Exercises for explosiveness

Guys,

I am on track with my training and everything is going great. But, I wanted to ask you if anyone had any exercises for explosiveness (lower body)?

I read the topic where coach says that I could be doing vertical jumps... I don't have a box or something to jump on (except my stairs - but if I fall down that I will fall down hard), so what do you recommend me to do so I can develop explosive power in my legs? Also, should I wait till I master all of the SLS elements, or could I develop explosive power along F1 (and H1)?

I may also look into "Stretching and Flexibility" by Kit, since it may make me more flexible (I stretch pre-workout anyway).

Thanks!

Learning the Olympic lifts will increase explosiveness.

I also like kettlebells because they are simple technique wise and you have to absorb all the energy at the bottom of the lift vs having that energy put into the floor.

Making a plyobox is pretty easy and should cost less than $100.

If you open your eyes, there are probably low walls somewhere nearby you could jump on.

Jumping onto something is not required. You could just find a wall and put a piece of tape that to target as you jump.

You could always do standing long jumps. That's been a standard for explosiveness for a long time and was in the original Olympics.

Standing long jumps are pretty good, especially when you do them from one leg, starting with a pistol squat.

Stairs are excellent for jumping.  All you need to do is be able to jump to whatever step 10 times in a row, then you can move one step higher.  Trains your co-ordination as well, which is always useful.

Skipping is pretty good for training reactive strength.  Coach recommended once skipping on one leg, but I think that might have been for calf development more than anything.

And of course, deadlifts, squats, O-lifts ect.

If I am not mistaken, in the BtGB ebook, it is written that the deck squat with its variation is a great way to increase vertical.

That make sense to me since you are using way more muscle that only your legs to drive the squat (and jump) up, very similar to the jumping motion.

Going to implement standing long jumps and skipping over a rope in my routine... I think two times a week is enough (on my upper body days), and 5 mins of skipping and 5 mins of long jumping (I think that limitation in time is better than doing sets and reps - Coach said that his athletes do this while developing dynamic lower body strength - they don't do it for sets and reps; they rather do it for a certain timespan).

Just a tip from me...talk to someone beeing in a basketball team, i read over the years a few articles, and plyometric training is one of there major methods for jumping explosive. you can find some training ideas of them in the web if not visit training

Rope jumping is a good way to develop calves, great for tendon and joint health, but unless you are doing double unders you will benefit little in the explosive department, there is just not enough demand when jumping rope, I spend 30-45 mins jumping 3-4 times a week, use it as my warm up and cooldown every workout also, Great for developing awareness, balance, speed and timing, but not an explosive tool, you want power, and the only way to develop power is through force, force = mass x acceleration, sprinting, box jump, high jump, long jump, etc.

Better to do both of them then (2 days a week; 5 mins long jumps; 5 min rope jumping). So I will develop balance, speed and timing, but also explosiveness (with long jumps; since I don't have a box).

Thanks for your answers! Will definietly implement these things into my workout!

MattProulx said:

Rope jumping is a good way to develop calves, great for tendon and joint health, but unless you are doing double unders you will benefit little in the explosive department, there is just not enough demand when jumping rope, I spend 30-45 mins jumping 3-4 times a week, use it as my warm up and cooldown every workout also, Great for developing awareness, balance, speed and timing, but not an explosive tool, you want power, and the only way to develop power is through force, force = mass x acceleration, sprinting, box jump, high jump, long jump, etc.

hey matt,

you mentioned that jumping rope is great for joint health.  i thought jumping rope was bad for your knees?

Ronin168 said:

hey matt,

 

you mentioned that jumping rope is great for joint health.  i thought jumping rope was bad for your knees?

If you're extremely out of shape and go straight into jumping rope, you'll probably encounter some problems. 

I lost 60lbs just jumping rope and had no knee problems.

you might want to look into "Vertical Jump Bible" book, it has everything, from explanation to exercises to planning

F series is necessary to build up strong legs and joint for basic strength. once a basic strength is developed you can decrease the weight and start to develop the transfert over explosive strength. start prematurely the explosive journey probably will result in joints injuries. you need to build up gradually your joints to support the perceived force impact due to explosive movements.

My understanding is that the M series is going to address this. M1 comes out this spring I believe.

The force velocity curve basically shows that the more force you apply the slower the velocity and conversely the lower the force the faster the velocity. In sports like sprinting they train various areas with different exercises. Eg- heavy squats for the slow velocity high force, plyometrics for middle of the curve and of course sprinting for high velocity.

Your training program should include elements of each as they will all combine to assist you jump higher. Furthermore, depending on your current status and weight you may want to focus on one if it's weak to build structures (ie heavy lifts) then progress from there. They will all feature in your program though.