As an athlete, there is an importance on maintaining and developing your body. That means working to keep it strong and healthy so that you can stay with the competition. Even a little slip up and the gap between you and the next athlete could become cavernous.
That said, developing your body requires smart, consistent work. Here are some of the best exercises out there that work for just about any athlete.
Pilates
There is a reason that Pilates went from a trend to a long-established exercise. Pilates help to strengthen your core, improve mobility and body control, and even strengthen those stabilizing muscles. All of this through controlled, slow movements.
Pilates can help build basic strength, too. For just about any sport, you need to have stellar core strength and Pilates help to deliver that.
Yoga
Though there are still detractors, yoga has remained one of the most popular exercises in the world and with good reason. In sports, mobility and flexibility are being seen for their importance. That means using exercises that develop those traits.
Yoga is efficient at both. It improves your range of motion, which helps to reduce tightness in the joints and it helps to prevent injuries. It also builds stability and strength through each of the static poses. There is a reason why yoga has remained such a popular form of exercise and likely will be around for decades and decades to come.
Functional Strength Training
The belief of the past was that you had to lift weights and develop the biggest and strongest muscles that you could. But that mindset has long since been replaced by creating awareness of the required muscles and developing strength and flexibility within them.
The goal is not to get huge, but it is to maintain fluidity and strength in the muscles that we use. Moreover, less muscle mass means less chance of injury. In sports, being able to stay on the field or court is just as important as what you do on it.