For most, filling the majority of your training with strength-based compound exercises will likely be the best use of your time in the gym. But this doesn’t mean that this is all that you should do.

We also need to train the entire force-velocity curve to improve your overall power output. This is incredibly beneficial for improving our athleticism and functional capacity by allowing us to produce more force at a higher speed; we can lift more weight in and out of the gym with much more power.

To do this, we can use a variety of Ballistic Exercises.

What Are Ballistic Exercises?

Ballistic exercises are exercises that do not decelerate towards the top of the movement, often characterised by a jump, or throw like movement (this includes but is not exclusively plyometric exercises). This is contrary to exercises like back squats or deadlifts that slow down towards the top of the exercise to control the weight on the bar.

High Speed Ballistics vs High Velocity Ballistics

To truly ‘surf the force-velocity curve’, which is the best way to improve our power output, we need to perform ballistic exercises with different force-velocity characteristics.

Put simply, some ballistic exercises will be much faster, with less external load, while others will be slower but exert much more force.

If you are looking to become more powerful, splitting your ballistic exercises into ‘high-force’ and ‘high-velocity’, to compliment your compound strength exercises, is a great way to train.

The Best Ballistic Exercises

1 - Power Clean (High Force Ballistic)

• Stand with your feet roughly shoulder width apart, facing slightly outwards (typically your strongest jumping stance), with the bar over your shoelaces.

• Reach down to the Barbell with your hands outside and out the way of your legs, usually around shoulder width.

• Pick your chin up so you are looking forwards.

• Push the floor away to pick the bar up, keeping the barbell close to your body.

• Once past the knees, jump as hard as you can to produce the upward momentum into the bar.

• Pull your body under the elevated bar with your arms, catching it in a quarter front squat position.

Benefit - Highly loadable for high power development due to the cushioning catch position after the ballistic portion of the lift.

Drawback - This exercise is highly technical. It’s important to be proficient in the technique before increasing the weight.

2 - Box Jump (High Velocity Ballistic)

• Stand tall with a plyo box roughly 30-60cm in front of you.

• Throw you arms down and behind you as you sit into a quarter squat.

• Rapidly reverse the squat into a jump up to the box.

• Land heel to toe, cushioning the landing as much as is required to have a soft landing.

• Slowly step down and repeat.

Benefit - Works on vertical power production without a heavy landing because of the cushioning from the box.

Drawback - Doesn’t develop eccentric absorption capacity as much as other exercises because of the cushioning.

3 - Hand Release Push Up (High Force Ballistic)

• Lay prone on the floor, with your hands on the floor either side of your torso, in a push up position.

• Brace your core.

• Drive the floor away as hard as you can through your elbows so that your hands leave the ground.

• Cushion your landing, bracing your core so that your pelvis doesn’t sag to the floor on the landing.

Benefit - Works on upper body pushing power without any need for equipment.

Drawback - You need to be highly proficient in push ups first.

4 - Ball Slam (High Velocity Ballistic)

• Raise a Slam Balls over your head, as if trying to touch the sky, until your arms are fully extended.

• Throw the ball back down at the floor beneath the ball.

• Imagine trying to ‘break the ball’ to exert as much power as possible.

Benefit - Develops upper body pulling power.

Drawback - Places a lot of stress through the shoulder so requires baseline capacity in the shoulder.

5 - Trap Bar Jump (High Force Ballistic)

• Step into a Trap Bar, reaching down to the handles.

• Take a deep breath and brace.

• Jump as hard as you can, focusing on getting your head as high to the sky as possible, instead of focusing on the height of your feet.

• Cushion your landing however much is comfortable.

Benefit - Low technique requirements, so you can start improving your mid-range force velocity curve power output right from the get-go.

Drawback - Jump portion can put a lot of strain on the traps, which can make it less loadable than the cushioning catch position in an Olympic lift.

6 - Broad Jump (High Velocity Ballistic)

• From a standing position, throw your arms behind your body as you perform a rapid hinge.

• Quickly reverse the movement, throwing your body forwards, jumping as far forwards as you can.

• Land heel to toe to cushion the landing.

Benefit - Develops horizontal power which is highly relevant in sport, where we tend to move horizontally to accelerate and decelerate.

Drawback - Works on less vertical power than other exercises like box jumps.

7 - Barbell Jump Squat (High Force Ballistic)

• Unrack a barbell on your upper traps, as if about to perform a high bar back squat.

• Assume your normal squat stance.

• Perform a quarter squat before rapidly reversing into a jump.

• Focus on getting your head as high as possible, instead of the height of your feet.

Benefit - Low technique requirement, so you can start improving your mid-range force velocity curve power output right from the get-go.

Drawback - Typically, less loadable than Olympic lifting variations because the position is less cushioning than the catch position in a clean or snatch.

8 - Depth Jump (High Velocity Ballistic)

• Step off a Plyo Box.

• Anticipating your landing, land with both feet, aiming to jump back off the floor as high as possible, while getting back off the floor as quick as you can in order to do so.

• Land from your depth jump however is comfortable.

Benefit - Great for training the stretch-shortening cycle and helping you become more reactively explosive.

Drawback - High landing forces so it requires a baseline level of eccentric capacity to be able to reproduce force rapidly.

9 - Snatch (High Force Ballistic)

• Stand with your feet roughly shoulder width apart, facing slightly outwards (typically your strongest jumping stance), with the bar over your shoelaces.

• Reach down to the bar with your hands in a wide overhead squat grip width (so that the bar is at hip height when you stand up with the bar).

• Push the floor away to pick the bar up, keeping the barbell close to your body.

• Once past the knees, jump as hard as you can to produce the upward momentum into the bar.

• Pull your body under the elevated bar with your arms, catching it in an overhead squat.

Benefit - Great for power training and developing overhead strength and stability.

Drawback - Like cleans, this exercise is highly technical. It’s important to be proficient in the technique before increasing the weight.

10 - Pogo Hops (High Velocity Ballistic)

• Stand tall with your hands on your hips.

• Initiate an explosive and continuous bounding movement off the ball of your feet, using minimal knee bend, as if skipping with an invisible skipping rope.

• Continue for the desired reps or duration.

Benefit - Great for runners looking to strengthen the ankles and calves by developing their capacity to develop and absorb force in a short space of time in the ankle.

Drawback - Loading on the knees and hips is minimal comparatively, so if you are looking to load the knees and hips ballistically, other exercises are better suited.

Add a variety of these ballistic exercises into your training to become the most powerful athlete you can be, using both high-force and high-velocity ballistic variations, for the upper and lower body. Remember, each exercise will have its own benefits and drawbacks and thus choosing exercises with those in mind, will be the best way to tailor your training around your own needs.

Written by guest author Ewan Hammond.

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Tags: Equipment > Bars and Weight Plates ; Equipment > Plyo Jump Boxes ; Exercise Type > Conditioning