Bodyweight exercises are a fantastic way to build strength, agility, and coordination in young athletes. These movements not only enhance athletic performance but also lay the foundation for more advanced training as they grow.
Here are my three best bodyweight exercises that every young athlete should incorporate into their training routine. Many coaches, parents and even athlete wrongly think bodyweight training is only for beginners, to which I would pose the question “How many handstand press ups can you do?”.
When approached from the perspective of leverage, complexity, tempo, unilateral vs bilateral, bodyweight training can really continue to challenge you long past the beginner phase.
1. Crawling
Crawling. Sounds easy right? I mean babies figure it out so it can’t be that hard right? Crawling might seem basic, but it’s one of the best bodyweight exercises as its a powerhouse movement for building functional strength and coordination. This primal movement pattern engages the core, shoulders, and hips while also improving stability and proprioception. It’s one of the best bodyweight exercises for youth athletes there is!
Benefits:
- Enhances core stability and strength
- Improves coordination between upper and lower body
- Builds joint stability, especially in the shoulders and hips
- Increases mobility in calves, hamstrings, glutes, adductors, wrists and shoulders
Variations:
- Bear Crawl: Have your child keep their knees off the ground and move opposite limbs simultaneously (e.g., right hand, left foot). Think it’s too easy? Try balancing a cone or small weight plate on their lower back. This will challenge how stable their hips are and give instant feedback on whether there is too much swaying and movement. You’ll find this instantly causes them to slow down the movement and the quality of movement will sky rocket.
- Crab Crawl: Have your child sit on the ground with hands and feet supporting their weight, moving backward and forward. Too easy? Try it with hips high to the sky in a table top position for extra benefits on hip mobility and core strength.
- Inchworm Crawl: For a major mobility challenge, have your child start in a press up position. Without moving the hands, walk the feet in as close to the hands as possible while maintaining straight legs. When they reach as close as possible, walk the hands out without moving the feet. You’ll find this really challenges the mobility of the hamstrings and calves.
- Spiderman Crawl: From a push up position, lift the right hand forward and left foot to move forward. Keep the hips low to the ground. Imagine spiderman crawling his way up a building. This will really help with glute and adductor mobility as well as shoulder strength and stability.
- Change Directions: Crawls don’t have to be forwards and backwards! Crawl sideways to develop lateral movement and hip mobility. You’ll find this really challenges your child in a whole new way, finding that forward and backward is easily the dominant direction, moving sideways will start to challenge those stabilisers in a new intensity! Or start to mix and match directions around a square or even and obstacle course!
Incorporate crawling into warm-ups or as part of agility drills for a versatile and challenging addition to training to capitalise on the benefits this great bodyweight exercises can give your child!
2. Plyometrics
Now you can’t talk about the best bodyweight exercises without talking about plyometrics. Plyometric exercises are excellent for developing explosive power, which is crucial for sprinting, jumping, and quick directional changes in sports. These high-intensity movements train the stretch-shortening cycle of muscles, improving speed and power. I’ve been cheeky and stretched out from “true plyometrics” (those with ground contact times lower than 250ms) to include all forms of jumping, hopping and skipping.
Benefits:
- Increases lower body strength and power
- Enhances coordination and timing
- Boosts speed and agility
- Reduces injury risks inherent in landing forces
Variations:
- Skipping: Probably one of the most under estimated tools in athletic training and a simple (but not easy) bodyweight exercise. Grab a skipping rope and focus on rhythm. This can scale to countless variations like on the spot, left to right, staggered, star jump, high knee run, crossovers, double unders and beyond!
- Jumping: Use your bodyweight to build explosive power in all directions by using box jumps, jump and stick, depth jumps, broad jumps, repeated broad jumps, squat jumps, double contact hurdle jumps, hurdle rebounds, tuck jumps and more! Don’t forget you can mix directions too because sport doesn’t happen in 1 plane of motion.
- Hopping: Single-leg hops are a great bodyweight exercise to enhance balance and unilateral strength, and can be more applicable in game-like scenarios. Whether it’s a forward hop and stick, repeated hurdle hops, bounding, or multi directional hopping circuits. Hopping is an incredible athletic development tool.
Start with controlled, low-intensity movements like landing with a stick and progress to more advanced variations as technique improves. But consider the number of contacts, altitude of the landings and whether your landing on one or two legs to make the most of this bodyweight exercise!
3. Sprinting
Sprinting is a cornerstone of athletic performance. It is THE best bodyweight exercise that there is. It’s literally the fastest and most stressful we can do in physical training. Think about it – most match defining moments happen at speed, whether it’s an attacking move finishing with a scoring chance or sprinting back to make a last ditch tackle to save a game. Helping young athletes develop speed, acceleration, and change of direction skills is vital to performance. By incorporating various sprinting techniques, athletes can train different aspects of their game, from quick bursts to sustained speed.
Benefits:
- Builds explosive acceleration and top-end maximal speed
- Increase the speed ceiling makes sub maximal efforts far easier
- Improves conditioning and endurance
- Develops game-specific skills like cutting, turning, and shuffling
Variations:
- Accelerating and Decelerating: Train athletes to control their speed, enhancing their ability to stop and start quickly.
- Cutting and Turning: Practice sharp changes in direction to mimic game scenarios like losing a defender or staying close to an attacker.
- Shuffling and Curve Running: Develop lateral movement and dynamic stability by including side shuffles and curved sprints in drills.
- Want to take sprinting drills to the next level? Add some real intent into it by: racing, chasing or getting chased by a partner. No Partner? Add in a tennis ball and attempt to catch it with only 1 bounce at the end of the drill.
To optimize results with this form or bodyweight exercise, ensure sprints are performed with proper form and adequate rest between sets to maintain intensity. 1 min of rest for every 10m sprinted is a good rule of thumb.
Conclusion
Still think bodyweight exercises are only for beginners? Crawling, plyometrics, and sprinting are three of the best bodyweight exercises that offer immense benefits for young athletes. These movements build a foundation of strength, agility, and coordination that translates directly to improved performance on the field or court. By incorporating these exercises into regular training, young athletes can develop skills that will serve them throughout their athletic journey.
Try incorporating these bodyweight exercises into your child’s training routine and see what happens!
Yours in sport,
Rob Anderson
