Let’s talk about those times that you need to react to something physically. You’re walking down the street, late for the latest Humphrey Bogart talkie when a door swings open and you need to dart out of the way so you don’t scuff your spats or lose a sequin off your fascinator.
And strangely, that’s a lot harder to do than you may think (and not just because of how stiff your patent leather shoes are)!
When we train for power or speed, we tend to train everything for that ‘direction’. Like if you’re running, you train all of your muscles to coordinate the movements of running so that you can run faster. It makes sense. But (*imagine magician hands*) what if we told you that being proficient at deceleration, stopping and turning ability can be just as important to your training?
Deceleration training sounds a bit zany, but when you stop to think about it, you realize that you had to, in fact, STOP to think about it. (See what I did there?)
But this is critical for many activities and sports. The ability to slow down and control your force production is critical to your ability to move with the demands placed on the body in activity and sport. If you can slow down quickly and with control, you’ll also be able to change direction more quickly and safely, helping you perform better and steel the body against injury.
So how do we train for deceleration? We focus on the eccentric movement of an exercise.
Click here to read the whole post in FitSchool!
FitSchool will help you understand all of this and put it into practice. March Madness is all about power, agility, and speed.
In addition to your regular FitSchool curriculum, we’ve teamed up with Steel & Oak to create a bonus running program, and regular Run Club meetups on Wednesday evenings with the whole team. The real kicker? Half priced beer for all participants! Open to all levels.
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