Power Up Your In-Home Training With These Simple, Efficient Exercises

Power = Force X Velocity. That's Physics 101. In order to develop power, you must increase force, or, more specifically, you must increase your strength capacity. You must also improve velocity, more commonly known as speed, agility, quickness, and explosiveness.

Plyometrics exercises are a critical component in power training. They teach the body how to explode and react, improving your body’s muscular ability to adapt to sport-specific demands.

The Benefits of Total-Body Plyometrics

In obstacle course racing, our body needs a plethora of skills to be able to endure whatever obstacles are thrown our way. We use upper-body plyometrics to be able to move quickly and with ease through hanging obstacles. We require lower-body explosiveness for our speed, and to give us the power we need to jump over walls and onto obstacles. We need our body to work as one singular unit to transmit forces seamlessly from one half of the body to the other instantaneously. This is where total-body plyometrics come in. Through plyometrics, we are training our body at various tempos to be able to adapt to whatever situation it is put into.

Stuck at home, but looking to improve your power development? Try today’s 20-minute plyometric workout.

The Workout

This workout targets total-body explosiveness through the full range of motion for each muscle group. We are emphasizing full ranges of motion to add in an element of injury and cramping prevention that is essential for the race course.

This workout can be done with water or milk jugs as kettlebells. Coffee tables or staircases are also great alternatives for step-ups and incline push-ups. Find the modifications that work best for you. Now let’s get to work.

Perform three rounds of 30 seconds for each movement, immediately followed by 15 seconds of rest.

Water Jug/Kettlebell Swings

Power Step-Ups

Squat Thrusters

Power Push-Ups

Single-Leg Lateral Hops

Broad Jumps

Burpees

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Megan Beck

Megan Beck, M.S., ATC, CSCS, SGX - Megan is The OCR Trainer. She is a Certified Athletic Trainer and a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist with a Masters of Science in Injury Prevention and Performance Enhancement from California University of Pennsylvania. Megan is a 15x Spartan Trifecta Tribe member and when she’s not covered in mud on any given Spartan course, you can find her at the front of a rock concert or venturing around Boston with her German Shepherd, Titan.