True athleticism isn’t just about pure speed or raw power. It’s not even just about agility, the ability to move quickly in any direction at any given moment. To unlock that power and agility, athletes also need to be mobile—flexible, limber, and loose—so they can routinely change directions in bursts of quick speed without worrying about pulled hamstrings or tight hips.
In this episode of our All-Strength video series, performance-enhancement expert Kelvin Gary, C.S.C.S., explains how to improve your agility and mobility with a combination of drills (to sharpen up your footwork) and stretches (to loosen up your joints and muscles).
Start off with a lat hang, which will open up your shoulders. You’ll then move on to a Bretzel stretch, which will work on your quads and relaxing your hips. Next up is a set of hurdle hops, a “great way to get the nervous system turned on in a bi-lateral way,” says Gary. Lateral bounds will help you work on stabilizing movement using just one leg, and finishing rounds of the T-drill and four-cone drill will test your ability to control your movement in different planes of motion.
