I notice that today’s training is often appearance orientated. Training which requires brain work is refused, workouts must be coordinative simple and must transform the body attractive in a short time. The training plays the leading role in the self-optimizing theatre. Thereby the comparison with others in terms of vanity and not of skills is the focus. The questions to me as a trainer are often “Which exercise makes my thigh lean?” “This fat pad must disappear without losing my bust size” “I want a muscular upper body” and less “How can I balance on a slackline?” or “How can I learn the handstand?”

Every motivation and goal is individual. But how about varied and adequate challenges for your body in everyday life and training? When the demands of your body are not covered you will leak in fundamental skills like coordination and balance and that is dangerous. Let me explain, why it is clever the integrate speed ladders and hopscotch in your workout routine.

Excerpt:

Speed ladders and hopscotch can improve the ability to explosively decelerate, change direction and accelerate again quickly while maintaining body control and minimizing loss of speed. This movements depend on factors such as speed, eccentric strength (strength that enables the athlete to decelerate movements), balance and coordination. Learning proper mechanics to decelerate and change direction will also reduce the risk of injury, because a lot of injuries occur during braking and changing of direction. Coordination is by definition the cooperation of the central nervous system (CNS, brain, spinal cord), the peripheral nerves (lines from CNS to muscle) and the muscles in a specific movement pattern. Coordination therefore means the teamwork between brains and muscle.

Speed:

Jumps require a mixture of strength and speed. These dynamic exercises activate the central nervous system and activate the fast-twitch muscle fibres (which contract quickly) to work more easy and efficient. So called plyometric movements use the stretching and shortening cycle, which is a stretch reflex of rapid elongation of the muscle followed by a rapid muscle shortening.

Agility:

So called “cutting” is a rapid slow down of the body while the body’s center must equilibrate to move further into another direction. Required is mobility in ankle and/or hip joints and core strength.

Coordination:

Every targeted motion is a coordinative overall performance of the central nervous system under command of the cerebrum. Coordination is responsible for the learning, controlling and adjusting of motions. The coordination’s impact leads to the effective use of strength, flexibility, endurance and speed, the other conditional basic motoric characteristics of the body.

Conclusion:

No matter how much strength every single muscle has, when they not work perfectly together as a team is the whole muscle strength ineffective. Basically the brain is the conductor, the muscles the orchestra and the nerves the baton. Without coordination movements are demanding because muscles are not working together but partly against each other. Uncoordinated movements are not secure because through less precise execution ligaments and joints are stressed. A coordinated movement in contrast is a secure, efficient and simple movement. Speed ladders and hopscotch could be a new workout tool for increasing your performance due to more economic movements. Means you need less strength because you learn to use for specific movements only the required muscles in the correct sequence. The better a movement sequence is coordinated the less exhausting it is, the less energy expenditure and oxygen consumption. And, maybe the most important fact, it can bring a lot of fun and new inspiration and stimuli for your workout at Evo fitness.