The Best Exercises for Agility, According to Experts

When you think of functional fitness, you might think of strength training exercises like overhead presses or squats that offer real-life utility outside the gym. And you’d be correct. But there’s more to functional fitness than being able to hoist your carry-on overhead or bend down to pick up your keys without throwing your back out. “If you want to talk about functional fitness, agility training is as functional as it gets,” says Steve Stonehouse, CPT, a personal trainer, run coach, and vice president of programming and education at Body Fit Training.According to Stonehouse, “agility is how your body—and, really, your nervous system—is able to move quickly and change direction along different planes of motion.” That means everything from cutting across the court in your weekly pick-up game to side-stepping a cyclist on your walk to work. “Life can be really dynamic at times, so it’s important that we train that way,” Stonehouse says.Agility training doesn’t have to be a burden on your workout schedule, or even require an extra trip to the gym. “I would suggest starting out with two sessions a week,” says Clif Marshall, senior director of coaching and pro training at D1 Training, who recommends tacking these sessions on at the end of your regular workouts. “You’re not going to have to get all warmed up, do these three or four drills, and then that’s the end of your workout,” he says. “You can just work them into your existing routine.” Here’s a quick circuit to get you started.While the agility ladder—sometimes also called a speed ladder—is what most people would associate with agility training, Marshall views it more as an appetizer than a main course. “That would be my warm-up before we get into the real agility training,” he says. Stonehouse recommends starting with two popular drills—the Icky shuffle and Ali shuffle—to get your body comfortable with moving quickly along two different planes of motion. “The beauty of the ladder is that you can do lateral, side-to-side movement or you can go forwards through it,” he says. “And you’re hitting eccentric control, dynamic stabilization, and force production with each trip up and down the ladder.”How to do it:First, the Icky shuffle. Square up behind the first rung, facing forwards and looking down the length of the ladder. Now take a small step to your left. Staying light on the balls of your feet throughout the drill, you’re going to be shuffling from side to side as you work your way down the ladder, but always facing forwards.Begin by placing your right foot in the first square (between the first and second rung), followed by your left. The moment your left foot touches down in the square, step your right foot to the right, landing outside the ladder. Now step your left foot forward into the second box (between the second and third rung).Repeat the same sequence as above, but inverted, bringing your right foot into the second square to meet your left and then stepping your left foot out to the outside of the ladder on the left side. The pattern should be: in, in, out, in, in, out, and so on. Complete four full lengths of the ladder, resting for 30 seconds between each trip.Next up, the Ali shuffle. For this one, you’re going to be traveling sideways from one end of the ladder to the other.Stand to the right side of the ladder, facing the first square. Begin by placing your right foot in the first square. From here, simultaneously switch your feet, so your left foot is in the square and your right foot is now outside the ladder. “Imagine this as a quick, scissor-type movement,” says Stonehouse.Repeat the movement, but now your right foot lands in the second box. Continue this pattern, moving laterally all the way down the ladder. Rest for 30 seconds, and then travel back in the other direction. Complete a total of two round trips.Trainer tip: For the Icky shuffle, try to stick your landings as close to the borders of the ladder as possible. “One of the mistakes I see a lot is when people go too wide outside the ladder,” says Stonehouse. “They have to almost hop back to get to the ladder, and their body ends up swinging excessively from left to right. You want to stay over the top of the ladder as much as possible.” Similarly, for the Ali shuffle, aim to keep your center of gravity over the ladder as you travel. “People tend to lean in the direction that they're moving,” Stonehouse says. “Just focus on keeping good posture and you’ll be fine.”Consider this drill to be the first of three consecutive phases, say Marshall—the other two being the exercises that follow. “Don’t skip the progression,” he says. “Too many coaches jump straight into flashy reactive drills before athletes have mastered the fundamentals.” And nothing is more fundamental than simply learning how to stop. “Before an athlete can change direction efficiently, they must first learn how to stop,” says