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I have never been fantastic in terms of agility. I have just realised that I have lost what little agility I used to have and this now impacts on my ability to do things like ski off piste well.
I know how to build fitness in terms of cycling swimming etc and understand that some better core strength would help but am interested to know what types of excersie would help.
Plyometrics?
Parkour? Ninja warrior? There are gyms for them if you live in the right place.
I started learning olympic lifting a little while ago, pretty good for mobility, if not agility, with deep squats and shoulder mobility.
Swimming.
Just watch social media people be agile instead. Movementbydavid, thebioneer being two examples. Get some barefoot shoes, maybe a man bun scruffy mullet with sides shaved. Job done 🤓
Hip thrusters. Build those glutes up!
Multi directional single and double leg explosive movements i.e. hops, jumps, bounds, skipping, jump on to something, jump off something.. understand triple extension. Dorsiflexion is your friend.
Jump rope. Aim to mnimise the amount of time you feet spent on the ground between jumps.
High effort sprints with change of speed and change of direction. A crazy core killer.
Throw a ball - hard against a wall to get your body to twist.
Play squash!
Yoga and Pilates, with a bit of cross fit thrown in.
Came to say what TheDTs said.
I've used this app a lot for Yoga, Cardio and a mix of both, everything in between.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.downdogapp&hl=en&gl=US&pli=1
Just watch social media people be agile instead. Movementbydavid, thebioneer being two examples
leomoves is another
I don't think that you strictly mean agility, do you? If you do I would think that boxing, dancing, and Tai Chi, would probably help you to improve agility.
If you actually mean core strength and flexibility yoga is probably the most readily available.
Just watch social media people be agile instead.
I say this only because it's almost where I've ended up, not just trying to be funny. Various stuff happened last year, which resulted in me doing less general exercise, combined with an increase in cycle commuting distance, which doesn't leave me energetic for much else unfortunately.
Look at exercise videos on youtube, instagram, tiktok etc find what interests you, what makes you think 'I want to be able to do that' and then find what strength/ability/skill prerequisites you need to get there.
My guess is you'd start with flexibility (yoga/stretching) and build strength and balance onto that with something like bouldering or kettlebell work, at least before getting to Nino Schurter or Peter Sagan's cross training circuits.
Stretching and use of a foam roller would be a start. You might need to get a deep tissue massage if you're properly tight.
I'm a bit confused by what you mean by agility, particularly in the context of off piste skiing (which is predominantly technique and fitness - your legs are going to be screaming at you long before you run out of flexibility).
Fundamentally general fitness is the biggest issue. I was touring in Chamonix a year or so after my son was born. I'd slept badly, eaten badly and hardly exercised for a year. Whilst not really overweight, I was probably the least fit I've ever been and it was horrible. I was blowing out of my arse and stopping every kick turn for a breather. I hardly enjoyed the descent as I was so knackered and could only do a few turns (in glorious powder) before stopping for a rest and it was a bit of a tipping point for me.
2 things have helped me:
1. Fell running - hugely improved my core and leg strength and given me loads more stamina. I can ski longer without stopping, I can ski faster and harder without stopping. And I can get up and do it again the next day without being buggered. I think any cardio leg stuff would have the same effect though.
2. Eating and drinking well when skiing - I find it way too easy to have a beer in the sun when on the mountains, then a big plate of some heavy, cheesey mountain food, then a few glasses of red wine. All justified because a) I'm on holiday and b) I've burnt off a load of calories skiing. All of which make me feel heavy, sluggish (and grumpy if I have too much wine). If I sleep well and wake up fresh then I have much more oomph and, I guess, feel more agile.
As a few people have said already, it depends what you mean by agility. Cycling's very much 2D, I went trail running for the first time in ages, which involved a lot of core and lower body stabilisation, and boy did I know it next day. Not so much aching legs, but hips, ankles, abs etc.
If you want explosive power, plyometrics is a good call. I suspect something like volley ball would work for that too. When I was a triple jumper, a long time ago, I used to habitually bound up stairs for a similar effect.
Core-orientated gym stuff - planks, Turkish get-ups, stuff like renegade dumbbell rows, TRX trainers. Muscling full-fat e-mtbs around on technical, nadgery stuff and lifting them over stiles and gates. If you want it to be mountain bike-specific, do some googling, there's a fair bit of YouTube content out there.
Overall it depends what fits into your life. Interestingly, there's a story doing the news rounds this morning about table tennis helping massively with MS, I can imagine that those short, sharp, movements and hand-eye coordination wouldn't be a bad thing for anyone.
Park Yoga will be starting again soon in Spring
Free outdoor yoga in most locations where ParkRuns occur
If your username still checks out it will benefit your surfing too
I’m a bit confused by what you mean by agility, particularly in the context of off piste skiing (which is predominantly technique and fitness – your legs are going to be screaming at you long before you run out of flexibility).
