Our featured content on the site this week takes a look at one of the fundamentals of the physical side of the game, as our SquashSkills Fitness & Performance Director Gary Nisbet takes a look at some of the best squash-specific lunge exercises you can add to your training.
Gary is one of the best-known strength & conditioning coaches in the sport, having worked with a vast array of players in his career ranging the spectrum from amateur to elite. Outside of squash, he has worked with elite athletes from a number of other sports including basketball, athletics, and MMA, and he has also spent time working within the sports science departments of several professional football clubs.
The lunge is one of the primary movements in the game of squash, and a well-developed lunge action will allow you to reach further, cover more ground, and increase stability in your shot. Training the lunge action gives you a real physical advantage on-court, and should be one of the key focuses in your squash conditioning programme.
In the playlist, Gary introduces a selection of the very best lunge exercises for you to incorporate into your training. Beyond the standard linear lunge, variations such as the reverse lunge, walking lunge, and lunge matrix all provide a different emphasis to enhance your foundation lunge action. All of these are suitable to be used just with your bodyweight or added to with extra dumbbells/barbells in the gym to increase the strength focus for those more advanced.
The aim of this blog is to introduce Gary’s fitness training video series, as well as to point you in the direction of some of the other related content we have here on the site. Watch through the videos from the playlist and then click through the links to the sessions below to check them out, and discover the benefits of incorporating some squash-specific lunge training into your conditioning programme.
Put it into practice
Check out these 2 great new sessions from our extensive fitness video library, taking you through structured workouts using a combination of the lunge exercises introduced in the playlist.
Related content
Strength and power for squash players
Gary discusses the importance of strength and power for the squash player. He explains how the elements differ, how to train them, specific drills and analyses how professional players use strength on court.
Exercising at home with Gary Nisbet
Gary takes us through exercising at home or in a confined space and shows us how to make the most of training when you can’t get to a gym or on a court.
Health and fitness Q&A with Gary Nisbet
In this series, Gary answers the most common fitness questions asked by our members.
Let us know how you get on with the sessions, we’d love to hear your feedback!
Haven't seen the full series yet?
Gary Nisbet discusses lunge fundamentals, why the lunge is so important to a squash player and the best training methods.
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