Could years and years of pugilists be wrong about the speed rope? Don't think so. Jumping rope, or skipping rope, is a phenomenal exercise that hit many parts of the body from a muscular endurance and cardiovascular fashion. Also, doing it right, there must be an understand of rhythm and motor control that will easily transfer to other athletic endeavors.
Just another way to make jumping rope a bit more challenging. This heavy rope weighs about 10 pounds and has a grip that is two inches thick. This works the entire body, but has a special way of hitting the forearms and some of the smaller muscles in the upper back. Oh, and let's not forget about the calves! They will be sore tomorrow!
Another exercise that is become pretty standard among more energetic exercise enthusiasts. Hits form the calves up to the neck. However we do them a tad bit different. We incorporate the pushup a little differently. Instead of lazily moving from the pushup position to the squat, we do a pushup hop.
This is an amazing way to work the quadriceps and calf muscles in a dynamic fashion. Add the squat, or crouched, position to it and the pressure on the quads intensifies as well as the pressure on the calves. This is also a good exercise to help improve ankle dorsiflexion.
We won't beat around the proverbial bush with this one: This exercise looks simple, but it's not. Few activities get Coach's heart rate near it's max like this does. The higher the jumping gets, the more tired the jumper gets and the shorter the jumps get. Which only makes the jumper more fatigued.
High knees are a great part of the sprinting process. Doing them on stadium steps only intensifies their action. The steps also force the athlete to lift the knees higher than normally would happen without the incline.
Great way to help the neuromuscular system react quicker to ground contact. Pulling an athlete a little faster than the normal gait, forces the brain to order the muscles to "catch up" with the speed the body is moving.
An amazing way to work on lower-body explosiveness. Granted, the whole body will feel this exercise because it takes a serious amount of coordination to do it properly.
Another aspect of the locomotion gamut. Skipping is actually the catapult to numerous higher forms of sporting prowess. We've seen a direct correlation between the ability to skip, and the ability to make consistent contact with a bat, club, racket or stick to a stationary object.
Great way to help the neuromuscular system generate more power on ground contact. An athlete pulling and running at full speed but going a little slower than the normal gait, forces the brain to order the muscles to generate more strength to accommodate the load being pulled.
Sweet way to help with vertical thrust using mostly quadriceps and calves. The tires force the body to remain more vertical, taking away the ability to squat deeply (which we rarely need to do if we're looking to jump quickly.)
One of the more advanced plyometric jumps, requiring a serious response from the stretch-shortening cycle to make it efficient. Make sure on the "drop" that both feet hit simultaneously, and spend as little time on the ground as possible.
We love ladder drills at MILO, primarily because they help us mess with athletes' brains, attempting to get them to think faster by working up to processing multiple activities quickly.
An important exercise in the maturation of an athlete. Might look simple and seem simplistic, but the ability to move laterally while perpendicular to the direction of movement, is a skill many should perfect.
Many of the sports and activities we do require us to be dynamic on one leg. This movement is one of the more basic dynamic single-leg movements. One does not have to do this on sand to be good at it. Coach Milo simply likes the beach - a lot!
There are very few substitutes for running fast! We know very few people who run extremely fast and are poor all-around athletes. Those two just don't go together. So, we take our time getting the body prepared to do just that - run fast!
Sweet exercise that breaks into the realm of contrast training. The idea is to lift something heavy that engages all of the muscles, then immediately use those same muscles in an explosive manner. Important to make sure the weight is challenging but not something used for one or two repetitions.
An exercise that work the core from an active and stabilizing standpoint and the pecs from a stabilizing standpoint. Also, if doing enough of these, the triceps will get worn out big time!
Assume a lunge position. Keep the torso tall. Jump! Make sure the body is prepared for the height that is being jumped. We don't want any seriously scrapped up shins or worse, broken bones.
Just like the regular box jumps except we're stabilizing and are exploding off of one leg and landing on that same leg. This is something that should be worked up to, also. Must be well prepared for it, or must be willing to meet the shin shredder!