Marshall who notes that, whether you’re looking to dribble past a defender on the soccer field or chase your kid through the garden without blowing out a knee, “great agility begins with great braking mechanics.”How to do it:Find a flat, even surface where you can run in a straight line for 10 yards. Mark a starting point and finish line, 10 yards apart, using cones, chalk, or whatever is available. The idea is simple: You’re going to run from one end to the other, decelerating to a stop as quickly as possible once you reach the finish.Front the starting point, take off in a controlled sprint towards the finish line.The moment you reach the end point, throw down the brakes as quickly as possible. Instead of a dead stop, you want to finish in an athletic stance with feet buzzing—basically, like high knees but with your feet barely leaving the ground.“The way that you stop is by dropping your hips and decelerating under control,” says Marshall. “So you're running 10 yards, then sinking your hips, and buzzing your feet with your butt down, chest up, and shoulders back in a good athletic stance.”Trainer tip: While the sets and reps for some of these drills might seem low, don’t let yourself be tempted into doing more. “What we're looking at here for agility training is quality, not quantity,” Marshall says. “We do not want this to be sloppy. We do not want this to be something where you’re using bad technique because you're fatigued.”The second phase is what Marshall calls “pre-programmed agility”—basically, a multi-directional agility drill with a pre-determined route. “Once deceleration is mastered, we introduce planned change-of-direction drills,” he says. “This is where athletes develop proper footwork, body position, and confidence.” The drill below utilizes the same types of muscle fibers as the previous one, but “instead of running in a straight line and coming to a decelerated stop, we’re asking the body to change direction,” he says. “It becomes a little more functional, with more accelerating, more decelerating, and more stabilization required.”How to do it:Grab four cones and find a flat, even surface. Place the cones in a square measuring five yards by five yards.For this drill, you’re going to complete one lap around the outside of the square, decelerating to a stop at each cone before running to the next.To begin, stand next to a cone, outside of the square. Get into a staggered stance with one foot ahead of the other, and then take off towards the next cone.As you approach the second cone, begin decelerating and come to a stop as close to the cone as possible. Just like the first drill, finish in an athletic stance with feet buzzing. Stay here for three seconds, and then do a quick 90-degree turn to your left and run to the next cone.Repeat this pattern until you arrive back at the first cone. Complete four laps, alternating your direction each time and resting for 40 seconds between reps.Trainer tip: The cones don’t necessarily have to be in a square, Marshall says. If you’re light on cones, a triangle will work just fine. Similarly, if you’re tight on space, or you’re training in an area that doesn’t have 25 square yards of open space, you can get creative with your route. Just make sure your stops are roughly five yards apart and angled off at approximately 60–90 degrees from one another.The final phase of the progression adds the element of unpredictability. After all, whether you’re playing fast-paced sports or just reacting to things in your daily life, agility is at its most useful when responding to the unexpected. “The final phase is where we introduce some cognitive athleticism,” Marshall says. “In the first two drills, you know that at 5 or 10 yards you have to come to a stop. This drill is the most challenging, because it's testing you both physically and mentally.” You’re going to need a partner for this one, so plan accordingly.How to do it:Once again, set up four cones in a square measuring five yards by five yards. But now place a fifth cone in the center of the square.Stand by the cone in the middle and assign a number to each of the four cones around you.For this drill, you’re going to be shuffling sideways to and from one of the four outer cones, always starting and ending at the center cone. The twist is that you won’t know which cone you’re heading to until your partner calls out the number.When you approach each cone, tap it with your hand and immediately return to the center. Whenever you’re at the center, you’re going to be in an athletic stance with feet buzzing.Once you’ve traveled to and from five cones, rest for 60 seconds. Repeat for four sets.Trainer tip: Don’t lose your form in the heat of the moment. “It's critical that you stay in a good athletic position the entire time,” Marshall says. “That means you’ve got your butt down, your chest up, and your shoulders back, and you’re shuffling to and from each cone as efficiently as possible.”