Agility drills lessen everyday injuries
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Editor's note: This is one of a series of articles about firefighters' fitness requirements.
Conditioning doesn't have to be tedious or painful. Add agility training and you have a package that can be fun and suit anybody interested in a healthy everyday lifestyle.
So says Tucson Fire Department Capt. Diana Benson, 46, also a firefighter recruit class physical instructor and the conditioning trainer for the Tucson Monsoon women's professional football team. A former bodybuilder and power lifter, she's also a running back for the Monsoon.
(For more on the Monsoon, click on this story at tucsoncitizen.com/body.)
Benson's agility programs are geared toward injury prevention and are easily translated into everyday activities for civilians.
"Bending over to pick up a child is an example," she says. "You twist one way, then the other and you can get hurt. All of a sudden you are required to use muscles you normally wouldn't use."
An impromptu touch football game at a picnic, a tennis match that suddenly turns intense or a noon pickup basketball game also can bring problems.
You call on your body to make sudden starts and stops and there goes a hamstring or your lower back.
Agility drills help smaller muscles adapt to the strains and protect larger muscle groups. This is a vital part of training for firefighters and football players, but it's also important for the rest of us.
"You talk about the large muscles but not the accessory muscles," Benson says. "You don't think about the hips and the core flexors."
Agility can be fun, she adds, because it involves "patterns" and game-playing. Her ground ladder drill is a hopscotch throwback.
"Kids love it," Benson explains. "They like anything that has a pattern to it. In the ladder drill, you can hop with two feet or one foot, and kids make up games."
Older adults also benefit from agility training.
"As you get older your gait gets slower," Benson says. "We all slow down. It gives one something to focus and concentrate on; it can be done as slow as is comfortable. It's good for all populations.
"(Agility drills) are not expensive to do. You don't have go to a gym or use a treadmill."
AGILITY RUN
Set up cones to create a large square. Along one side place four or more cones 2 to 3 feet apart.
Lie on back, quickly get up and sprint to the line of cones and weave through them.
At the end of the row, do crossover steps to the next corner, backpedal to the third corner, then sprint back to start.
This lends itself to any number of patterns and motions.
"Push on the outside leg as you do the weave," Benson suggests. "Make sure the right foot (if right-handed) is the guide foot."
BOX DRILL
Set up similar to agility run (see above) with only corner cones. Set them up about 20 feet apart. Run sideways to the first cone, turn and go sideways to the next, turn, backpedal and sidestep back.
Calisthenics can be incorporated by stopping anywhere in route and doing push-ups, crunches, etc.
"Hit all the corners," Benson says. "Start slower and the faster you go, the better you get at it. The important thing is to do it correctly. Injuries can be caused if you're not doing (an exercise) right."
LADDER DRILL
Spread an agility ladder (available at sports equipment centers) on the ground. High step a rung, jump rung to rung, do two feet per rung, any number of patterned drills. Move forward, sideways and backwards in any direction. The agility ladder teaches cutting and change-of-direction skills designed to enhance body control and increase foot speed. Moving sideways is important.
"People don't know how to do lateral movement well," Benson says, explaining that the drill strengthens core muscles.
This drill incorporates hopscotch and is open to endless patterns of games. It is very child-oriented, Benson says.
BEAR CRAWL/CRAB WALK
Old football drills, the first is simply walking forward or backwards on all fours with weight on hands. Also the bear crawl side walk, using the same stance to move sideways. Bring the right arm over the left, move the left arm then repeat.
The crab walk is moving both hands and feet in contact with the ground while facing upward. "Walk" by bending the knees and extending the arms.
Both exercises work triceps and build arm and leg strength in addition to being an agility workout.
"Football players absolutely hate this one," Benson says. "You can put a weight on the belly or a medicine ball, too. You are never going very fast."
Photos by NORMA JEAN GARGASZ
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