If you’re interested in increasing your speed, but have not yet trained using hurdles, then you are likely missing out. Not only do these particular obstacles challenge your mind, muscles, and form, they also have the ability to increase your speed tremendously, making you faster at whatever your sport of choice.

Before you rush out and buy some hurdles, though, here are some guidelines you will want to follow when adding them to your exercise routine:

• Start out small. Hurdles come in many different sizes and, just like to you need to lift smaller weights before you can graduate to larger ones, the same is true with these. However, you can always stay with the smaller ones and simply use them in many different ways, giving you more speed related benefits with each exercise.

• Perfect your technique. You’ll want to work on your technique before you try jumping hurdles that are too big and wind up hurting yourself, thereby thwarting your fitness routine all together. Make sure you can easily clear them so you don’t fall on your face or break a bone in the process.

• Think multipurpose. Hurdles can certainly be jumped over front to back, but you can also jump over them while standing sideways, jump using one foot at a time or with both feet, hop keeping your legs straight or bending them and then pushing off, and more. Use your imagination when training with the hurdles and try approaching them from various angles to work different muscle groups, increasing your full body speed.

• Use your mind to overcome them. Sometimes hurdles are intimidating as they stand between you and your success. However, you can use your mind to overcome them by looking at them not as hindrances, but as challenges. Think of them as objects that will make you stronger versus obstacles that will spotlight your weaknesses.

Hurdles make a great addition to any speed training routine. Just make sure you follow these four guidelines so that you can use them safely and effectively!