Agility

If you can change direction quickly, start and stop on a dime, and look coordinated doing it, then you have good agility. Many sports like soccer, volleyball, basketball, and tennis require athletes who are agile. You can train for agility by running obstacle courses or by practicing techniques or drills that are specific to the movements you encounter in your sport, such as faking left but running right. Being agile is beneficial for nonathletes too. Certainly navigating an obstacle course made up of your kids' toys on the ground without twisting your ankle is a valuable skill. Being able to avoid a car that's suddenly pulling out of a parking spot is also important. Agility training is imperative as we grow older; research has shown that the decrease in agility and balance that often occurs as we age can lead to falls and fractures.

Agility movements aren't typically found in a strength-training program but are easy to add. The metabolic strength circuits I provide in chapter 3 incorporate some aspects of agility work. Some of the exercises I describe in part III, when done on one leg or with a stability ball, can improve your agility. But to be truly agile, you have to devote more time to this component than a typical strength-training program will allow.