You might not be sure how exactly to warm up for agility training or just do movements until you “feel good.” However, a high-quality, consistent warm-up that contains specific characteristics is key to helping you get the most out of your session and reducing your risk of injury. Here is the 7-step framework that we use in our 12-week Cognitive Agility Program to ensure our athletes are primed and ready for their agility training.

1. Tissue Prep

   • 2-5 minutes of light aerobic activity to get the body warm.

     • Examples: Jumping rope, biking, jogging.

   • Followed by 2-5 minutes of myofascial release in major areas (quads, calves, hamstrings, glutes, etc.), focusing on tight areas.

     • Examples: Foam roll, percussion gun, lacrosse ball.

2. Dynamic Mobility

   • 2-5 min of dynamic stretches to lengthen and activate the proper muscles, focusing on major areas (quads, calves, hamstrings, glutes, etc.) and tight areas.

     • Examples: Lunge and twist, side lunges, inchworms, world’s greatest stretch.

3. Core Activation

   • 1-2 mins of exercises that involve bracing your core in different planes and/or with different loads.

     • Examples: Bird dog, plank variations, dead bug.

4. Glute Activation

   • 1-2 mins of exercises that strengthen and activate the glute and hip complex.

     • Examples: band walks, fire hydrant series, clamshells.

5. Balance Prep

   • 1-2 mins (per leg) of balance/proprioception exercises, either standing and reaching (with leg or hand) or jumping and sticking (landing in a soft and controlled manner).

     • Examples: Single-leg lateral jump, single-leg balance with cone touch, single-leg jump and turn.

6. Movement Prep

   • 1-2 mins of movement exercises focusing on techniques you will use in your game or training.

     • Examples: Box push step, cross-step, sprint to backpedal prep.

7. Neural Priming

   • 2-5 mins of rapid footwork or plyometric drills (ideally in response to a stimulus).

     • Examples - ladder drills, line hops, plyometrics.

There are countless ways you can incorporate these components into your agility warm-up, and I’d encourage you to tailor the drills you use to the specific type of athlete you are training (age, sport, etc.).

Once you get to the training, it’s important to remember that to train true agility, the movements must be done in response to a stimulus (Sheppard & Young, 2006). This is because movements in sports are rarely ever done mindlessly. In almost every sport, athletes have to quickly process stimuli, decide on how to respond to this stimulus, and then execute a movement as quickly as possible. We created the SwitchedOn app to provide an easy and accessible way to incorporate this randomized external stimulus using just your mobile device. If you’re interested, you can download it for free using the buttons below.