Life Kit - Explosive power: exercises to boost mobility and prevent injury

Episode Date: April 28, 2026

Explosive power is the ability to generate a lot of force quickly. It combines strength and speed. We use it in our daily lives to walk up stairs, stand up from a chair, catch ourselves when we stumble, and play sports. In this episode: specific exercises to train for explosive power.Follow us on Instagram: @nprlifekitSign up for our newsletter here.Have an episode idea or feedback you want to share? Email us at [e-mail] the show and listen to it sponsor-free by signing up for Life Kit+ at plus.npr.org/lifekitSee pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

You're listening to Life Kit from NPR. Hey, it's Mariel. So you've heard of strength training and you've heard of cardio, but have you heard of training for explosive power? Sounds kind of badass, right? And it is. Expulsive power is the ability to generate a lot of force very quickly. It is not necessarily lifting the heaviest load.

It's about moving a lighter load very quickly. Jessica Scott has her PhD in cardiovascular physiology, and she's the director of exercise oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She says you'll need to do explosive power training, which is also sometimes called ballistic power training or pliometric training. If you're an athlete and you're running, jumping, throwing, hitting, flipping. But you'll also use it if you're not. It's a component of our day-to-day movement. It's used for mobility when you're walking up and downstairs. If you stumble or catch yourself while walking down the sidewalk,

explosive power is what allows you to catch yourself and not fall. You even use explosive power when you're doing things like standing up from a seated position. And here's the thing. As we age, our muscle mass declines. And training for these forceful movements becomes even more important to prevent falls and injury. Starting at about age 40, we lose 1 to 2% of our fast-twitch muscle fibers every year. These are a type of muscular cell that allow us to do these explosive movements. But even before you reach your 40s, adding explosive power training into your exercise routine can have a big impact.

For instance, my nephew is a toddler, and he's always running around, grabbing at things, quickly changing direction. And recently, he tripped and almost face planted, but I was able to catch his face in my hand right before it hit the ground. That's a classic example of explosive power in action. Expulsive power is really about when you need to change direction very quickly. How quickly can you change your strength into movement? On this episode of Life Kit, how to train specifically for explosive power, and how it's different from cardio or strength training. Jessica tells me about specific exercises we can all try.

And we also talk about how to start because you don't want to jump straight into jump squats. That's coming up after the break. All right, so if you don't currently train for explosive power, how can you get started? It's really important to start slowly, and it's not jumping straight into doing explosive power movement. You need to start by including aerobic exercise first and starting with strength training. You need a baseline level of strength before you start layering in some of that quick training that we do for explosive power. How do you know when you're ready? Usually if you've had a consistent training for at least three months, so that can be three days a week of aerobic training or walking or cycling and at least one day, maybe two days a week of resistance training or strength training.

Once you've had at least three months of that, then you can start to layer in those quickness movements or that explosive power training. Takeaway one. We tend to lose explosive power as we age, especially after 40. But training in your 20s and 30s is beneficial too, because it can help you stave off injuries when you're playing sports or just doing life. And it can also help you run faster, jump higher, and change directions quickly. Also, it'll help you preserve your power later in life. As for the how, it's not a good idea to jump right into the more intense explosive power training

if you don't currently work out. You'll want to get into an exercise routine first, doing regular cardio and resistance training for three months. But Jessica says most people can start right away with the lower intensity explosive power exercises. Just make sure you're pain-free, you have full control over your movements, and you stop before you're fatigued.

And what exercises do you like for explosive power? One of the ones that we really like to start with is in a stable chair, doing three very quick standing up and slowly sitting back down in a chair. And you repeat that three to five times. And just standing up very quickly, that starts to train explosive power. And these can be done in your home. It doesn't necessarily have to be at a gym.

And once you've done several weeks of movements like that, then you can start to layer in jump squats where you're jumping up and then going into a squat position. And again, it's about doing these lighter loads with good mechanics, and it's about speed. What are some other ones you can do? I just tried the standing up one, by the way. Yeah. The standing up quick is one that you can do at work or anywhere.

