Training to increase your overall strength and power output can be pretty beneficial no matter what sport you’re playing, but if you play sports like football, track and field, tennis, or even boxing, learning how to increase explosive strength can have an even greater impact on your performance. What’s the best way to do this? By doing power drills! Power drills are simple, short exercises that train explosiveness through the generation of maximal force as quickly as possible. To help you with these explosive strength drills, here are 10 power drills for quick and maximal effort that will have you generating explosive power in no time!
5 Benefits of explosive strength training
The most commonly cited benefits of explosive strength training are as follows: greater power output, improved rate of force development, decreased muscle fatigue during high-force effort activities, enhanced coordination and proprioception, improved activation in all three areas of the central nervous system.
Explosive strength isn’t just for sprinters and athletes
It’s true that the average person probably won’t need explosiveness in their day-to-day lives. But being explosive, or being able to produce maximal power output quickly, has applications outside of sports that can be beneficial for all kinds of people.
How explosive power works
Explosive power is the quick release of stored energy, such as when you generate a quick burst of speed from an initial standstill. Although both strength and speed contribute to your explosive power, these two qualities are trained separately. Specific exercises can be chosen for an athlete’s needs based on their goals. For example, exercises that produce more vertical jump height are best utilized by track-and-field athletes who need power in short bursts during running events.
4 Categories Of Explosive Power Exercises
-Jump squats: Standing with feet shoulder width apart, drop down until thighs are parallel to the ground. Push upwards so that you’re standing straight up with hips back. Jump as high as possible, pushing through your heels at the apex of the jump. Bring your arms forward for extra power.
-Standing Broad Jumps: Start in a squat position with your toes pointing outwards 45 degrees from the ground.
3 Ways To Incorporate Explosiveness Into Your Workout
- Squat Jumps – A squat jump is where you start in a squat position, then you propel your body off the ground as high as possible with both feet (using a quick flick of the wrists at the end). Repeat as many times as desired. 2. Box Jumps – Perform by standing at arm’s length from a flat surface that is approximately knee height, running and leaping onto it, quickly making contact with it while transitioning into your next jump without pause. 3.
Power squat jump
Stand with feet hip-width apart, arms across chest. Squat down, bending knees while flexing hips until thighs are parallel to ground; hold. From squat position, jump up explosively by extending hips and knees. Land on toes, then quickly lower into original squat position; repeat. Start with two sets of ten repetitions daily
Plyometric pushup jumps
Perform a pushup with your hands about shoulder-width apart. Bring your feet off the ground by bending them at the knees, then quickly jump them straight out behind you and back up into the air. Aim to do this as explosively as possible, and make sure that your core stays tight throughout the movement.
Med ball slam with forward lunge walk
To perform this drill, grab a med ball or heavy object (dumbbell, kettlebell) and stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Squat down then forcefully lunge forward as you slam the med ball up in front of you. Catch the ball on its way back down, square your shoulders up with it, then return it to the ground before taking a step forward.
Toe touch deadlift jumps
The Toe Touch Deadlift Jump is a great power drill for developing explosive strength in the lower body. This drill works your hamstrings, quadriceps, calves, glutes, and core muscles which can help prevent injury by working all of these muscle groups. The basic move entails standing with feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, keeping your back straight but not arched or rounded.
Push/pull/legs combo workout – explosive chest presses & explosive back rows followed by pull ups or lat pull downs followed by a running drill or plyometric box jumps
For a challenging push/pull/legs explosive workout, do the following in succession.
1) Chest presses – 3 sets x 8 reps
2) Back rows – 3 sets x 8 reps
3) Pull ups or lat pull downs – 3 sets x 8 reps
4) Running drill or plyometric box jumps – 3 sets x 8 repetitions
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