Agility Drills And Plyometrics

Prevention of Cramps
Muscle cramps are a common occurrence when playing sports or working out. These cramps can be prevented. The best way to avoid cramps is to stay in condition most cramps happen early in the season when playing sports or when working out if not warmed up and stretched out properly. Also maintaining a proper diet and eating carbohydrates and to stay properly hydrated will help prevent cramps. You should have 64-80 oz of water a day for general activity. 80-96 oz if you are more active.

Cramps generally happen in three muscle groups, the thighs, hamstrings, and calves. Common causes of cramps are dehydration, muscle fatigue from over training, lack of flexibility, and high intensity training. To prevent cramps associated with exercise, Do a 10-15 minute cardio warm up before you stretch. Slowly move into stretch

The hamstring consists of three muscles, the biceps femora’s, Semitendinosis and Semimembranosis. It is the muscle in the back of your leg, which runs from just under the knee up to your buttocks. Stretching and developing your hamstrings is a good way to develop speed and prevent injuries. Types of hamstring muscles injuries are pulls, tears, and strains. If you get on of these injuries the only treatment is rest. It will feel healed a few days later while walking around. If not fully healed it is easily re-injured when you try to run and stride out fully. Hamstring injuries are common in sports that use a high rate of speed, power and flexibility. These would be sports such as football basketball, and baseball

To determine how loose your hamstring is try this test. Lie flat on your back with legs

With these excercises for running, every athlete can develop speed, strength, agility, and power. Begin your speed development workout with a 10-minute dynamic warm-up. Perform static flexibility stretches after your workout to bring your muscles back to normal length. Workout speed – you have to train fast to get fast Do all of your speed training drills with maximum effort. If you give less than maximum effort when you workout, you will not improve your speed.

Strengthen your whole body including your upper body and core. Being strong and flexible will help you reach your potential! You can do exercises like bridges, and planks to strengthen your core. A strong upper body will help you pump your arms faster, which will help you run faster.

Building leg strength is very important. Doing squats and leg presses are the best way to do this. Some other great lower body exercises

The more flexible you are the better it will be when it comes to speed training. You can become more flexible with a flexibility-training program. This program can be made up of different types of stretching. There are different types of flexibility and different kinds of stretches.
Static Active flexibility:  An example of this would be holding your leg out in front of you as high as possible. The hamstring is being stretched and the thigh muscle and hip flexors hold your leg up in the air.

Static Passive flexibility: An example of this would be holding your leg out in font of you and resting it on a chair. The Hamstring is still stretched but the thigh muscle is not holding the leg up 

Dynamic flexibility: This is the ability to do dynamic movements with a full range of motion. An example would be twisting from side to side. Dynamic flexibility

The biggest reason for stretching is that it provides a sprinter the ability to recover from intense training and exercises. When you stretch practice it, allows the body’s muscles to recover more efficiently the next time you train or exercise. If you ignore stretching, you will experience varying degrees of soreness, pain, and possibly injury.

When stretching before, during, and after workouts, try to avoid over and under stretching. Overstretching is pulling or pushing the muscle or joint to or past the point of pain, which can lead to injury. Under stretching is basically not performing a full movement, or performing a “half-stretch.”
Before training use dynamic stretches or partner stretches to get the muscles warm. Whatever style of stretching you choose to perform, strive to accomplish functional leg movement. Perform basic functions of sprinting—knee lifts, frequency of turnover and sprint frequency—to loosen muscles for greater speed gains. It’s