The other movements that you can do are push-ups, even on a wall. If you do a push-up very quickly, you can start with the wall push-ups. and then move to the floor push-ups and eventually maybe graduate to a clap push-up. So that's when you do a push-up and then clap in between and catch yourself. You can gradually progress to other exercises like jumping up to a box and then jumping back down. So it's really important to gradually progress these movements. Yeah. I was working with a strength training coach and then he started layering in some

of these jumps, not jumping onto a box, but jumping up. And then also medicine ball snaps. Can you talk about that, like something you can do with your arms and with a weight, like a medicine ball? A medicine ball is a great way to start that explosive power training. Medicine balls are typically a little bit lighter. So they can be two pounds or five pounds or ten pounds. And using those medicine balls as the weight to move your body, that is what trains explosive power. So you can do exercises like a squat and throwing the ball against a wall and then catching the ball and going back into a squat. That's a very explosive power movement. And if you have a partner, there are some great exercises that you can do together. And you can do overhead

throws where you catch it and throwing it, that also generates explosive power. You can also just throw it at the ground, right? Snap it really fast down to the ground from above your head. Exactly. You know, it also helps with getting out anger. When you throw it down as hard as you can, that's a great movement as well. I also did one time with ropes. It's like you have a rope in each hand and you're trying to like snap them to the ground, basically fast, making waves with them kind of.

Yes. The rope one is more of an advanced exercise because you're generating some cardiovascular movement. Your heart rate probably got up very high and you're also doing that explosive power with your upper body as well. And we talked about medicine balls. I think kettlebells are also useful, right? You can swing those around. Kettlebells are a great way to get explosive power in. And kettlebells are a little bit different than, medicine balls, they're typically a little bit heavier and require a little bit more balance when you're doing those motions. But they also are the best way to generate power because you're doing at more of a moderate load compared to a lighter load. So that you would progress up to kettlebell exercises. Takeaway two. Start off with the lighter, gentler explosive power exercises. Sit in a chair

and then stand up quickly. Do fast push-ups against the wall. Try small hops before you start doing big jumps. And then you can do body weight exercises like jumping jacks or jump squats. Props can help too, like medicine balls, kettlebells, and ropes. And if you start to feel pain in your knees, for instance, back off. We'll have more life kit after the break. What are some common modifications for folks who can't do the more intense explosive power exercises?

Like I'm thinking, for instance, if you have knee pain and jumping doesn't work for you. I remember one time, basically I did one where you start in a squat and then you just kind of stand up really fast and swing your arms up and get on your toes, but you're not actually jumping off the ground. That's a great description. So it's about not jumping, but using your body weight to move quickly from one position to another position. So in that squat motion, it was moving from a lower position to a standing up position and then back down again. Usually those movements are okay for individuals who've had knee

injuries or arthritis. Typically, it's in when you have those fast movements from changing direction, that's when you might aggravate some knee pain. So if you stand in a single plane, or if you think about doing those movements in a single plane, those are usually safe and still effective. It seems like explosive power exists on a spectrum, right? Like you can do the simplest version of it or you can do the more intense version of it. What I always hear in training or in yoga classes is listen to your body. Don't push past pain. Exactly.

So we really start with low repetitions. So three to five repetitions. You're not like doing the resistance training where you're trying to go to fatigue. With explosive power, it is about generating that motion and movement quickly, but not getting to fatigue. And do you recommend doing this right after you strength train or right after cardio or on its own? I would definitely recommend doing this on its own. So you don't want to combine it with aerobic exercise or after you've done. resistance training, this should be its own training day where you can have the best training possible.

Again, it's about going in with generating high quality movements. And if you've already done an aerobic exercise day or a resistance exercise, your muscles are likely to be a little bit fatigued and not able to generate that explosive power that you want to train. How long do you think that a training session should take? It sounds like not that long. That's one of the benefits of doing this explosive power is that you can get a lot of benefits in a pretty short amount of time. So in as little as 20 minutes, you can complete a lower body and upper body exercise workout because you want those movements to be short and high quality. And you do not want to get to fatigue. And what might a full workout look like that 20 minutes? How many of these types of exercises would you do?

