Exercise ideas: Getting fit like a footballer

This is the part where I tell you not to try this at home without first consulting your doctor.

The exercises Lagomarsine came up with focused on cardio, agility, and explosive power strength moves. At first blush, the moves in the video above (which I'll also outline below) don't look that hard. But, I'm here to tell you that if you do several repetitions of these moves, you will feel it.

Stairs
Who doesn't love a good set of stairs to run up and down?! According to Coach Lagomarsine, this exercise not only gets an athlete's heart rate up, but it also helps the athlete's ability to have a short burst of power (sprinting up the stairs) while exhibiting control coming down the stairs. This works quads and calves (not to mention lungs!).

L-drill (part of the NFL Combine)
This simple drill is done as part of the NFL draft camp testing event and is used mainly to test a player's agility and ability to reverse direction quickly, Lagomarsine said. This exercise involves running from one cone to the next; then running back; then running around cones "two" and "three" in a type of figure eight pattern (think about running around a defender), and back to the start. For me, this one was a bit tricky because I wanted to move fast, but not so fast that my feet didn't catch up with me so I'd land on my backside.

Plyometric jump
I know all about these. During my crew days we called these "jumpies." They sound sort of fun with a name like that, but newsflash: they are tough. The idea, according to Lagomarsine, is to jump up in an explosive, powerful way to get up as high as you can, and yet land back down with flat feet as lightly as you can. The easiest way for me to describe this exercise: think about doing a squat that turns airborne. Lagomarsine suggests doing a set of 12, and (let me tell you) after one set my thighs were burning. The jump part is fun; the landing part is what's rough.

These are just a few fitness ideas that you can try to work out like a football player. What are some sports-related exercises that you like to do?