Tune into any WNBA game and you’ll be treated to dazzling displays of athleticism. One specific component that allows them to really put on the fireworks? Explosive strength.
You can see it any time players jump to score a basket, catch a rebound, or block a shot. Also when they swiftly regain their balance after getting barreled into, or quickly bound side to side while guarding another player. “All of that is part of that explosive strength continuum,” Emily Blurton, CSCS, director of sport performance and strength and conditioning coach with the Seattle Storm, tells SELF.
The cool thing is that explosive strength isn’t just for the pros; it also deserves a place in the training programs of us mere mortals. We tapped Blurton to learn why—and for a few examples of moves to try, too.
First, though, what do we mean by explosive strength?
Put simply, it’s your ability to quickly generate a lot of force, Blurton says. This can include exploding upward with a vertical jump, bounding side to side, or swiftly changing directions.
As Blurton explains it, in the strength world, load and velocity often have an inverse relationship. That means when you move a really heavy load, you typically have a slower rate of movement. Think about squatting with a super hefty barbell on your back: You’d take that exercise nice and slow versus speeding your way through it.
On the flip side, when you do lower load or even bodyweight activities, you’re able to develop force more quickly. Picture a bodyweight squat jump: Because you’re just moving your mass against gravity, you can spring upward in a flash. And that right there is explosive strength. Basically, it’s a form of low-load, high-velocity strength. Plyometrics—quick, powerful moves that involve jumping, bounding, or hopping—are a prime example of it.
What are the benefits of training for explosive strength?
In the WNBA world, regularly training explosive strength helps the players crush their performance on the court, allowing them to pull off those mesmerizing shots, rebounds, and defensive moves. It also reduces their chances of injury, since it primes their tissues to be able to properly tolerate and absorb force.
That second benefit is crucial. “Really its all about: Can we keep them safe and doing all the things that they have to do to perform?” Blurton explains.
Explosive strength training also provides legit benefits for the non-pro athletes among us. In the gym, it can add novelty to a more traditional resistance training program where you’re lifting heavy weights. By challenging your body in a new way, you can level up your fitness and reduce your risk of plateauing. It’s also helpful for anyone who plays rec sports—think tennis, volleyball, soccer, or even pickleball—since all those activities contain some element of explosive strength as you jump, bound, or otherwise quickly shift directions. Thus, by training it, you can improve your performance in those sports and also reduce your injury risk, since your body is better prepared to handle the demands placed on it.
Then there’s the longevity perk: There’s a lot of talk about traditional strength training to retain muscle mass and bone density as you age, but what sometimes gets overlooked is explosive strength, Blurton says. And that’s a shame, since that’s what can help you quickly catch yourself if you start to fall, or move out of the way of an unexpected obstacle. When it comes to general health and functionality as you age, explosive strength “is really important,” Blurton says.
Lastly, a side benefit to explosive strength exercises is that they work your anaerobic system, which is what your body uses during moves that are so intense you can only perform them for a couple minutes (or less!) at a time. Working anaerobically brings on a whole host of benefits, including boosted cardiorespiratory fitness, endurance, and energy levels, as SELF previously reported.
How best to train explosive strength
First off, it’s important to have a solid base of strength before you attempt to train explosively, Blurton says. That’s because this form of exercise involves high-impact movements that place a lot of stress on your body, so if you don’t have proper form or a baseline level of strength to tolerate that, you can up your odds of injury. So if you’re brand new to the gym, Blurton advises mastering more traditional weight lifting before moving onto explosive strength work.
From there, “it’s really about just gradually building in small volumes at first,” she says. There’s no set number of reps and sets to attempt; this depends in large part on how often you’re doing explosive moves in other scenarios. For example, if you’re playing rec tennis three times a week, you’re already doing some explosive training on the court, so you’d want to be mindful that you don’t overdo it in the gym too.
