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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 21-30

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 continues…

This week I wanted to take a more in-season circuit approach. Personally when it comes to the lacrosse season, I’m not a big fan of heavy lifting and I’ve actually heard from several sources that it is somewhat counterproductive. I like to go to the Elite Lacrosse gym at least once a week and set up a circuit to run through consisting of speed ladders, cleans, rope slams, and anything else I can think of to make me want wish I hadn’t chosen it. Here are several that I like to throw in.

21. Alternating Medicine Ball Push-ups

I like to mix upper and lower body workouts into circuits and alternate between the two. For the sake of organization though, I’ve kind of grouped the exercises together in terms of the part of your body being worked out.

We’ll start with the Alternating Medicine Ball Push-ups. This is a great workout for your chest and core – the chest part is obvious but the core is a little more subtle. By staggering the elevation of your hands, you change your center of gravity and force your core to stay flexed and balanced.  This is an easy fix for when push-ups get boring or your just want to challenge your balance a little more.

Borrowed from 60DaysWithNatJones.com

22.  Swiss Ball Push-ups

Another variation of the standard push-up, except with a Swiss ball instead of a medicine ball – think decline push-up, just harder. By incorporating the Swiss ball into the mix, you are again adding that aspect of further challenging your core and overall balance by having to keep your feet stable on the ball throughout the push-up motion.

Swiss Ball Push-ups

23. Split Jumps

Bored with lunges? Try these! The split jump helps with your balance, core strength, and the most obvious – your legs. You can add in dumbbells to make it a little more challenging or even a medicine ball to hold in front of your body.

24. Box Jumps

While Box Jumps are used a lot by football, basketball, and volleyball players seeking to increase their vertical, they aren’t the only ones that can benefit from adding Box Jumps to their workouts. Box Jumps are great because they only require your body weight and are such a low impact exercise. If you jump 30 inches into the air and land on a 25 inch box, you are only feeling the impact of the 5 inch fall, not the 30. The big thing to take out of Box Jumps though is really the strength and speed you are able to take out of it.

Great article on the benefits of Box Jumps and the pros/cons of the different types of Box Jumps, a must read.

25. Swiss Ball Knee Tuck

The Swiss Ball Knee Tuck, another great core workout. Start in the prone push-up position with your feet on a Swiss ball, position your feet so you are able to grip the ball. Then roll in the ball using your legs lower abdominal muscles until your knees are almost tucked to your chest, then push the ball back out. Easy enough, right? If you follow the lovely demonstration by our friend below (don’t ask questions) you should have an awesome eight pack in no time (results may vary).

Combine this with #12 and you have yourself a Swiss Ball Jackknife!

Borrowed from MensHeath.co.uk
Umm... okay?

26. Scissor Kicks

Another staple of my core workouts. Start out on your back and you can either put your hands under your butt for more support or cross them over your chest if you are hardcore and want to feel the burn. Then raise your feet about 6″ off the ground, start by bringing your right leg to 45 degrees, lower it then raise your left leg to 45 degrees. I usually do R, L, R, L as one rep and go to 3o or more depending on how I feel. I’ve also started to incorporate a medicine ball into the workout by holding it over my chest and rotating it slowly as I count up.

I’ll let BodyBuilding.com take it from here!

27. Speed Run/Stride Run

Speed ladder time. These two exercises are great for warming up on the Speed ladder. I always switch back and forth between the two of them during warm-ups. For the Speed Run, move through the ladder as quickly as you can while placing both feet into each square (like in the picture below). For the Stride Run do the same thing but only place one foot in each square as you go down the ladder.

Like I mentioned earlier, these are both great for warming up on the Speed ladder, it allows you to get the spacing and foot speed down before you go into the more difficult ones like the Icky Shuffle or the ones below.

Speed Run & Stride Run

28. Single Leg Lateral Crossover (L,R)

Raising the difficulty for the Speed ladder will really help elevate your foot speed and quickness to the next level, this exercise will be a good start. This is very similar to the Icky Shuffle I showed you in the first post of 1-10, it’s #4. The big difference obviously is that you are doing the whole ladder on one foot. This is great for building your lateral quickness for dodging and even staying with your man on defense while he is trying to put some moves on you.

Really focus on keeping a good center of balance and moving smoothly through the ladder. It is best to start slow if you aren’t familiar with the movement and then increase your speed as you become comfortable to push yourself even harder. If you are flailing your arms and other leg all about as you move through this one, you probably should slow down a little.

Single Leg Lateral Crossover

29. Shuttle Runs

Just as in football, lacrosse has a lot of the short bursts of speed and quick changes of directions, so why not do an NFL style workout? Shuttle runs are great for building straight linear speed and helping you develop your change of direction.

If you are a Coach and want to make conditioning a little more fun, then you can add this to your repertoire as well. Simply have two lines facing each other, choose a lead line and a mirror line, then have them jog to the center cone and start – from there it is a race. Skip ahead to the 3:02 mark in the video below to check out how Notre Dame does it.

30. Drink a Protein Shake a day

Okay, so it doesn’t HAVE to be protein, but if you are training hard on the field and in the gym, it is imperative that you take care of your body when you are done.

Borrowed from MamaPop.com
I don't even want to know what Fear Factor considers a "Protein Shake"

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 trainingYou 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.

Do Work
"Train insane or remain the same."