You can do as few as five different types of exercises up to 10 different types of exercises. And again, we're starting with three to five repetitions and doing that three times. So in total, you might be doing 15 repetitions of your squat jumps, for example, and then 15 repetitions with a medicine ball where you're doing chest press or throwing it against the ground. So there's a lot of different movements and motions that you can get in in a very short amount of time. For folks who are short on time, which I think is most people, can you work these kinds of exercises? exercises into a day? Like, do you have to do a 20-minute session or could you do a few sets of jumping jacks and then a little later you do a few sets of whatever jump squats? I think you can incorporate explosive power training into your daily life throughout the day.

Even if you are in an office or you're working at home, a great way to incorporate this is when you take a movement break, do some of these quick explosive power exercises, whether it is some jump squats beside your desk or some clap pushups or jumping jacks. There are a lot of ways that you can incorporate explosive power training into your daily life. Takeaway three. One way to incorporate explosive power is to do a 20-minute session once a week. Pick an exercise, and remember to start at the less intense end of the spectrum, and do three to five reps of it. That's one set. You'll do three sets in total.

And then see how many exercises you can fit in. Five different types of exercises is a good starting point. If you don't have 20 minutes to set aside for this, you can also incorporate explosive power training throughout the day. Standing up quickly from your desk chair, doing jumping jacks while your water boils, it all counts. Remember, you don't want to push to the point of fatigue, though. One thing I've thought about personally is how important explosive power is if you're playing some sort of sport. So I play softball just in a rec league. But the three big moves in the game are sprinting, hitting, and throwing, and those all seem to require explosive power.

Exactly. Explosive power is critical for performance if you are an athlete. Whether it is throwing a ball, catching a ball. sprinting from base to base, diving for volleyball. Explosive power is the basis of performance for many, many sports. And I know a lot of us are not. It's not like we're professional athletes, but if you're playing in a rec league, maybe you want to improve and have a little more force behind your swing

and also just not get injured. That's the critical piece, is explosive power can be really helpful, not just for performance, but also for preventing injury. And we know with a lot of rec leagues, for example, there are cases of torn Achilles tendons or torn ACLs because of those very quick movements that are required when you're doing team sports, for example. And explosive power can help train your body

so that when you do those explosive movements, when you're in the middle of a game or a match and you're really focused on winning or achieving that first base that is really helpful to have that training so it can prevent injury. I'm about to do that. Softball starts on Thursday, so I got to get ready. Jessica, thank you so much for this. Thank you. Okay, time for a recap. Takeaway one. We tend to lose explosive power as we age.

especially after 40. But training in your 20s and 30s is beneficial too because it helps you avoid injuries and preserve power later. It can also help you be better at sports. As for the how, it's not a good idea to jump right into the more intense explosive power training

if you don't currently work out. You'd want to get into an exercise routine first, doing regular cardio and resistance training for three months. But Jessica says most people can start right away with the lower intensity stuff. Just make sure you're pain-free, You have full control over your movements and you stop before you're fatigued.

Takeaway two. Start with the lighter, gentler explosive power exercises. Sit in a chair and then stand up quickly. Do fast push-ups against the wall. Try small hops before you start doing big jumps. Props can help too, like medicine balls, kettlebells, and ropes. And if you start to feel pain, back off. Takeaway three.

Try doing a 20-minute explosive power training session every week. You can pick an exercise like jumping jacks. do three to five of them. That's one set. And then you do three sets. After that, you'll see how many different exercises you can fit in. Five is a good starting point. You can also incorporate explosive power training throughout the day. It all counts. All right, that's our show. Just a reminder that you can sign up for Life Kit Plus to support our work at NPR and get curated playlists on popular life kit topics. Start listening today at plus.npr.npr.org slash life kit. This episode of Life Kit was produced by Claire Marie Schneider. It was edited by Sylvie Douglas. Our digital editor is

Malika Garib and our visuals editor is C.J. Riegelen. Megan Cain is our senior supervising editor and Beth Donovan is our executive producer. Our production team also includes Andy Tagle and Margaret Serino. Engineering support comes from Damian Herring. Fact-checking by Andrea Lopez-Cruzado. I'm Mariel Segarra. Thanks for listening.