If you have ever been to a gym to improve your cricket fitness you have probably been frustrated by the lack of cricket specific knowledge the instructors have.

Fortunately, designing your own workout is not as hard as it seems.

While I would always recommend you work with a personal trainer who understands your own individual needs, its not always realistic. So instead you can adapt this excellent strength training program.

It's designed to work your whole body including your core and will improve your cricket strength and power by building on many of the 10 principles of cricket power. (See your doctor before embarking on any exercise program.)

The idea is simple: Pick 6-9 exercises, minimum of 1 from each group. Do 3-5 sets of 5-10 reps of each exercise and do the workout 2-3 times a week:

1. Quick Lift
2. Squatting
3. Center Body Pulling
4. Pressing
5. Upper Body Pulling
6. Rotational Work
7. Abdominals

For demonstrations of the exercises, take a look at exrx.net

Ideally you will pick exercises that are single leg (such as lunges), single arm (dumbbell bench press) and do plenty of rotational work. These are the most cricket specific parts of the workout. You can vary the sets, reps and exercises as much as you like.

It's a straightforward planning method that is proven to give results, especially as part of your pre-season preparation. To avoid getting stale, change the workout around after 4-6 weeks.

As always, warming up and cooling down are vital and so is making sure you do interval running for speed and endurance work.

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