7 Best Agility Exercises for Athletes

Agility exercises are extremely important for athletes, as they help them change acceleration and direction when in motion. That's not something that can be achieved overnight, but it’s something that athletes must focus on.

In fact, it’s not something only athletes should focus on. Everyone who wants to improve their physical fitness should focus on.

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Agility exercises all athletes must do

If you’re an athlete or you want to improve your physical fitness, you must try to incorporate these exercises into your workout routine.

1) High knee drills

You need to ensure you always land on your heels when doing this exercise. It’s important that you incorporate your hands into this exercise and use them to push yourself through the workout.

Ideally, your quads should be parallel to the floor each time you raise your knees.

2) Jump box

This is an exercise that works on your quads, knees and hamstrings. Place yourself carefully in front of the boxes, and use your hands to drive through the motion.

It’s important that you focus on balance by engaging the core muscles so that the workout does not remain incomplete.

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3) Quick feet

This is one of the agility exercises that are helpful for footballers.

Stand at hip-width apart, and start stomping your feet on the ground as quickly as possible. It’s important that you maintain posture and balance, as that will help you on the football field in terms of being as quick as possible.

4) Tuck jumps

Tuck jumps help with your quads, hamstrings and even your calves.

Stand with your feet hip-width apart, and useyour hands to drive through the motion. Jump as high as you can while pulling your chest closer.

Tuck jumps help with improving your muscle endurance as well.

5) Drills

There are quite a few drills that make up agility exercises. What you need to do is constantly keep your muscles engaged, and make sure you’re following through with the drills.

To ensure you’re not making then too haphazard for your muscles, start off slow before taking it to the next level.

6) Plyometric agility exercise

Plyometric exercise helps with improving your endurance and coordination. You need to ensure your focus is on your stability and balance and not lose your position at any point.

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7) Shuttle runs

Shuttle runs are agility exercises that are used by athletes to improve their endurance, especially in basketball and football. They are a good way to incorporate high intensity training to the basic conditioning of sports programmes.

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Bottom line

Athletes use high conditioning agility exercises to improve their on-field performances. That isn’t something which is limited to athletes but can be done even when one wants to improve their physical fitness.

Ideally, you should be able to incorporate such exercises into your workout routine to ensure that your overall performance at the gym and muscle endurance improves.

One of the reasons you should include agility exercises in your workout routine is to ensure that you’re focusing on your physical fitness from every possible angle instead of just focusing on cardio or weight training. An overall training routine is the best way to achieve the physique you want.