Squash can put your body through numerous strains. One key aspect is balance – many squash injuries happen when opponents knock players off balance. Strength training for lower body can improve stability and help prevent these types of injuries.
Squash involves explosive movements and multidirectional sprints that require explosive movements and multidirectional sprints, which lead to an intensive workout that helps burn calories and build muscles. To enhance balance and agility it’s essential that a variety of exercises be added into your regiment for best results.
1. Single Leg Balance on a Bosu Ball
At commercial gyms, inflatable balls, foam blocks and wobble boards touted as functional training equipment are often found lining the walls – often touted as functional training equipment but in reality can increase injury risks by forcing you to balance on an unstable surface during training sessions.
The Bosu ball is an effective piece of balance training equipment available at many fitness centres and online outlets. It can be used for various exercises to build balance and core strength, including single leg standing and lunges. Furthermore, circuit training programs that focus on total body fitness may incorporate this piece of equipment. Likewise, squash players can incorporate it into their training programmes to increase core stability and leg power while developing their game.
One of the easiest and most effective balance exercises on a Bosu ball is Single Leg Lateral Reach, an exercise designed to strengthen general strength and stability as well as develop agility for fast movements on court. To perform it, place a Bosu ball with its flat side down on the ground with your foot inside it; slowly bend your knee and hip into contact with the floor while keeping one leg straight while holding this position for several seconds before raising yourself back up to your starting point.
Increase the challenge by holding each side for three to four sets before switching legs. This exercise is an easy and effective way to maintain balanced lunging and jumping positions that squash players rely on regularly.
Bird Dog is another effective yet straightforward Bosu ball balance exercise, and can be performed by lying flat side down with feet in the center and lifting off of the floor until your hips have extended fully while simultaneously squeezing glutes at the peak of movement.
2. Lunges
Lunges are an effective compound unilateral exercise (that’s sports speak for multi-joint moves that focus on just one side of your body at once), providing lower body strength, stability and mobility benefits in equal measure. They target quads, glutes and hamstrings while engaging core stabilization muscles as knees bend forwards – plus by working nonworking leg balancing and movement efficiency improve your performance when walking or climbing stairs!
Pata notes that your front leg’s position and size of steps taken can affect which muscles are worked hardest during lunge variations. For instance, taking larger forward and backward steps may work the gluteus maximus and adductors more than quadriceps while smaller steps target quads more effectively.
But whether doing lunges on the floor or as part of your squash workout on StrongBoard, the key is always maintaining proper form and not rushing through them in an effort to increase your heart rate. That is because lunges are intended as strength-training exercises rather than cardio exercises and improper technique may fatigue lower body muscles before exerting enough strain on joints to challenge cardiovascular system.
If you want to challenge yourself further with basic lunges, add twists or switch front and back leg positions for additional difficulty. To perform a basic lunge, start by standing with feet approximately hip-width apart while bracing your core and pushing butt back into front leg until your front leg bends to 90-degrees angle – then pushing through foot of back leg return back up into standing position and repeat with desired repetitions.
StrongBoard provides an ideal opportunity to take lunges to the next level by adding medicine ball exercises into them. Simply grab two balls with both hands, stand on a platform in first position with feet resting against handles, engage your core, then step into lunge while simultaneously slamming one onto the ground front of you before pushing through front leg back to standing position and reversing action with another movement (stepping forward, then back), until returning back up again through same pattern as before and repeat.
3. Lunge Toe Touches
Squash is an exciting fast-paced game requiring incredible strength and power from players at both ends of the court, calling upon explosive full-body movements known as plyometric exercises to generate enormous force quickly and build impressive strength. These explosive exercises work the muscles at maximum capacity to develop impressive power.
One of the best balance exercises for squash players is lunging. Lunges provide an effective way to engage your core stabilizer muscles and improve balance by forcing your body to shift weight on one leg at a time, engaging different muscle groups for stability and maintaining it throughout each repetition. For added challenge and to make things even harder you could also add walking elements by moving forward each repetition; doing this will activate more of the muscles required for balance as well as your glutes and quadriceps!
Start this exercise by standing with feet hip-width apart, and step outward with one foot (right foot is used as an example here). Step forward so that your right leg lands on an outstretched leg of the other foot; lower down into a lunge so that your back knee hovers just above the ground with right foot in front and left knee bent behind it; push off from ball of foot to return upright position and repeat this step with each leg.
Another variation of this exercise involves standing with feet hip-width apart and jumping forwards, sideways and diagonally for a set number of repetitions – this will develop the explosive power necessary for squash as well as working the core stabiliser muscles.
As an extra challenge, add touch your toes with your non-dominant hand while moving through this exercise to further engage your core and develop balance, particularly in your non-dominant shoulder and wrist, which is crucial when performing a good squash swing.
Add this exercise into a lateral movement workout by moving laterally down a bleacher bench or similar long raised surface without risk of falling off, challenging both balance and working the glutes, quadriceps and obliques simultaneously.
4. Physical Endurance
Endurance refers to your body’s ability to sustain physical activity for extended periods. It’s an integral component of physical fitness and can be developed through regular training; developing endurance can have a dramatic impact on quality of life as well as sports performance and health overall.
Physical endurance is an integral component of squash playing, as the sport requires sustained movement with high intensity throughout a match. This can take its toll on the body, so training to increase endurance should complement other parts of a healthy lifestyle regimen.
Dynamic exercises are one of the best ways to build endurance. This type of physical activity incorporates both upper and lower body movement and requires coordination – two essential qualities in squash players.
Plyometric exercises are another great way to build endurance, as they increase both speed and power in movement, working muscles at high intensity to strengthen both endurance and strength.
Start a plyometric exercise by lying on the floor with your back against it, one leg firmly touching it, and raising off with both legs off of it simultaneously. This exercise will strengthen leg muscles and core, as well as improve balance and proprioception.
To maximize physical endurance for squash, incorporate various training methods into your workouts. Try including both steady state and high intensity training methods so that your results will be maximized.
Example: Ghosting between matches to increase endurance for squash can really help improve performance. Combine ghosting with lunge toe touch exercises (where feet are placed evenly apart and touched side-to-side in low lunge positions) or other compound free weights exercises which target similar movements and muscle groups as those used in squash play.