Training for power is a lot of fun, as it involves ballistic, aggressive movements.
When it comes to training, power is essentially about producing force quickly. Heavy strength work can contribute to power, particularly if you are trying to move the weight with intent and speed, but you don’t always need very heavy weights. Plyometrics and the explosive movements we see in sport — serving, sprinting, kicking, throwing, punching and jumping — all develop different expressions of power. Popular gym toys such as kettlebells, Indian clubs, slam balls and medicine balls also lend themselves beautifully to power training.
This vital pillar of athleticism is often overlooked by people over 50, which is weird because power is one of the physical qualities we really don’t want to lose as we get older. Young people tend to have plenty of it naturally; it’s as we hit middle age and get greyer and tattier that regular power training becomes increasingly valuable. The key concept is that power training must be appropriate to your current fitness and ability. A full-time adult sprinter might comfortably deadlift more than twice his bodyweight, whereas a sedentary 90-year-old attempting a 14kg kettlebell snatch on day one may have a rather less enjoyable afternoon! But that same 90-year-old learning to generate enough force quickly to stand up from a chair confidently and without assistance is also power training.
Let’s return to the gym!
If you do ten reps of an exercise quickly, then yes, you may still be training some element of power, but once fatigue starts slowing you down it becomes something slightly different. For pure power work, we generally want high-quality explosive efforts with enough rest to keep the movement fast.
In a gym environment, classic power movements include Olympic lifting exercises such as the Barbell Snatch and the Clean & Jerk, plyometric training — the fancy sports-science term for various explosive jumping, hopping and bounding exercises — and ballistic training such as swings using a kettlebell, Bulgarian Bag, Indian club, mace or Tornado Ball. You can throw sandbags, slam balls and medicine balls, or simply use your own bodyweight with things like clap press-ups and the numerous MX, Bootcamp and NUK SOO moves many of you reading this will already know.
I sense some of you may be worrying about injury… and this is sensible. Explosive movements deserve respect. Learn the movement properly, start with a level you can control, build the volume and intensity gradually and don’t confuse “explosive” with “reckless”. Power training is not inherently dangerous, but doing advanced exercises before you have earned the ability to do them probably is.
If you want some more ideas for power training, check out my woefully inconsistent Instagram page (@danrobertspt) and have a look through the highlighted ‘exercise tips’ stories. There is a pretty large library of videos of various clients and me showcasing different power exercises.
Cross-Training
The sports, exercises and group classes we do often combine different elements of power, endurance, strength, coordination and mobility. Using several different types of training is generally described as cross-training. Is this a good thing?
Usually, yes. Cross-training can be enormously beneficial and ticks lots of movement boxes. However, if you want to become particularly good at something, develop a specific athletic quality or really lose yourself in the artistry of a particular discipline, then at some point a more precise approach is usually needed.
How to Program Power
In my experience, power training is usually best programmed early in a training session, after you are properly warmed up but before fatigue sets in, or on a separate day. On a macro level, when following a longer periodised programme, it also often makes sense to build a decent foundation of strength and movement skill before progressing into more demanding power work.
Because power training depends so heavily on speed, coordination and quality of movement, generous rest between sets is important. Two or three minutes may be appropriate for demanding movements, particularly when learning a new skill, although simpler drills may need less. When embarking on a new exercise, ALWAYS aim to master the movement at a slower speed or with a lighter load first.
To reduce unnecessary overload and build a more useful athletic skillset, I also like variety. Jump, throw, rotate, sprint, swing and move in different directions rather than becoming brilliant at one explosive gym exercise and assuming you are now universally powerful. No single power exercise is perfect. Vary them, learn new things and remember that the goal is to become more powerful everywhere and in every way, not merely to become better at an exercise.
My challenge is to think about which two NEW power-related exercises you would like to learn next time you train. Also consider how you could adapt one of your current favourite exercises to make it more explosive. When in doubt, think faster, rather than simply heavier.
2025 Edit: Since originally writing this, I have done some advanced study with Westside Barbell™ in the USA – pretty much the Mecca for powerlifters since the 1990s — and have learned to appreciate the nuance of strength, speed and power development more than ever, and now utilise a “westside/conjugate” style of training for many of my more advanced clients. Check out the documentary Westside vs. the World if you want to see what an intimidating gym really looks like!