I presume he means the difference between being able to ride a bike all day, or swim for a few hours / at a brisk pace and the absolute screaming pain in your legs/core when you have to do a longer / rougher / faster descent. IME that tended to be deficiencies in the posterior chain as much as it was abs / obliques. Remember that just because one muscle hurts, doesn't mean it's the weak one, if you have a weak muscle the tendency is to either:
1) shift yourself into a position where it does no work (e.g. locking out joints, standing more upright)
2) lengthen it as far as possible so it's doing no work (i.e. burning quads may just be because your hamstrings and glutes and given up)
3) shorten as much as possible which is when they apply maximum force.
A bit of yoga might help, but I'd program it as part of a bigger plan, something like:
Month 1 - lots of yoga, but if you're specifically stiff somewhere then more targeted stretching would be more beneficial.
+ deliberately seek out longer and rougher off-road descents, focus on technique and speed, avoid sitting down on the saddle at all and when stood up, make sure your knees are bent so they're doing work and your hips are moving about, not locked out and lazy.
Month 2 - Start going to the gym, I would guess the key things are going to be squat and deadlift variations, Bulgarian squats and Romanian Deadlifts are (IMO) better than the standard versions for most people. Then for accessories, do hip thrusts, or if you consider those forbidden and for the ladies only, whatever machine works the glutes hardest. But really, do hip thrusts. Kettlebell swings done properly would be a 2nd choice. If you do 3 sessions a week it might look like squats, deads, hip thrusts. Then Hip thrust's and kettle bell swings, then squats and kettle bell swings. Finishers on all days would be Russian Twists, crunches, and floor to overhead dumbbells (as many as you can in 90s with about 75-80% of your 1RM, start with your weak arm, switch arms, and repeat the same number, rest 90s, then repeat for 3 sets).
Month 3 - Plyometrics, box jumps, squat thrusts, burpees, mogul jumps. Take up badminton or squash. Add in more kettlebell stuff, anything that forces you to move explosively in relatively random ways. But remember to focus on bracing your core into each movement as if it were a full on powerlifting squat or deadlift, the aim being to strengthen those muscles (which means activate them) and to build up the muscle memory so that every time you hit a mogul or a jump you're bracing without having to think about it.
Substitute month for 4/6/8/12 weeks until you feel like either it's getting somewhere or not delivering the expected benefit.
I use Wahoo SYSTM for my turbo trainer, but what is good I have found is that they have bodyweight strength workouts, that include "dynamic" work, and they also have a lot of yoga workouts.
So working from home I do a 30 minute strength workout, either Whole Body, and alternate with just Core work next day, then 15 minutes of yoga. A lot of the bodyweight stuff is not pure strength, it is designed to improve balance and injury resilience, I have found it has improved strength and flexibility so much.
Macebell is great for upper body and core strength in a very time efficient way.
Rucking is very good for building leg strength and stamina.
I do old skool style PT training in the park which I picked up from when I used to British Military Fitness classes years ago.
I combine that with a mixture of continuous flow yoga that I've learnt from various style classes, mostly Vinyasa, Satria and a bit of Ashtanga. After a while you get to know how the body moves and make can make up your own routines.
Thanks for all the comments. Yes I surf and ski. It has been pointed out to me that I muscle around my on piste skiing very well but lack agility when it comes to loading unloading etc. I also just feel heavy on my feet when walking down rough ground scrambling etc so need to boost core strength but definitely want to try some sort of jumping, hoping, skipping excersie.
I do a lot of running, walking, climbing, but yoga made a big difference for me for general body and core strength and flexibility.I'd start there, with some explosive stuff when I was comfortably strong enough for the more static parts..
Being chased around the garden by my pet cat.
You’ve got to be pretty sharp with the rugby style ‘Shilly-shallies’.
Mind your heels, tho 😉
Fencing! fighting with swords not installing woodwork.
I fenced competitively from 9 to 30. Always fun, always someone pushing to get you to lose your balance and hit you, so a real motivation to get better at balance.
All the fencing warmups I've done are balance focused
Have a look at some of the Warren Smith vids on flexibility. He does an Autumn tour in the UK. Its well worth attending.
They measure flexibility in relation to skiing. The general reasoning is not that skiers need more tuition to improve but that often they find in their ski programs that peoples bodies are the limiting factor. Sometimes this has a left / right bias as well. All a bit ski-tech geek, but helped me focus more on flexibility and range of movement rather than just "Fitness".
I've started using the dynamic cyclist app, free trial followed by a few quid a month. Stretching and strength exercises.
It's sorted out a painful shoulder that's been niggling for years, and first thing in the morning I can get out of bed without rolling out with a tight back!
I know I could probably find it free somewhere, but as someone who has never stretched, no idea where to start, and can't get within 4 inches of my toes when I reach down, it's providing the motivation to do it daily.
It's not really suitable for this time of year, but learning how to walk on a slackline is excellent for true agility, balance and bodily awareness. Fun, too, and once you bought it, free. Highly recommended!
We’ve probably got hooks in the ceiling, from which to suspend our bikes. (Always neater with some 2x4).
Might be worth a wander around Decathlon:
I hate to ask, but is there something in the username "bigsurfer"? Carrying a few extra kgs will limit your agility much more than core strength etc