Explosive Workouts for Speed, Power, and Strength

Explosive workouts encompass movements designed to boost strength, power, and velocity to enhance athletic output.

By manipulating movement types, tempo, and repetition schemes, you can emphasize speed, power, or a combination of both to gain an edge in your sport or to elevate your general athletic capability.

This piece explains everything you need to know about planning and executing explosive workouts as part of your training routine.

Why are explosive workouts important?

Explosive training merges speed, strength, and power work into functional patterns that let you produce force rapidly or slow down fast. Explosive strength is crucial for sharpening reaction time.

Many people think explosive training is only for elite athletes or those focused on sports. Yet, this type of training has practical value in everyday situations as well.

For instance, if your child slips from the top of a slide and you need to rush to catch them, you’ll rely on explosive strength to get there quickly.

Does explosive workout training build muscle?

In short, yes. Developing explosive strength requires blending strength, speed, and power training. Mastering all three elements will maximize explosiveness and increase overall strength.

That said, if your primary aim is to grow muscle mass — hypertrophy — explosive training alone may not produce the size gains you want; hypertrophy typically needs a different training focus.

Strength work is generally done by moving very heavy loads, but at slower speeds.

Speed training consists of high-velocity movements, such as sprints or agility drills, performed with or without resistance.

Power training includes motions that generate substantial force at moderate speeds, for example plyometrics.

A 2017 meta-analysis of youth athletes found that plyometric power training tended to be superior for improving jump height, while strength training was more effective for sprint performance. Therefore, combining power and speed work is advantageous for maximizing explosiveness (1).

How do you train for explosiveness?

Evidence supports a periodized strategy: build a foundation of strength before transitioning to power-focused work to get the best gains in explosiveness (1, 2).

This periodization can be organized into longer training phases or distributed across separate sessions in a week.

To improve speed, keep reps low and maintain maximal velocity and intensity, as long as you can recover between sets.

Research indicates sled sprints are an effective method to enhance sprinting speed, particularly during acceleration and top-speed stages. That research also suggested total volume matters more than load for this type of work (3).

A 2016 study in soccer players also showed sled sprinting improved overall speed more than plyometric training (4).

For athletes, the most important factor in developing explosiveness is specificity: train the movements and muscles relevant to your performance goals.

For example, a 2018 experiment put participants on an exercise bike to see if it would improve their 30-meter sprint times.

Following 4 weeks of high-intensity 30-second bike intervals, subjects improved aerobic fitness and VO2 max, but their 30-meter sprint times did not improve (5).

This happened because cycling doesn’t train the exact musculature and mechanics used in sprinting.

If your sport involves frequent short sprints, include sprint-specific workouts in your program.

If your activity contains many explosive actions, prioritize explosive movements in training.

If you want a blend of improvements, combine strength, power, and speed work, or focus on one domain at a time and cycle through them.

Summary: Speed work using sprint-style efforts, power work using ballistic and plyometric movements, and strength work using heavy loads and low reps should all be elements of a comprehensive explosive training plan.

Explosive workouts for speed

The three best explosive exercises for increasing speed

• Sprinting. Short track sprints — roughly 10 to 40 meters (32 to 131 feet) — are excellent for building top-end speed.
• Sled pushes or sled pulls. Load a sled with a light-to-moderate resistance and push it 20–40 meters (66 to 131 feet) as quickly as possible, then pull it back. Aim for around 160 meters (525 feet) total per session, per a 2018 meta-analysis on sled training (6).
• Shuttle runs. Place two cones 30 feet (9 meters) apart and run back and forth. You can progress by using four cones and adding lateral and backward runs — forward 30 feet to cone one, right 30 feet to cone two, back 30 feet to cone three, then left 30 feet back to the start.

Explosive sprint workout

1. Run 5 x 15-yard sprints, rest 2–3 minutes between efforts or longer if required.
2. Run 5 x 25-yard sprints, rest 2–3 minutes or more as needed.
3. Run 5 x 40-yard sprints, rest 2–3 minutes or longer if required.

Explosive sled workout

Perform five rounds of the sequence below:

1. With a light-to-moderate load, push the sled 20 yards as fast as possible, then rest as needed.
2. Pull the sled 20 yards as quick as you can.

Summary: Sprinting, sled work, and agility drills such as shuttle runs are the most effective for developing speed.

Explosive workouts for power

The best explosive exercises for increasing power

• Box jumps: From a half-squat stance, explode up onto a box. Step down one foot at a time and repeat. Aim for 3–4 sets of 5 reps with 2–3 minutes rest for power-focused sets.
• Plyometric pushups: Begin at the top of a pushup. Lower under control, then explode upward so your hands leave the ground. Clapping is optional. Land softly and repeat. Try 3–4 sets of 5–10 reps.
• Kettlebell swings: Stand with feet roughly double hip width. Place the bell between your feet and hinge at the hips to swing it back between your legs. Drive your hips forward, squeeze the glutes, and swing the kettlebell up to chest or eye level with straight arms. The motion should come from hip extension, not the arms. Perform 3–4 sets of 6–12 reps.
• Dumbbell push presses: Stand feet shoulder-width, hold dumbbells at the shoulders. Dip into a small squat, then extend the hips and use that momentum to press the dumbbells overhead until arms are locked out. Lower and repeat for 3–4 sets of 3–6 reps.
• Squats: Execute with a controlled descent and a powerful concentric hip extension. Do 3–4 sets of 3–8 reps. Add a jump for extra challenge.

Explosive workout for power

In the following plan, alternate the paired exercises within each supersets for the listed reps and sets.

1a) Front squat: 4 sets of 4 reps

1b) Box jump: 4 sets of 5 reps

Rest 2–3 minutes between supersets.

2a) Push press: 3 sets of 4 reps

2b) Kettlebell swing: 3 sets of 8 reps

Rest 2–3 minutes between supersets.

3a) Bench press: 2 sets of 5 reps

3b) Plyometric pushup: 2 sets of 10 reps

Rest 2 minutes between supersets.

Summary: Box jumps, plyo pushups, kettlebell swings, push presses, and squats are effective exercises for enhancing power.

Tips and considerations for explosive workouts

Sport-specific practice is ideal for speed development. For example, if you want to be the fastest distance runner, short speed sessions help, but most of your time must be dedicated to distance-specific training.

If you prefer a straightforward approach, focus on strength training. Progressive overload with heavy compound lifts gives the greatest return on investment for speed and power improvements.

The bottom line

Explosive training integrates speed, power, and strength work to deliver optimal gains for athletic performance. Everyone can gain from explosive workouts because they improve your ability to react and move quickly in daily life.

Train with specificity for sporting goals and include all three training modes — speed, power, and strength — in your plan to get the best outcomes.