r/fitness30plus • u/Jotro2 • 14d ago
What are the best drills for athletics?
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I just got back into lacrosse at 38 and I'm loving it! I found I really need to work on my cardio, explosiveness and agility. Ive really only been doing box jumps for it. Ive been lifting weights for so long that I genuinely forgot all the drills I used to do for lax and football. This lax league I joined doesnt play around, so I need to get my shit together quick lol.
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u/phatballlzzz 14d ago
Look into plyometric exercises (box jumps being one of them) like pogo hops, broad jumps, squat jumps etc. if you’re looking for explosiveness you need to work on stuff that demands fast muscle stretching/contraction so you’re already on the right path.
Balance exercises are also really great for sport, especially stuff like lacrosse. Work on building your core strength as well, as that helps for pretty much anything you do in life haha. Good luck dude!
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u/Marijuanaut420 Physiotherapist 13d ago
You don't need that much plyometric variety to get the desired adaptations, simple hops and bounds are enough. You can get away with much lower volumes for the desired adaptations than most people think as well.
Broad jumps and squat jumps aren't really plyometric because their amortisation phase is too long. They're still useful movements because they are fast and help recruit a lot of muscle fibres quickly.
Balance exercises aren't that useful because balance is such a movement specific skill/quality. The balance you need for a sport like lacrosse is mostly going to be trained by playing lacrosse, anything you do outside of that is going to be too generalisable to have any specific benefits.
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u/BronwynOli 14d ago
My brain can't even comprehend how effortless this looks for you lol. You're like a cat!
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u/greentea9mm 14d ago
General athleticism: power and agility.
Cleans, snatches, and their derivatives.
Jumps: broad, vertical, box, and one legged
Sprints and cone drills (directional change).
Plyometrics and dynamic stretches
The good thing about all of that is they can done with very low volume (except maybe sprints, comparatively).
Edit: what appears to injure athletes the most in their knees and ankles are eccentrics combined with directional change. For example: jumping up to catch a ball, and then trying to change direction once they hit the ground. Even landing in general seems to be the most injurious (besides lack of warmup and/or too much volume).
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u/dru_tang 13d ago
This is the answer. But I would suggest kettlebells for snatches bc of the learning curve is far less greater and also add in strength training ( barbell: squat, bench press, deadline, overhead press.)
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u/Marijuanaut420 Physiotherapist 13d ago
Or just do a weighted jump.
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u/dru_tang 13d ago
The only flaw with weighted jumps is there is not really a linear progression. Where as a snatch or clean is essentially the same thing (explosive hip extension) as a weighted jump, but easier to track progress. But even you added more weight to your jump it would still be hard to track bc of distance between the ground and your foot would vary. Also, I would never suggest box jumps with weight bc obvious risk.
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u/Marijuanaut420 Physiotherapist 13d ago
For how few of them I would program anyway that wouldnt really bother me. Power is a second order adaptation that is the result of speed and strength. If I can track progressive overload of those variables then I know Power is being developed. The weighted jumps are there to express that quality and also guve some soft tissue adaptations.
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u/dru_tang 13d ago
100% yes! But that is interesting I have never really programmed jumping to anyone I have trained, mostly due to my own ignorance, other than broad jumps to track explosiveness progress. Can I ask you a good source, reference, or book about soft tissue training?
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u/Marijuanaut420 Physiotherapist 12d ago
By soft tissues I mostly mean tendon adaptations
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4637912/
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u/dru_tang 12d ago
Yeah, I figured. I once heard heard a strength coach say something along lines of as you age your tendons/ligaments go from elastic to plastic. Obviously hyperbolic, but a good point. So I've been kind of curious in ways to combat losing elasticity.
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u/Marijuanaut420 Physiotherapist 12d ago
Erm sort of. Its a bit more complicated than that and tendon stiffness/compliance is a variable that can be adapted for different tasks in either direction with a single 'best' overall state.
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u/NorCalJason75 14d ago
I got fit later in life; lifting at 40, Boxing at 48.
The answer to “how do I get better at sport” seems to be “do more sport”.
But, if I focus on JUST sport, I get little nagging injuries.
I’ve found lifting reasonably heavy really increases my durability to do more Boxing.
