A widely-cited 1999 study in the Journal of Applied Physiology demonstrated that running-specific explosive-strength training significantly improves running performance. The study showed that runners who replaced about a third of their endurance exercise (in this case, cross-country running) with explosive-strength sprints and plyometric jumping exercises improved their running performance as compared to runners who performed the same volume of exercise but replaced only 3% of their endurance exercise with explosive-strength training exercises. Running Planet provides a nicely readable summary of this study’s results.
If you’re a distance runner interested in running faster and farther, you can incorporate explosive-strength training into your workouts to improve your running economy and running power. Running economy describes how efficiently your body runs. If you improve your running economy, that means you can run farther using the same amount of energy (or less energy) than you used before. Running power is a measure of your ability to produce power when you are at close to maximum aerobic exertion.
If you’re interested in adding explosive-strength training to your workouts to improve your running performance, consider trying some of the exercises demonstrated below, or check out this list of running plyometrics exercises. Keep in mind that explosive strength training is designed for intermediate or advanced athletes and should not be attempted by those who are not conditioned for high-intensity exercise. Check with your doctor before beginning any new exercise routine.
Example Explosive Strength Exercise Regimen
This video shows two athletes performing a sequence of several explosive strength training motions using staircases and plyometrics boxes to perform various hopping exercises.
Example Bounding Exercises
There are a variety of bounding exercises that can be performed as part of an explosive strength training workout. The focus of bounding exercises is to push off explosively with one leg while driving the knee of your other leg up and forward, emphasizing the knee lift motion to attain maximum height during each bound.
The video below shows a track athlete performing one type of bounding drill:
Example Box Jump Explosive Strength Exercises
There are a variety of explosive strength exercises that can be performed with basic exercise boxes of varying heights.
A basic box jump movement is demonstrated in this video:
More advanced athletes might move on to this sort of box jump motion:
Here’s an example double-leg box jump:
And here’s a lateral double leg box jump demonstration:
Remember that the benefits of explosive-strength training aren’t limited to runners. For any sport, incorporating sport-specific explosive-strength training will help develop the maximum power you’re able to exert while performing the specific motion targeted by the exercises.