 meters) from the starting location. The third and fourth markers should then be placed after that.
Sprint from the starting point to the second marker. To place your hand on the marking, kneel down. After that, spin around and run back to the starting point.
Jump rope
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Jumping rope is a fantastic cardio activity to try. For several of these exercises, grab a jump rope to help you increase your general agility.
Jump rope normally to begin. Turn the jump rope so that it only passes once in front of your feet. Once you’ve mastered that, try the “double under” by swinging the rope twice beneath your feet before landing.
Try crisscrossing the rope in front of you for another option. Cross your arms in front of you after each jump.
Additionally, attempt mixing the crisscross and double under versions. It will take practice to become proficient in this much more sophisticated skill.
Aerobic exercise: best workout
Agility can be improved through a number of individual exercises, but there are also some group or class exercises that can be beneficial.
Studies have shown that aerobics and dance classes, such as Zumba, can help you become more agile.
You must memorize a rather complex step or dance routine in order to take one of these types of classes. Your feet will be moving in one direction while your arms are moving in another.
