What Are Some Best Exercises for Athletes to Improve Speed and Power?

The best exercises for athletes are those that help build muscle, lose weight, and prevent injury.

The key is to put in extra work, especially off the field or on the court. While eating right and performing a proper warm-up have their place in an athletic routine, it’s also important to have a good workout programme you can use to get bigger, faster, and stronger.

As you would expect, there are plenty of ways for athletes to improve during workouts. 

There are squats and deadlifts to build strength, running and sprinting for speed, and passes for agility. In addition to working out during the off-season, it's also a good time to focus on specific areas of improvement.

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Exercises for Athletes to Improve Speed and Power

Athletes should keep their workouts quick and intense. When it comes to exercise, the best ones work multiple muscles simultaneously, can be done quickly, and put little pressure on the joints.

Here are a few best exercises that can help you get stronger, more explosive, improve endurance, and prevent injury:

1) Landmine

This is a great exercise for athletes in training. The landmine employs a barbell with weights, and there are many variations you can perform.

One such exercise is the two-handed landmine shoulder press. The other is the landmine front squat, which uses only one arm to hold the barbell and perform squats with.

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2) Power Clean

Power cleans are a great athletic exercise for increasing explosiveness. It's similar to deadlifts, and both require the use of a barbell and weight plates.

A power clean is a weightlifting movement where the barbell is lifted from the ground to the shoulders while jumping. Doing this exercise is often a sure way to make any athlete faster.

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3) Box Jump

Besides power cleans, an effective exercise for athletes to become faster is to perform box jumps.

To perform a box jump, you can choose to mount the box by going side to side, up and down with one leg or in a variety of other ways. Box jumps are one of the best ways to strengthen the lower body and leg muscles.

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4) Burpee

A burpee is an exercise that requires no equipment, but it isn’t easy. All you need to do it is space to perform a burpee.

To do so, stand straight up, and move down to the ground in a push-up position. Move back up, and jump as high as you can with your arms straight up.

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5) Lunge

Lunges are a great exercise for athletes of all levels. When performing lunges, always keep your knees slightly bent to protect the joints. It's also important not to drop too low when doing lunges, as that could cause injury.

There are many variations of lunges, so you can switch things up in your routine. It's a move that's suitable for beginners and advanced athletes alike.

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6) Deadlift

Deadlifts are a powerful exercise for athletes to improve explosiveness.

They're a great exercise for growing the calves and building strength in the hips. To perform this exercise, you need a barbell, but many recommend investing in a platform so that you won't damage the floor.

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7) Yoga

Becoming more flexible as an athlete is something you should seriously consider. One way to achieve that is by adding yoga to your workout routine.

You can also achieve that by simply doing yoga exercises from the comfort of your home; all you need is a yoga mat.

Balance and coordination are key ingredients to improving exercise performance as well as preventing injury. Regular yoga practice provides a way to enhance both qualities, which can result in better overall performance.

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8) HIIT Workout

High intensity interval training workouts are becoming increasingly popular among athletes, as they help build endurance.

That can help you perform your best in games or long competitions. HIIT workouts incorporate many types of athletic exercises that make athletes stronger and help them build their endurance.

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Bottom Line

The key goal is to focus on compound movements to help build muscle and strength, as well as improve speed and power.

That takes some discipline and training but is more than worth it in the long run. After all, who doesn't want the body of an athlete they wish to become?

Training in the aforementioned way ensures you will get maximum training benefits while putting your body at little risk of injury.

You don't want to spend tons of time doing simple workouts that don't really help improve your athletic prowess when you hit the playing field or court.