It’s sad to admit that, for a lot of people, climbing the stairs is the closest they get to exercise. As for those of us who make working out a habit, we often limit ourselves to lifting weights or doing cardio. You may be compelled to state the obvious: we’re not athletes. Why would we need to do any extra training? Isn’t losing fat and getting ripped the ultimate fitness goal, anyway? Here’s how this line of thought is greatly mistaken: being athletic improves your overall quality of life. It helps you move, play, work, walk, run, and age more gracefully and without issues. 

So whether you’re aspiring to be an athlete or you want to improve your quality of life, there are various tweaks you can do to your current training regimen to improve your athleticism. We’ve compiled a few starters from the experts to get you going, so read on!

Create a Strong Foundation

Working out in the gym is not the same as training for sports. There are various factors that need to be addressed in sports, and even the training regimen is highly customized for every specific sport. However, if there’s one thing that holds to be true no matter the kind of training, it’s that increasing your muscular strength will directly reflect on your athletic ability. This means there’s no way you can skip out on strength and resistance training, which most people can benefit from by going to the gym. A basic yet comprehensive strength-training program will do wonders in improving your athleticism, and it’s the greatest place to start for beginners. 

Improve Functional Mobility

For those of us who have been training in the gym for a while, we’ve become too accustomed to lifting weights and progressing the loads. After all, increasing the training intensity by increasing the weight is a well-known tactic for consistent gains. However, what most of our training regimens lack is the ability to improve functional mobility as well. This can only be achieved by incorporating stability and agility into the program, all while focusing on increasing the muscle strength at the end of its range of motion, or ROM. One of the most effective ways to achieve that is to add accentuated loaded eccentrics into each exercise. 

Add Explosive Training to Your Routine

Do you know what else we neglect in our training? It’s plyometrics – or explosive strength in different words. Explosive training helps you build better muscles while improving neurological coordination. This results in significant athletic gains for the average person, but its true value is to athletes training for certain sports. For instance, explosive training is necessary for athletes looking to improving their jump, especially in sports like basketball and volleyball. As Jeff C shares his vert shock program review, the explosive training program he followed helped him increase his vertical jump from 14 inches to 26! This great difference takes an athlete from average to talented. 

Focus on Relative Strength

If you want to get stronger, better, faster, or more coordinated, you need to train accordingly. You can’t expect to get better at running if you only do lunges, just like you can’t expect to be able to do pull-ups because your pull-down game is heavy. Pure strength is only that: a strong muscle. If you want to do something with this strength, you’ll need to start focusing on muscle coordination, balance, and, as we’ve previously mentioned, functional mobility. 

Instead of focusing on one aspect over the other, the best way to go about it is to train both in parallel. That means you can still lift heavy, but you’ll also train for the move you want to perform. Generally, you’ll find a lot of modifications and progressions to do until you can perform the target exercise. Take the handstand as an example. You can’t just pull it off by having strong lats; you’ll need strong and well-coordinated core, shoulders, chest, and back muscles. To build this coordination, it’s common to start with wall walks, froggers, elevated L-stands, and other progressions. 

Follow the Right Order of Training

Last but not least, the order of the exercises makes all the difference in your training regimen. You want to start with the most neurologically demanding exercises, like sprints, jumps, explosive lifts, and heavy compound exercises. That’s because you need optimum focus and high energy levels to perform them correctly, otherwise, your technique fails, and you risk injury. 

 

It’s hard to sum up every single tip you need to become a better athlete in a single article. However, you can start by adding a few modifications to your current workout routine. Regardless of your fitness goal, you’ll benefit greatly from improving your overall athleticism. It’s something that will go beyond the gym walls and positively impact every aspect of your life.

Published on Holr Magazine