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1000 Ways To Train For Lacrosse

As lacrosse players, we love to stay in great shape and train ourselves in new ways that push our limits and help us stay competitive. In an effort to give you the upperhand, we’re working to supply you with a list of 1,000 training methods that will assist you in your quest to be the next Lacrosse All Star. Whether your goal is the Tewaaraton winner or Summer League MVP, add these workouts to your repertoire and prepare the best.

1000 Ways to Train 1-10

Training for lacrosse is a little different than training for most sports as you can’t rely SOLELY on your strength or ONLY on your speed. To be an elite lacrosse player, it’s vital that you train hard in several areas: strength, power, speed, agility, and endurance.

The best players in the game move constantly while on the field, running from one point to another as each play progresses. Lacrosse is a very peculiar sport in that way because it requires players to have extreme levels of endurance and the strength to muscle through a check or body up on an opponent.

Simply put, you need to be able to run fast, run all day AND be a beast.

And so 1000 Ways To Train For Lacrosse begins…

1. 30 minutes of Wall Ball

When there are major lacrosse entities and Pro lacrosse players discussing the importance of wall ball, you know it has to be beneficial. Thirty minutes of wall ball each and everyday can help you on your way from the water boy to the All-American. Besides, it’s hard to do much on the lacrosse field if you can’t catch and pass, right?

Maverik Commercial Wall Ball
Recognize this venue?

2. Calisthenics

There are all sorts of different calisthenics you can do to help warm-up and prepare your muscles for a workout. From high knees and butt kickers to shuffles and Frankensteins, each of these workouts helps to keep your muscles active and properly loosened up for training.

Here are a couple to get you on your way:

– High knees
– Butt kickers
– Shuffle
– Striders
– Duck Walk
– Frankensteins
Best stretch in the world
– Carioca (not Karaoke!)

3. Footwork – Cone Drills

Foot speed is key in lacrosse, and these next two drills focus on great explosion off the line and continued quickness. Whether you’re dodging or keeping up with an attackman, you need to make sure you have quick feet, otherwise you’ll be left looking at your defender from your back. Notre Dame has a great sequence of four-cone drills you can do to increase foot speed and agility.

4. Icky Shuffle

Another awesome footwork drill and one of my personal favorites for the Speed Ladder. The icky shuffle is great for lateral movement and translates perfectly over to dodging in lacrosse.

Icky Shuffle
It looks something like this…

5. Russian Twist with Medicine Ball

No workout is complete without some core work. Personally I like to throw all of my core work in between each set of lifting or whatever I’m doing. That way while I’m “resting” from lifts, I’m still working on something else. My go to is the Russian Twist with a medicine ball. Pick a weight that is good for you (10-15 pounds is usually good) and copy the form in the video. 1 rep is a left touch and a right touch, so I just count each time the ball touches the right side and do 30-40 reps. Easy enough!

6. Power Cleans

I had a love/hate (but mostly hate) relationship with any sort of cleans for the longest time but have grown to love them over the years. Today I throw in a few sets of Power Cleans or Hang Cleans into each Leg day. Power Cleans are great because you get the burn from both Dead Lifts and Hang Cleans into one butt kicking workout.

The key with these though, is form and flexibility. It is imperative that you learn the proper form before you start trying to man handle the weight from the ground to your chest. If you don’t, you really risk injuring yourself.

7. Medicine Ball Throws

If you can find a hard wall to use this is a great drill, just make sure it isn’t drywall though, as that could be really bad. The special focus here is generating power with your legs and throwing the ball off the wall with your upper body. You must use your core to transfer the leg power to your upper body, and this mimics shooting form quite nicely.

8. DB Step-ups

There are too many people today that only focus on their upper body and it is really disappointing (but also a little funny to see when you look like a top). Especially in a sport like lacrosse, leg power can be seen everywhere on the field. Goalies explode out through every shot, defenders and attackmen use their legs to drive each other away from, or to, the goal, and middies have to sprint up and down the field fighting for every groundball and dodge. When doing DB Step-ups it is really important that you explode all the way through each rep and try and go up onto the ball of your foot to get that extra extension.

DB Step-ups
Follow the form of our good friend Mr. LAS

9. Bent-over Rows

Lacrosse players use their shoulders a ton – that’s pretty obvious. Therefore it is really important that you don’t just sit on the bench and hang out with your bros doing bench press all day. Bent-over rows are a great way to not only improve shoulder and arm strength, but your back as well. If Maryland’s Lacrosse team does Bent-over rows, you should probably try them too.

10. Skull Crushers:

Skull Crushers are a great lift for your triceps and you can choose to use either the curl bar or a dumbbell. Just be careful, they don’t call them skull crushers for fun. Check out the demonstration below and please make sure to wear a shirt at the gym.

Whew, only 990 to go. I hope you can take some of these and add them to your daily or weekly workouts. Until next time!

1,000 is a big number. Please share your favorite lifts and exercises in the comments section (or email us at info@lacrosseallstars.com) so we can add them to our list and reach the big 1-0-0-0!

An important note about training: You should always consider your own goals and decide what you want to accomplish during training. Most importantly though, always learn how to properly do an exercise before you start doing it. As very few of us are experts in Sports Science or Medicine, we always recommend doing your own research and finding credible trainers to teach you how to train. Train smart, train safe, train hard, lax on.