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The Question: A great athlete does not compete with just one style. They are able to adapt to different scenarios with different skills. Endurance, speed, agility, balance, power, strength, etc. What are the best techniques to improve endurance, speed, agility, power and strength? Show off your knowledge to the world! The Winners:
2nd place - 50 in store credit. To use your credit, e-mail Will @ will@bodybuilding.com for more info.
Name one Olympic sport that does not require speed, power, agility or strength. Any serious athlete knows that speed, agility, or strength, makes up the foundation of their training regime. The most successful athletes in the world do not train, or complete with one style. They work hard on improving different fitness factors and components, such as endurance, power, speed, agility, balance and strength. In order to succeed, an athlete must excel at each of these components. One particular weakness can have some pretty detrimental effects on overall performance, even with great skills elsewhere. So, in order for an athlete to perform at his/her best, they must take into account each particular fitness factor and component.
As mentioned earlier, these are vital components into overall success at competitive level.
Factors Affecting Strength:
Training:
This involves gradually adding more weight within the same repetition range as your strength increases. For muscular strength, I believe lifting in the range of 6-10 reps is the most beneficial. For muscular endurance, 15-20 reps with shorter rest intervals in between sets and for muscular power, 1-4 reps. Below, is an example of a 4 day strength/endurance program, training each body part twice per week: Monday: Upper A Tuesday: Lower A Thursday AM: Upper B Fri AM: Lower Body B
 "GO" Response Time Measured. Factors Effecting Speed:
Limitations Of Speed:
Training:
These sessions increase the involvement of the anaerobic energy systems, whilst heavily using the aerobic system. Reaction Drills:
Acceleration Sprints:
Longer Sprints:
Technique Training:
Partly tied in with speed, power is the ability to put body parts into motion quickly, and to sustain high-intensity efforts, where the energy is supplied anaerobically, i.e. doing sprints. The Power That You Can Produce Depends On:
The Formula For Power Is Expressed Like This:
Power = Work / Time
 Training:
Plyometrics were developed in Eastern Europe for Olympic competitors. Without a doubt, the most performed plyometric drill is the depth jump.
  
  Click Image To Enlarge. Depth Jump.
Depth Jump Video Guide:
Although it is uncertain if this jump actually improves vertical jumping potential/ability, it has shown to increase leg strength and power when done alone or with a weight training program. A definite must in any athlete seeking power.
When looking at the chronic effects of long term endurance training, you will notice cardiac hypertrophy, amongst other adaptations. In endurance athletes the size of the left ventricular cavity increases. These changes or adaptations occur as the athlete advances in training. For endurance, the best way an athlete can improve it is by consistently increasing the duration and intensity as they progress. This way the body will not adapt and has to keep working hard in order to meet the new training demands.
Agility is vital in such sports as:
Agility can be developed through calisthenics or practices related to the sport being played, e.g. diving practice for volleyball. Tests for agility include:
 Click Image To Enlarge. Squat Thrusts.
View The Video Of Squat Thrusts
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Agility Drills: These are drills designed to make the athlete quickly and accurately change direction. It can be done by short shuttle runs, or obstacle runs around tires, cones or markers. So, as you can see, the elements above are an important part of your athletic success. The sooner you understand them, and concentrate on each one of them individually and concisely, the better you will be for it!
The big four in athletics are endurance, speed, agility, and power.
To attack any of these four key factors of athletic performance you need to follow these steps.
To better judge how you need to improve you must first know where you are at. There are several ways to determine your maxes in each of these categories.
With the knowledge of these principles you can further see how you need to make your plan.
Now that you know some of these key principles of training lets look at the individual things you can do to improve each of these four aspects of training.
There are several methods to improve both cardiovascular and muscular endurance. One of the best methods to improve cardiovascular endurance is to choose an exercise such as: biking, rowing, running, Stairmaster, or versa climber to name a few.
To improve muscular endurance I suggest a weight training regimen that consists of rep ranges of 12-20 and with rest between sets at 30 to 60 seconds. With this type of time and rep constraints improvement on muscular endurance is inevitable. You can increase the weights as you are able to perform more than the needed reps for the set you are doing. I recommend you lift with an endurance style program for at least 8 to 10 weeks with three lifts per week to see great gains in this aspect. I suggest you do at least one major lift per body group but two for the quads during the week. You can alter reps and sets as you see fit to meet your goals.
Speed is very difficult to improve. It has a large genetic component; however, with dedication and attention to the specifics of training it can be improved. Some key ways to increase speed are to lose unnecessary body fat. Any weight that you can get rid of that does not reduce your body's ability to produce maximal force for speed is a plus. This mainly means a decrease in fat.
You might also think about establishing a program in which you run sets of sprints. These could be sets of 40s, 100s, 200s, or 400s. By altering the distances and number of sprints per session you will train your body to become faster. It is important to have set times that you have to meet each session to remind yourself of the speed that you are trying to achieve. Eventually, your body will adapt to these set times and you will need to lower them. Other ways to improve speed come from mechanical changes in the movement. For instance, sprinting speed is partly due to stride length and stride frequency. If you can develop ways to improve either of these mechanical factors you will improve your speed. This could include technique work from your coach and watching film of your running style to see what you could do better. This could be applied to any sport to improve performance. Technique has a lot to do with speed and don't forget it. Also, you could get your body accustomed to going against a larger resistance to improve speed. This can be done either with weighted vests or with parachutes to get wind resistance. These are two great tools that should be incorporated into your training program to improve speed. Another way to improve speed is to increase power, this will be discussed later.
Reaction time is an important component of agility. If you're fast off the blocks in track or off the ball in football you're going to do better. A great way to do this is to set up reaction drills. Here, you need to be creative. Have your coach practice and time your reaction to sound. Practice by having the coach blow a whistle to signify the start. By conditioning your mind and concentration to this you will be faster. Another drill is the QB pass drill in football. The defensive back looks at the quarterback and looks at his shoulder placement and reacts to it. Have the coach change where he might throw the ball a couple of times and then have him throw it and let the DB react. You can do this in any sport and by being creative you give yourself an edge. Another way to improve agility is to practice the techniques that might help you change direction. The proper way to make cuts in football or the proper way to plant your feet in tennis to change direction are important parts of agility. By creating drills that challenge yourself to change directions frequently can help you improve your overall agility. One key exercise is to section off approximately 15 yards of distance and set up two cones at each end. For one minute run back and forth between these cones and count the number of times you touch them. Do this drill 10 times. Each subsequent week, try and touch these cones more times during this time period.
Power and strength are directly relational to the amount of muscle mass you have and the density of your muscle fibers. By including a resistance training regimen to your program you will greatly improve your power and strength capabilities. For The Greatest Improvements In Maximal Power:
For Gains In Muscular Mass That Would Facilitate Later Gains In Power:
I suggest at least four days of training per week for power and strength gain for a minimum of at least 10 weeks. You should perform at least 3 different exercises for big muscular groups and at least two different exercises for smaller muscular groups.
Remember, a plan of action is important for success in athletics. By using the ideas I have presented in this article you should be able to create a program that effectively enhances your athletic ability without completely overloading yourself. Be sure to get adequate nutrition and rest for the absolutely best results you can achieve on any program. It is also important to assess your current status and re-address your goals as you go along. Now go out and improve yourself Mr./ Mrs./ Miss. Athlete.
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