Lateral speed training generally helps athletes whose sports involve a great deal of side-to-side movement, such as football, tennis and basketball. In particular, lateral speed training trains the muscles of your hips and groin, helping you avoid...
TMJ disorders cause pain and tenderness in the temporomandibular joint, which is located on each side of your head near your ears, where your lower jawbone meets your skull. The temporomandibular joint is used when you talk, chew and yawn, making...
A typical recreational tennis player should incorporate a few key exercises into his workout routine to improve his game. Add routines that improve your lateral movement and core muscle strength so your body will become fitter and your game stronger.
The rim of a bicycle wheel is the metal circle that holds the tire and is connected to the center hub by the spokes. Because there is tension on the spokes, natural wear and damage to the wheel can cause the rim to be pulled out of lateral and...
The hip adductor muscles run along the inner thigh from the pelvis to the knee and control lateral movement of the legs toward the midline of the body. These muscles may become tight from overuse or injury, or from inactivity. Depending on the...
Because strong defense is essential to playing winning basketball, you must be physically prepared to stay in front of your defensive assignment -- or, the player you're guarding at all times. Doing so requires training yourself for improved...
The hip is one of the most mobile joints in the body and is designed to bear a lot of weight. However, due to its high mobility and the excessive forces places on this joint, the hip is prone to overuse injuries. According to ExRx.net, stretching...
Your feet initiate most fitness activities, so training shoes are the most important element of your workout wardrobe. Exercise shoes must be specific to the activity you're doing, and to your foot shape. Sports or exercises that require lateral...
When it comes to executing well-placed shots in textbook fashion, preparation and footwork are crucial. You can't hit winners when you are off balance, jammed or flatfooted. Getting yourself ready for the next shot is key to success on court....
Dance aerobics is a fun, effective cardiovascular workout that can be tailored to all fitness levels. You don't need a dance background or a great deal of coordination to learn aerobic choreography. Instead, you need to know a variety of aerobic...
Softball and baseball are unique sports that overlap in certain areas. Both sports require advanced coordination and the unique ability to catch, hit and field a ball. Although most baseball and softball drills can be administered during practice,...
When compared to most styles of seats, a bicycle saddle might not not look especially comfortable. But years of research and development have improved the comfort level of bicycle saddles, providing they are properly sized to the individual rider....
Temporomandibular joint disease, commonly referred to as TMJ, is a disorder that affects the connective joint at the jawline. TMJ is generally caused by grinding your teeth or as result of arthritis or a jaw injury. TMJ often causes severe pain...
Often, hockey players become goalies because they are not as adept at skating as the rest of their teammates. However, hockey goalies need to be able to skate just as well as anyone on the team. It involves a great deal of strength, balance and...
When training a goalie, remember that they have different needs from the rest of the team. The drills that you develop for your goalie must focus on the skills that he will utilize during a game. These drills, however, should go beyond stopping...
The speed agility ladder is one of the best ways to improve agility, quickness, response time, and coordination. The Sport Fitness Advisor website recommends using the speed ladder after a warm-up, but before your primary workout, whose exercises...
Agility exercises with a speed ladder can improve your foot speed, lateral movement and first-step quickness. Most baseball, football, soccer and general sporting goods stores sell inexpensive roll-out agility ladders. You can even save money by...
If you have ever experienced an injury to your ankle, you know how frustrating it can be. Once you have damaged the soft tissues or bones in your ankle, they become weak and can take long periods of time to fully recover. If you are unwilling to...
In a professional badminton game, players run twice the distance in half the amount of time as tennis players do in their matches. It ends up being about four miles within a little over an hour, as opposed to two miles in over three hours in a...
Cycling is a form of aerobic exercise that is gentle on the knees. Unlike running, cycling is a low impact activity and places little pressure on the knee joint. However, this doesn't mean that cyclists are immune to knee pain. It's a common...
Despite the human body's capability for lateral movement, some people rarely engage in it. Upper-torso movements, for example, include spinal flexion, extension and lateral or sideways bending. Most of the tasks of daily life require bending and...
Ankle sprains are some of the most common injuries in sports, especially frequent in sports that involve lateral movement such as basketball, soccer and football. Because the ligaments and tendons in your ankle are weakened with every sprain, the...
A variety of training techniques can make a player stronger on the basketball court, but plyometric training is one of the best ways to mimic a game environment during workouts. While plyometrics are often viewed as simply a tool for improving...
Believe it or not, slide boards are not a new idea. In fact, the whole idea of slide training began about 100 years ago, when European speed skaters had some creative uses for a metal barn door. They nailed pieces of wood to each side and waxed...
Being a catcher is perhaps the most physically demanding job on a baseball team. Over the course of a single game, a catcher may have to squat down and stand up over 100 times. He must also throw the ball back to the pitcher after each pitch, and...
Roller hockey mimics ice hockey in most respects, save for the obvious difference in playing surfaces. Roller hockey takes place on concrete, plastic or even wood flooring, and roller hockey often features a ball or plastic puck rather than ice...
The Reebok slide workout is an intense lateral low-impact exercise routine, which was created to mimic the movements of Olympic speed skaters, The side-to-side movement used in a slide workout targets the muscles in the inner and outer thighs and...
A pull-up is a close-chained exercise where your arms are in a fixed position and you lift your body closer to your arms. Lateral exercises are any movement that emphasizes moving side to side, which is called the frontal plane. There are many...
Cross-trainers are designed to play multiple roles. You can use them in the gym for almost any activity --- lifting weights, your yoga class, using the elliptical machine, stretching, basketball or a Zumba workout. Running shoes, on the other...