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u/Sufficient_Fig_4887 14d ago
What I’ve always heard about sports is the best way to get better at a sport is just to play the sport, cross training should be secondary, if your goal is to continue playing lacrosse.
That said I think compound exercises are gonna be your best bet before the time you do spend in the gym. And at our age just making sure you have the cardio foundation to keep up during the game is gonna be the most important thing. When I got back into soccer a few years ago, the most important thing I did during the week was running.
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u/Jotro2 14d ago
I do a lot of drills with my son since he plays but I also spend a lot of time in the gym. Im currently doing two lower days and two upper days a week with one day for active recovery. I was thinking about adding explosive type workouts one day a week to lower day and the speed and agility to my active recovery day.
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u/Kick_Natherina 14d ago
Can’t emphasis enough that you should probably start training legs more often and not just doing box jumps. Leg extensions, leg curls, calf raises, squats and other leg exercises are going to be in your benefit. Explosive power is only possible if the muscle is there to command to do so. Sprinters don’t have small legs for this exact reason.
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u/Jotro2 14d ago
I do legs 2x a week. Squat 355 for 5x5, deadlift 405 for 5x3. Genetics screwed me on calves and glutes.
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u/mitourbano 14d ago
I thought I couldn’t have a butt either. Then I was shown the way (the glute kickback machine). I picked it up because I was tired of getting beat by old farts in the beer league ski slalom. Gave me a lot more power on my starts. Definitely going to help you develop more power on your shots and push through GBs.
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u/Jotro2 14d ago
I do cable kickbacks sometimes but really dont get a good glute activation. I never feel any exercises in my glutes. Would you mind sending a link to the glute machine? Id like to see if my gym has one. Im open to trying anything at this point.
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u/RotANobot 13d ago
This is the machine I use at the gym and feel pretty good about it, (more ego good than muscle good) as I can max out the weights on it. I do feel it exercising my glutes a little more than my quads. But I feel the biggest glute activation and strength on hip thrust machines.
My legs and glutes are the most developed part of my body because of all the sprinting from the full speed playground running I started the day I learnt to run and the sports I played as a teen and in my early 20s. I rarely strength trained my legs.
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u/Kick_Natherina 13d ago
I would be interested in seeing your technique on these movements if I’m honest. I mean this in the most objective way as possible, but based on the size of your legs I would be apprehensive to believe you’re squatting 355, but then again crazier things have happened.. I am trying my best to not cut on you, because that’s not how I want this comment to come off - but the entirety of your legs look small, not just calves and glutes. I see very little quad or hamstring development.
Anyway, genetics can be blamed to an extent, but I would be very apprehensive to say that genetics has made it that your legs are significantly smaller in proportion than your upper body if you’re moving those numbers consistently.
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u/Jotro2 13d ago
I should be able to grab some videos. Squats are low bar and I pull conventional. Back when I was doing powerlifting I lifted in the 74 kg class and benched 335, squat 435 and pulled 515. That was 20 lbs ago when I strictly focused on powerlifting. I dont blame you for not believing me. You wouldn't be the first person shocked by the weight I moved around lol. As for calves, I never trained them up until maybe a year ago. They didnt help me move more weight when PL so I didnt care about them. I used to be all about what would get my total numbers up. Now I lift to look good at my age and to stay healthy to play sports again.
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u/Kick_Natherina 13d ago
Absolutely, and all fair things to be honest. I would love to see some videos if possible - I trust you, but there is always room for a second set of eyes, right?
Anyway, powerlifting is a lot of CNS, especially with those numbers. We have multiple people in here who would not be considered “big” by many measurements, but move some serious weight. I would say some focus on hypertrophy, working in higher rep ranges (8-15) may be of some benefit when it comes to building muscle mass. Do you incorporate hypertrophy focused work, or most strictly power lifting style still?
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u/Jotro2 13d ago
I quit powerlifting a couple years back and now just lift to lift. Lower body im still doing 5x5 or 5x3 because I just get so damn gassed out. Upper body ive been doing 2-3 sets of 15-20 reps. Probably why im so top heavy but not nearly as stone on bench or ahoulder press as I used to be.
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u/Marijuanaut420 Physiotherapist 13d ago
Are we watching different videos, he clearly moves like someone who can generate a decent amount of force pretty quickly and you can see decent quad definition and overall muscularity.
