5 Best Explosive Bodyweight Exercises for Athletes

Time and again, a handful of bodyweight-based exercises have proven to improve explosiveness in athletes. In fact, even if you're not an athlete and just want to generally be more warrior like in daily life, you should learn about how to train to become more explosive.

The best thing about bodyweight exercises is that you can do them anywhere and having this type of exercise in your toolkit means you can take your workouts on the road if needed. Grab a water bottle, pull a mat out, pop on some headphones, and start with these five explosive bodyweight exercises.

---

Build Explosive Power with Bodyweight Exercises

One of the benefits of bodyweight training is that the wear and tear on your joints caused by lifting heavy weights can be minimized. It is also low impact so it can be performed just about anywhere and fitted easily into your routine.

1. Abdominal Crunch

If you're just starting out, try a core workout or some easy bodyweight exercises to make sure you can perform the move properly. Or, if you feel strong enough, go for the 20-minute core routine.

How should you do it?

• You can do basic abdominal crunches to strengthen your core.
• To begin, lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor, keeping a neutral spine.
• Place both hands behind your head, just behind your ears.
• Slowly curl up and lift both shoulders off the floor.
• Hold for 2 seconds and return to the starting position. Repeat this exercise for up to 2 minutes at a time.

---

2. Push-Ups

The push-up is one of the most powerful upper body bodyweight exercises. It's also incredibly easy to do, and it works your chest, triceps, and shoulders. Additionally, push-ups engage your core and make you a more stable athlete.

How should you do it?

• Start in a plank position, with your feet together and hands underneath your shoulders.
• Squeeze your abs and keep your hips up a bit—you don't want to flatten out.
• Bend your knees and lower your upper body until your chest nearly touches the floor.
• Hold for a beat, then drive back up to the starting position.

---

3. Squats

Bodyweight exercises like squats are useful in improving your mobility, strength, and performance—not to mention giving you a fantastic workout. If you want to sprint faster, jump higher, lift heavier, and look better, add squats to your exercise routine.

How should you do it?

• Stand with your feet at about hip-width apart and pointed straight ahead.
• Then extend your arms out in front of you to help keep your balance.
• Next, bend your knees slightly and slowly lower yourself down as far as you can without bending over at the waist.
• Finally, rise back up to a standing position.

---

4. Glute Bridge

This bodyweight exercise is a popular choice among trainers to target the glutes while reducing back and knee pain. You can also load the glute bridge to increase your glute strength, which will carry over to deadlifts and squats, or you can perform sets of these unweighted as a warm-up.

How should you do it?

• Lie down with your heels firmly planted on the floor.
• Tighten the core muscles, pull in your belly button and ribs, and drive through your heels to lift your hips and lower back off the floor. Squeeze your glutes and hamstrings.
• If you feel pressure in your lower back, tuck your pelvis under you to decrease arching in the spine.

---

5. Bear Crawl

Give this bodyweight exercise a try. Your core will burn from stabilizing the torso, your quads will engage as you crawl forward, and your shoulders will work hard to move your arms.

How should you do it?

• Stand on all fours, with your hands underneath your shoulders and your knees directly underneath your hips.
• Now bend your knees and raise them about an inch off the ground.
• Keeping your back straight, simultaneously move one hand forward a few inches and then move one foot forward a few inches. Then, repeat on the other side.
• Keep repeating to crawl forward in this position. You can also actively squeeze your muscles and hold in this position to perform a bear crawl.
• Do not stretch your feet and instead move your feet close as you crawl so you don't swing your hips side to side. You should crawl in a straight line.

---

Takeaway

Bodyweight exercises are a great alternative to the weight machines and free weights used in many gyms. Considering that you can do them anywhere, they’re ideal for getting fit at home or on the road. Adding new movements to your arsenal can help you break up stagnation and keep your body guessing.

You can certainly design your own combination of these five explosive bodyweight moves. The main point to remember is that these movements should challenge your physical fitness. If they don't challenge you, then you need to add in some more repetitions!