Single-Cone Sprint Drill

Muscles worked

The force comes from the quadriceps across the front of the thigh, which straighten the knee and, just as importantly, control it on the way back down.

A plyometric repetition is over before a slow contraction could contribute anything, so they have to produce that force immediately on contact.

Other muscle groups are involved too: the calves control the ankle and hold the heel position; the glutes finish hip extension; the hamstrings assist hip extension and slow the knee down.

Every exercise for:QuadricepsCalvesGlutesHamstrings

How this movement works

Force goes away from the body: the muscles press against the floor, a wall or your own opposite limb rather than drawing anything in. There is no weight to add, so the position you can reach and keep is the whole variable.

It is filed under plyometrics, which trains the stretch-shortening cycle: loaded fast, released immediately. Contact time matters more than volume, so these belong early in a session.

What you need

These train the quadriceps too, using equipment this one does not:

• Single-Leg Leg Extensionmachine
• Smith Machine Hack Squatsmith machine + machine
• Snatchbarbell
• Split Jumpbody only
• Split Squat with Dumbbellsdumbbell

Difficulty

Listed at beginner level: the pattern is simple enough to pick up without coaching, and a position that goes wrong mid-set is obvious enough to correct on the next repetition.

Of the 173 quadriceps exercises in this database, 70 are listed at beginner level.