As a general starting place, though, Blurton suggests picking two or three plyo moves and doing each for two to three sets of 10 reps, two to three times a week. Don’t try to work as explosively as possible; instead, focus on proper form and mastering the movement pattern. Once you’ve got that down, decrease the reps to about four to six per set, and now focus on exerting as much force as possible while still keeping your great form. Throughout, pay attention to how your body feels and how well you’re able to maintain good form. You want to challenge yourself but stop before your form falters.
To that end, Blurton suggests starting with a lower-impact version of a move before progressing to its super explosive variation. For example, instead of going for max height on the pop squat, raise your heels but keep the balls of your feet on the ground. No matter what plyo move you’re doing, nailing good form—especially on the landing—is key. “When I’m training our athletes, a lot of the time they may have naturally a good ability to jump, but maybe their landing isn’t so controlled, and that actually is one of the bigger areas where you can get injured,” Blurton says. In that scenario, she’ll have the athlete break down the movement to fine-tune the landing before returning to the full-blown exercise.
Another way to improve your form with plyos is to prime your hips, core, quads, and glutes beforehand with exercises like banded walks, bodyweight squats, and planks, Blurton says. Activating these key areas in advance will help you better nail the correct movement pattern, since all the important players will be fired up and ready to go.
Ready to get started? Try out these explosive strength exercises below!
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Katie Thompson
1. Skater Hop
- Stand with your feet hip-width apart. Lift your right leg and jump to the right. Let your left leg straighten and follow.
- As you land on your right foot, swing your left foot behind you but keep it off the floor. Swing your left hand in front of your body as your right arm swings behind your back.
- Swing your left leg back to the left and jump, landing lightly on your left foot and allowing your right foot to swing behind you. Swing your right arm in front of your body as your left arm swings behind.
- Continue, alternating sides.
This exercise has you moving laterally (side to side) in a bounding pattern, Blurton says. You have to absorb force on one leg and then quickly move in the opposite direction. In the sports world, that ability comes in handy “whether you’re playing defense or you’re trying to get open for a shot,” she explains. And from a standpoint of overall health and wellness, it prepares you to keep your balance or quickly change directions when something unexpected crops up in your path, like a dog barreling towards you or a rock in the middle of your trail running path.
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Katie Thompson
2. Pop Squat
- Start with your feet wider than hip-width and do a squat by sending your hips back, bending both knees, and bringing your palms together in front of your chest. Keep your core engaged and push through your glutes to stand.
- As you stand, let your arms fall by your sides and jump to bring both feet together, taking a hop in place.
- Immediately jump feet apart and sink into a squat again. That’s 1 rep. Continue performing reps, hopping once in place between each squat.
This squat variation has you practicing a vertical jump, which is an action you may not be performing a ton in daily life but which comes into play in a variety of sport scenarios, like soccer, basketball, volleyball, and tennis, to name a few. A big focus here is maintaining your balance as you land. Make sure your knees don’t collapse inward as you sink into the squat. You can add a resistance band above your knees to focus on proper alignment of that joint, Blurton says.
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Katie Thompson
3. Single-Leg Deadlift to Jump
- Stand with your feet together and your hands on your hips.
- Shift your weight to your left leg and, while keeping a slight bend in your left knee, hinge at your hips and tip your torso forward. Extend your right leg behind you, knee bent and toes pointing down toward the floor.
- Keep your back flat and core engaged and reach your right hand toward the floor. At the bottom of the movement, your torso should be almost parallel to the floor.
- Keeping your core tight, push through your left heel to jump as high as you can. Swing your right arm behind you, elbow slightly bent, and swing your left in front, elbow slightly bent.
- Land softly for 1 rep, then immediately lower down into a deadlift to start your next rep.
- Do all of the reps on the same side, then repeat on the other side.
This is a “really fun” exercise, Blurton says. It combines a single-leg jump with a single-leg deadlift, delivering an intense balance challenge; the jump is where the explosive strength comes in. As you do your reps, focus on maintaining good alignment on your grounded leg: Keep your hips square and don’t let that knee collapse inward.
Demoing the moves above are Jowan Ortega, a personal trainer, sports performance coach, and partner at Form Fitness in Brooklyn.
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