Athletes must have a strong core if they want to sprint faster.
Simple exercises to strengthen the core like planks, crunches etc. work for beginner athletes but eventually get boring and need to be advanced and progressed in order to make it more "specific" for the demands of the athlete while they sprint or play their sport.
Advancing and progressing exercises is a special skill to help make sure all your training transfers to your sport and movement.
A simple sample progression of advancing exercises to strengthen your core for speed would be:
Front Plank > Plank + Reach > Loaded Sit Ups > TRX Fall Outs
This progression goes from simple, basic and essential to faster, heavier or more complex which are more specific to speed and the demands of playing an athletes sport.
Simply, you advance the exercise every training block lasting 3-4 weeks.
1) TRX Fallout
Key Coaching Points
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2) Front Plank With Reach
Key Coaching Points
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3) Elevated Front Plank With Leg Action On Slider
Key Coaching Points
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There are 3 core strengthening exercises that are slightly advanced and progressed to help you get some different ideas to incorporate into your training program to get faster and stronger.
Seeing these examples, what are some variations you can come up with? Drop your favorite core strength exercises below!