A Brief Review: Explosive Exercises and Sports Performance

Strength and Conditioning Journal 13 in their training regimes (18, 25). It appears that explosive exercises tend to enhance an athlete’s ability to generate high rates of force development (18, 22, 25, 54), whereas slow exercises tend to impair this ability (24, 25, 50). Almost any exercise can be performed explosively depending upon the resistance used. Several studies and review articles have reported evidence and logical arguments for the use of explosive exercises. These types of exercises are marked by highforce, high-velocity movements and are used by athletes who participate in strength and power sports (9, 15, 16, 24, 39, 42). Generally, we can define an explosive exercise as having a maximal or near maximal initial rate of force development that is maintained throughout a specified range of motion. These types of exercises are marked by a rapid initiation of force production and focus on movement accelerations, which result in near maximal or maximal movement velocities at a given resistance. Therefore, a conceptual continuum of explosive exercise can be created (Figure 1). The type of explosive exercise employed in the training program will then dictate the adaptive response of the athlete and will ultimately affect the sports performance. It is likely that improvements in sports performance through the use of explosive exercises may be partially dependent upon the movement and velocity patterns required by the sport and upon the training status of the athlete.