This past weekend was the first time for me presenting back at the 1-day Perform Better fitness conferences since late 2019. It is so great to have these events back because for me, education in the fitness industry is about helping coaches discover better solutions for their clients while also gaining a greater appreciation for topics they may have not realized as well. That is why I selected power training for my topic this year.

Many times, people think power training is just something that athletes do to perform well in their sport. What they often don't realize is that power training plays a big part in the quality of life for anyone as so many everyday activities require power in their performance.

It isn't just about living better in the things we enjoy (which probably WOULD be enough of a reason to appreciate power training more), but there are great health benefits as well. Starting with the fact we lose power as we age faster than we even lose strength. This stat by Harvard Medical School should give us greater appreciation of that fact.

The exciting news is there are even MORE power training health benefits like the following…

This all sounds great, but the obstacle for many people when it comes to power training is that many don't really own movement very well, so how in the world do we add in power training because how do you move really fast if you don't squat, hip hinge, lunge, etc. very well. Here is the good news, you don't have to (as well as you shouldn't) go fast to start to develop power. Research shows just TRYING to accelerate a weight fast allows us to build foundational power training. Don't think this is easy either. Especially as I like to take away elastic energy by using specific pauses and tempos like I show in these Ultimate Sandbag Bear Hug squat progressions.

Bear Hug squats are a great example of how we can manipulate tempos to work on accelerating out of the bottom position and building foundational power training (don’t underestimate the fact that athletes would benefit as well). However, we aren’t limited to only doing squats with this focus. Below, I show how we use a specific Ultimate Sandbag hip hinge that teaches power training concepts that will help us better not just at power in general, but also will be an important foundation for kettlebell swings and power cleans.

Even in exercises like our Ultimate Sandbag overhead press, we drive down into our feet to accelerate the weight up. The beauty of doing this with the Ultimate Sandbag is due to the instability we get both more muscles in involved and we have to be more accurate with our movement. Trying to accelerate from this standing plank position allows us to set the foundation to do more advanced training, but also get SOOOO many benefits that power training has to offer!

Power training isn’t just for athletes, but it also needs to be wisely built from a thoughtful foundation. Understanding what we are trying to achieve and using better progressions to get those results is what DVRT is all about.

Josh Henkin

Josh is an international presenter and strength coach who has taught in over 13 countries worldwide and consulted with some of the top fitness and performance programs in the world. You can check out his DVRT online fitness educational certifications/courses HERE and get 20% off with code “pb20”