Since it is agility week over here at Joy, Fitness, & Style (see Cone Drills for All Ages Part 1 & Part 2) , I thought I’d share one more workout on this subject.
Remember, agility is not just for athletes. People often overlook this component of fitness, but you need to be agile for so many activities that you do on a daily basis. This will help you to reduce your risk of injuries and help strengthen the smaller muscles around the ankle, knee, and hip joints. The stronger these joints are, the more stable you are.
*First warm up with a walk or jog.
Grab some chalk or tape and head outside. Draw a 4-square pattern on the pavement that looks like this.
The possibilities on what to do are endless – think of it like hopscotch. It’s about staying light on your feet, picking a pattern, and staying with it. Try to speed up the pattern as you go.
You can do:
- a 2-foot hop in each square
- 1 foot hop in each square
- alternate 2-foot landings and 1-foot landings
- diagonal hops
- start in square 1 (home), hop to 2 then home, hop to 3 then home, hop to 4 then home
- hop around 1 direction, then the opposite direction
Another idea is to split your stance and scissor your feet.
Increase the number of squares for more pattern options.
Next, try the Hexagon Drill.
Make hexagon big enough for both feet to fit in the middle.
Start by standing in the middle (home). Hop over line to number 1, then back home. Then follow all the way around hopping a total of 12 times.
If you are just starting out, don’t do more than 80 total hops. If you are advanced, still try to stay below 140 total hops.
Don’t forget to end with some flexibility.
*Talk to your doctor before starting any new fitness program.
Now someone tells me how it’s done! If you didn’t explain it here I would have ended up having the top part of my body slam into the hips. I’m not doing it on purpose but as I’m thinking it in my head now it feels “wrong”. Okay so it’s a “light” type of workout. I think I can do that. By the way, I’ll be seeing the physiotherapist for the hip pain. Thank goodness it’s not arthritis. And about the tingling on the left arm…it’s not diabetes since the tingling isn’t there all day long.
if the square with 9 numbers was in numerical order instead of 1,2,3,6,5,4,7,8,9…the latter would probably not be a good one to do as this is too jerky and can give injury. Your way is more fluid.
I just put the numbers in that order so you can see that you can weave through them. There is no wrong way to do it.
I see. So it’s up to me how I’d like to mix it up. Thanks, it will be fun!
This is awesome! Totally trying this! Thanks!
Let me know how it goes. Thanks for reading it!
I don’t know if I’m that agile anymore but it is worth a try!
All the hops I have now are in my beer
Although I have hit Ctrl+D to save this one when I have two functioning legs underneath me!
When is that leg gonna get better!? Sounds like me with my shoulder!
I laughed initially when the doctor said: “12-18 months.”
I’m six months in and getting better daily, thank you for asking. Injury talk is boring, the exciting bit is how we get injured in the first place
Great! Now I have to ask how you injured your shoulder … Probably fighting off bears in the pacific Northwest?!?
I wish I could tell u that it was something that exciting! Long story short…I need to practice what I preach – didn’t rehab properly the first time around and now I’m paying for it!
I’ve never tried anything like this, but it looks like fun!! I’ll have to give it a go!