We have ONE question for you, and don’t forget, be HONEST with yourself.

Here’s the bottom line:

IF YOU’RE A STRENGTH COACH and you aren’t doing EVERYTHING in your power to become a better Coach, to increase your knowledge and to help make your clients / athletes better than their competition than you’re NOT committed to excellence in your craft or excellence for your clients and athletes.

As a Coach, your # 1 focus is to help your athlete realize their true potential, and it comes down to how much knowledge you have to make them better.

How committed are you to excellence?

IF YOU’RE AN ATHLETE and you’re not the fastest, most explosive athlete on the playing field, then you have room to improve. But, who knows, maybe you’re happy with being average.

The ultimate question is….. how Hungry are you to become the Best at what you do?

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What you’re not going to find on this page is a long sales letter. I’m not here to convince you about all of the benefits of developing POWER! I’m not here to tell you that this is the best DVD on the market today showing you some of the sickest POWER! development exercises ever compiled.

I’m here to do something different.

I am going to challenge you to take ACTION. Because, let’s be honest, most people never do. You can either spend the next several years trying to figure out the best exercises to develop real world explosiveness — or you could take ACTION now.

The methods revealed in POWER! have been proven to deliver powerful results with athletes ranging from the youth level all the way to the professional level.

All video footage was taken during real workouts performed by College, Professional & Olympic Athletes! In other words; these are the actual exercises/workouts that were prescribed to achieve World-Class results in the REAL WORLD with REAL ATHLETES!

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The POWER! manual is a digital PDF file that is located on the root of the DVD disc. Place the POWER! DVD into your pc or laptop and navigate to the d:\drive in windows explorer. On the d:\drive you’ll see a folder called “contents”. The manual and exercise index is in this folder.

No, we developed POWER! with the typical gym equipment in mind. You can use barbells, dumbbells and even your own bodyweight for most of the exercises in POWER!.

My initial response to your question was going to be a long-winded explanation about how it’s impossible to narrow down the “best” exercises because there’s so many factors regarding the athlete’s strengths, weaknesses, physical maturity, training age, sport, technical jumping ability, flexibility, blah, blah, blah.

But then I said, “Screw it!” People love “lists” and articles that cut to the chase. Below you will find my current Top 3 List of Special Strength Exercises for Improving Your Vertical Jump!

Depth Jump into Underhand Med Ball Toss (for height), Band-Resisted Kettlebell Swings and “Dumbbell Drop” Box Jumps (All of these exercises are in the POWER! DVD!).

NOTE: Remember that these are considered ‘Special Strength’ exercises and should only be used by athletes that possess adequate levels of maximal strength.

The is a amazing program developed by Joe DeFranco that provides a balanced template for increasing your lean muscle mass, improving your strength and developing power. It can be found here.

It is true that if the weight is too light on a barbell, you will NOT be able to produce enough force to develop power. There is an optimal weight/percentage of your 1RM that is best for power development. (This is something that is discussed, explained, and shown in the POWER! DVD and manual. I highly recommend you pick up a copy of this DVD if power development is an area of interest to you. This DVD is going to be the definitive resource on this topic…trust me! Sorry for the cheap plug, but I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited for the release of a product!)

For now, the simplest/quickest analogy I can give you in order to answer your question is that of a wiffle ball, compared to a baseball. Obviously, I’m sure you’re aware that you can throw a baseball much further and faster than a wiffle ball — even though a baseball is heavier. This is because the wiffle ball is way too light to develop enough force when you throw it. On the other hand, the baseball is optimal weight (not too heavy, not too light) to develop force and speed.

Same concept holds true for barbell exercises; if you’re a 405lb. bencher, there’s no benefit of benching 95 pounds “explosively”. That weight is way too light (for someone that strong) to generate max tension; therefore it’s not an effecient way to develop power. The best way to increase your rate of force development (RFD) in the weight room is to work with the optimal percentages of your 1RM, while taking a page out of Fred Hatfield’s book and implement the concept of Compensatory Acceleration Training (CAT)! “CAT” refers to applying as much force to the bar as humanly possible! In other words, when you have 225 pounds on the bench press bar, press it off your chest like it’s 405! Once you start working up to heavier weights, the intent to move the bar fast – even if it’s not actually moving fast – is of utmost importance! I have used these concepts since the day I sat in the front row of a Dr. Squat (Fred Hatfield) seminar in NYC well over a decade ago. (FYI, it was one of the best seminars I’ve ever attended!) I can tell you first-hand that if you’re looking to improve maximal strength and/or power, CAT works!

To recap: If you’re looking to improve your RFD, make sure you’re training within the proper “power percentages” of your 1RM in any given exercise. Too light = not enough resistance to generate max tension and produce adequate force. Too heavy = not optimal for producing adequate speed.

Experience has now proven to me that the #1 way to develop ANY kind of power is through weighted jumping exercises! I don’t care if you’re talking about punching, kicking, throwing, hitting, sprinting, etc. In my opinion, weighted jumps are – without question – THE foundation for any athlete looking to develop POWER! I will also include the coupling of a strength movement with an un-resisted jump in my category of “weighted jumps”. (Example: Performing a low-rep set of deadlifts or squats, resting 10-20sec., then performing squat jumps or hurdle jumps, etc.)

As the years have gone on, we’ve been using more and more jump variations in our program, and the results continue to speak for itself! There just isn’t any strength exercise that can compare to the ability to jump with an external load. The key obviously lies in the fact that when you jump, you don’t have to decelerate at all (as opposed to lifting weights). “Releasing” objects – whether it’s your bodyweight off the ground or throwing an object – is the most efficient way to develop power.

I suggest cycling different types of jumps with all different types of resistance. Box jumps, squat jumps, broad jumps, hurdle jumps, kneeling jumps, single leg squat jumps and jumps from a seated position are just a few of our favorites at DeFranco’s! Vary your resistance by holding DB’s, wearing a weighted vest, ankle weights, using band resistance, etc.

As I’ve stated time and time again, a HUGE benefit of jumping is that there is almost no learning curve! In other words, you don’t need to spend months, or even days, “learning” how to jump. The benefits of weighted jumps literally start to take place during your very first session!

And if you really want to develop “heavy hands” to KNOCK SOMEONE OUT, make sure you incorporate my favorite “special” exercises along with your weighted jumps! My three favorite “special” exercises for developing knockout power are: #3 – Medicine ball throws, #2 – Sledgehammer Tire Chopping, #1 – TIRE BATTLES!

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