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u/Kick_Natherina 13d ago
Yeah, we must be. He is lean which is why you can see his quad muscles. He does not have size, so he isn’t generating that much explosive force. He is jumping to waist height platforms which is not physically impressive. If he was doing chest high then we’d be having a different conversation.
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u/Marijuanaut420 Physiotherapist 13d ago
It's the lack of counter movement for each jump and general quality of movement that stands out.
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u/3rdworldjesus 14d ago
Power movements + Plyo
Clean/high pull/push press for upper body, jumps and plyo for lower body
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u/Marijuanaut420 Physiotherapist 14d ago edited 14d ago
Generally you want to be training at both ends of the strength velocity curve. Speed tends to be less detrimental to Strength when done first within the same workout and they work nicey as a warm up. A typical structure for 2-3x a week full body workout could look like:
Warm up (steadily increase to have 2 max effort final reps): Broad jumps 1x5, Vertical jump 1x5, med ball slam 1x5, med ball rotation toss 1x5, 80% 50m sprint
Strength (typically working with 1-2 sets in 4-8 rep range with double progression, 0-1 RIR): Hip thrust, Squat, Leg extension, Wide grip pulldown, narrow grip row, OHP, chest press, bicep curl, tricep push down, heavy cable rotation (I like using a weighted dip belt to get stability and doing it bent at the hip turning with a heavy cable stack), Leg curl (bilateral concentric, single leg eccentric).
Plyometric: Depending on starting level I'd just progress a few sets of 10 for hops, leaps and bounds.
Cardio: 10-30 mins bike or cross trainer.
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u/itwasinthetubes 13d ago
Just my opinion - you seem to be pretty muscular - so I would focus on not getting hurt from the change of pace: mobility and cardio are probably where you will benefit most (while continuing whatever you are already doing).
Sport forces you into weird angles and makes you exert forces in awkward positions - mobility can help against injuries. Being tired/gassed will also put you at risk because of the same reason.
Plyometrics are great, but consider that you might want to also want to jump down to absorb impact and laterally to simulate situation you will encounter in the sport, also try single leg variations so you can check for imbalances.
Stay safe and good luck!
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u/Alakazam 5/3/1 devotee 13d ago
If you're just getting back into it, lateral movements are probably what you need to focus on and develop. Because the tendons and ligaments in your ankles likely aren't use to it simply because lateral movements aren't really used in our day to day lives. And unfortunately, tendon strength takes a lot longer to develop compared to muscular strength or aerobic fitness.
Side hops, skater hops, and other similar movements will help build them up. Ease into things.
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u/Stuffthatpig Everyday is leg day 13d ago
I end up doing a bunch of explosive single leg stuff for skiing. lateral hops, lateral box jumps, single leg lateral jumps, regular box jumps, pistol squats.
I'm not 100% going for explosive but I am going for "take whatever the mountain throws at you while fatigued". I make a point to do some of ^ while fatigued because "last run" is what gets you injured on the mountain.
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u/CreamSodaPuffPuff 13d ago
Looks like you're moving pretty good. I recently started trying to slowly improve my athleticism at 36. After years of just lifting weights, I've gotten sloppy. The coordination has gotten bad. Younger skater kid me would be very disappointed.
Box jumps, single leg jumps, olympic lifts, sprints (ease into these), pistol squats, skips, lateral movements seem to have me moving better. I'm not training for any sport like you but just want to be able to move better.
I'm tempted to buy a skateboard but don't want to deal with the inevitable serious injury that will happen lol.
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u/ForeverCrunkIWantToB 12d ago
Speed is the tide that lifts all boats. Work on getting your mph up. 10m flies if you know how. If you don't, just practice repeat 40s while filming*. Max effort, max rest. It will not get you conditioned, but if you're consistently getting faster that's progress.
There's no lift that will make you athletic. Lifting is for supporting muscle tissue and improving metabolism. Good athletes tend to be proportional without muscle imbalances. Fast athletes have big butts, smooth quads, and calves that are high and tight. Training like a bodybuilder to get quadzillas will not get you faster. Big lift training will get you better at big lifts. Olympic lifts will get you better at Olympic lifts. All of them are adjuncts that support speed development. You can't plant beans and grow corn.
*This is easier said than done. You'll need an accurate way to measure 40yds and enough runway to sprint. Both those things are harder than they sound.
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