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How to Improve Explosive Strength
A lot of the workouts we do in calisthenics involve using our bodyweight to perform rhythmic, smooth repetitions. These movements like pullups, pushups, and squats are always important and will be a staple of the posts in my website and my workouts. As with any exercise, your strength and endurance will get better and better when you perform these types of workouts. Still, it’s also important to know how to improve explosive strength. Believe it or not, there are many unused muscles when you’re doing a standard full-body workout (calisthenics or otherwise). In order to hit the unused muscles, you should incorporate some explosive moves into your exercises from time to time.
But, it’s important to understand what these unused muscles are when we fail to add explosive movements to our workouts. Basically, there are two types of muscles:
Type I – Slow-Twitch. These are the muscle fibers that we use all the time. When we’re doing a pullup, or when we’re just standing up from a chair, the Type I muscles are put to work. Obviously, these are the ones being targeted during the “standard” workouts. If we need endurance and efficiency, then the Type I muscle fibers are used. When you’re training with slow, methodical reps, you are using your slow-twitch muscles.
Type II – Fast-Twitch. These muscle fibers are often neglected in fitness training, which isn’t great for most people. Type II muscle fibers are necessary for rapid, quick bursts of reps. They produce much more strength in a fraction of the time as Type I, however they tend to get fatigued more quickly and thus aren’t meant for endurance. Fast twitch muscles must be trained too, which is why explosive calisthenics are so great for us.
There’s more science to all this, but I don’t feel like typing it all out (and you don’t feel like reading it). So, let’s get to the meat of the post: the bodyweight moves that improve explosive power!
How to Improve Explosive Strength: Upper Body
Explosive Pull-Ups/Chest Pull-Ups
Reps: 5 – 10
Type II Muscles worked: biceps, back, shoulders, core, wrists, and forearms
Hanging from your pull-up bar with your palms facing away, engage your back, arms and shoulders to thrust yourself upwards as high as you can. After the first rep, do not be surprised if you start to swing. Swinging is A-OK this time, because it helps to engage the Fast-Twitch muscle fibers that we need to do as many of these short-burst reps as we can. Do your very best to pull yourself up at least to the bottom of your chest, if not higher!
If you can pull off these explosive pull-ups, congratulations! You are that much closer to achieving the muscle-up!
Bonus: Are you strong enough to do an explosive pull-up so that you can actually release the bar and clap at the height of your pull? Only attempt this if you are confident you can do it and if you have a training buddy nearby.
Explosive Chin-Ups/Chest Chin-Ups
Reps: 5 – 10
Type II Muscles worked: biceps, back, shoulders, core, wrists, and forearms
This is almost identical to the explosive pull-up, except do not expect your range of motion to be as high. Hanging from your pull-up bar with your palms facing towards you, engage your back, arms and shoulders to thrust yourself upwards as high as you can. Again, you are allowed to swing and still reap the benefits for the Fast-Twitch muscles’ explosive strength. Do your very best to pull yourself up at least to the bottom of your chest!
Clap Push-Ups
Reps: 8 – 20
Type II Muscles worked: triceps, chest, shoulders, core, wrists, and forearms
This popular calisthenic move is tough but very impressive when you can pull it off. Simply get into a pushup position, lower yourself down as low as you can, and explode on the way up – use enough force that your entire body is lifted off the ground except your toes. At the height of your explosion, clap! As you start to fall back down, prepare your hands to safely be placed back on the ground/floor to repeat the motion over and over again.
Bonus 1: Are you strong enough to do a clap push-up so that you can clap once in front of your chest, and then again behind your back? Again, only attempt this if you are confident you can do it and if you have a training buddy nearby – you need lots of explosive strength to force yourself high enough to give yourself enough time to do both claps.
Bonus 2: Take it a step further by using your toes to explode your entire body into the air! Try first with one clap, then when you’re strong enough, try it with both claps. This requires full-body explosive strength, so only attempt it when you feel ready and make sure you have someone close by.
How to Improve Explosive Strength: Lower Body
Jump Lunges
Reps: 8 – 20 (each leg)
Type II Muscles worked: thighs, hamstrings, glutes, calves
Get ready to feel winded with jump lunges. Despite being a lower body explosive movement, you will feel like every fiber of your being gets worked out after a set of them. To perform, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Jump into the air, and position your feet and legs so that when you land you’ll be in a lunge position. When you land, lower yourself down for the lunge, and then explode back up into the air. While in the air for this brief second, switch your legs so that your landing sets you up for a lunge with the opposite leg. Continue these explosive jumping-lunging motions to complete your set.
Jumps to Higher Platform
Reps: 5 – 15
Type II Muscles worked: thighs, hamstrings, glutes, calves, core
After catching your breath from the lunges, find a step or sturdy elevated platform and stand in front of it. Again, you will get winded with this explosive movement. It’s a simple but exhausting move: all you have to do is jump up to the higher platform, land safely on both feet, and then jump backwards, down to the floor. Simple enough, but after the first few reps you will start feeling the intensity of it!
Bonus: If you have the access, I strongly suggest starting with a low platform and then progressing to higher platforms as you gain explosive strength.
Knowing How to Improve Explosive Strength Opens Up New Bodyweight Exercises
These are only five of the limitless calisthenic movements you can add explosive motions to. There are so many others, including squats, dips, leg lifts, and more! The moves in this workout are not exhaustive (but they are exhausting), so keep researching to know how to improve both your explosive strength.
What are your favorite explosive calisthenic moves? Let me know in the comments below. Also, be sure to check out some of my other workouts, and for a full-on calisthenics program that incorporates explosive movements, I suggest starting with either the Bar Brothers “System” or the Onlykinds Fitness “Bodyweight Beast” program.
