Explosive training combines strength and speed to increase your power output. These workouts are often used by athletes who need to generate a quick burst of maximal effort to build explosive strength.
This explosive training is helpful for sports including football, track and field sports, court sports, and even cycling.
Explosive Strength Exercises
Standard explosive training uses large muscle movements such as squats, power cleans, weighted or unweighted vertical jumps, heavy ball throws, or even hill sprinting. Smaller muscle exercises like bench presses or pushups can also build power but will limit the overall results of those muscle groups.
Sample Explosive Strength Exercises
Explosive training exercises that help build power include:
- Plyometrics
- Squats
- Weighted/dynamic step ups
- Overhead walking lunges
- Sprints
- Agility drills
Explosive training exercises should be selected to match your fitness and sports goals, so keep in mind the principle of specificity of training. Your exercise choices should simulate the movement patterns of your sport.
If you increase your training slowly over time, listen to your body for warning signs of injury, and work with a qualified expert, it is unlikely that explosive training will lead to injury. In fact, some evidence suggests that the risk of injury in many high-speed or power sports can be decreased by doing explosive exercise training regularly.
Why Use Explosive Training
The types of explosive strength exercises used to build quick power are movements that require a maximum or near-maximum output from the athlete in a short time. The goal of explosive training is to build enough power to ultimately move heavy weights quickly.
However, explosive strength training can involve risk which can be mitigated by starting with light weights and slow, controlled movements. The amount of weight used during a workout and the speed at which it is lifted should be increased over several weeks and many training sessions.
Explosive strength exercises at their purest level are often referred to as plyometric or ballistic movements.
How to Use Weight Machines and Gym Equipment
Benefits of Explosive Strength Training
Research supports the idea that explosive (speed and strength) exercise builds athletic power, but is more effective when combined with other types of training.
For example, in a study conducted on recreational endurance runners, researchers showed that mixed maximal and explosive strength training was more effective than traditional approaches (such as circuit training) in increasing overall fitness and adaptive processes that may be helpful when increasing training loads (such as when a runner is training for a marathon).
Other published reports suggest that in order to maximize strength, power, and speed of movement, a combination of heavy and light explosive exercise provides superior results when compared with either training style alone.
Further evidence suggests that to maximize power output or movement speed, the first phase of training should focus on increasing maximum strength and building a strong foundation. The second phase is devoted to power and speed training.
Weight Training for Power
Explosive Training Programs
A 12-week explosive strength training program designed to increase power and speed may have the first five weeks consisting primarily of heavy strength training. The next six weeks would consist of heavy and high-power explosive exercise training and the final week would be devoted to high-power movements.
In developing a program to boost explosive power, it is smart to work with a coach or personal trainer specializing in this type of training. A qualified coach can choose sport-specific exercises that will help you improve your performance in your designated activity. Additionally, since good form is essential for safety, a coach can watch your alignment throughout each exercise and provide adjustments and tips for safety and efficiency.
A Fundamental Guide to Weight Training
A Word From Verywell
Explosive strength training exercises, or exercises that test strength and speed, can improve physical performance during many fast-paced sports and may reduce an athlete's risk of injury during activities that involve high power outputs with quick acceleration, such as most racket and field sports.
3 Sources
Verywell Fit uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Taipale RS, Mikkola J, Salo T, et al. Mixed maximal and explosive strength training in recreational endurance runners. J Strength Cond Res. 2014;28(3):689-99. doi:10.1519/JSC.0b013e3182a16d73
Baker D. Acute effect of alternating heavy and light resistances on power output during upper-body complex power training. J Strength Cond Res. 2003;17(3):493-7.
DeWeese, B. H., Hornsby, G., Stone, M., & Stone, M. H. (2015).The training process: Planning for strength–power training in track and field. Part 2: Practical and applied aspects. Journal of Sport and Health Science, 4(4), 318–324. doi:10.1016/j.jshs.2015.07.002
Additional Reading
Current Comments, The American College of Sports Medicine. Explosive Exercise. July 1999.
Marián V, Katarína L, Dávid O, Matúš K, Simon W. Improved Maximum Strength, Vertical Jump and Sprint Performance after 8 Weeks of Jump Squat Training with Individualized Loads.Journal of sports science & medicine.2016;15(3):492–500.
By Elizabeth Quinn, MS
Elizabeth Quinn is an exercise physiologist, sports medicine writer, and fitness consultant for corporate wellness and rehabilitation clinics.
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