Stronger, Leaner, More Athletic: 5 Power Moves That Do It All

It is funny that when I started coaching over 30 years ago now (yea, can’t believe it has been that long now) teaching my clients power movements was considered insane! I would have even other fitness pros come up to my clients behind my back forewarning them how I was going to hurt them with such training (my first several years coaching I rented space from commercial facilities).

Now?

Well, it seems like everyone is all on board with doing really explosive training. Whether it is for creating better HIIT programs that improve their fat loss and conditioning to building resilience, or helping people participate in their favorite recreational hobbies that started with Crossfit and now you see with groups like Hyrox.

I am all for people using power movements wisely, but often people overlook the true potential that power training can offer. This is because so many times people see ONE version of an exercise and never stop seeing where we can take such movements. That is why I wanted to give a top 5 list of power movements that do more than just make you tired and sweat. These are drills that actually help build greater stability, body awareness, and even resiliency when done properly.

Let’s not wait, let’s get into them….

Rear Step Kettlebell Swings

It has been 20 since I first started teaching what I originally called a staggered stance position. I know, it seems like it has been around forever, but before we introduce the concept of putting a slight split stance to the movement it really didn’t exist. Getting too deep into the weeds about isn’t what this post is about, but if you are thinking about the term “b stance” this was almost never used in training and it referred to both feet being flat on the ground in a small split position and was only ever mentioned with a squat. With that said, let me tell you why this is important for your training.

That is because how you progress the movement is what becomes really key. Most people stop at our, what we know call sprinter stance position. The sprinter stance is awesome for a whole host of movements, the point being that once we split our feet we introduce progressive instability and we can load the body in more diagonal patterns that helps both stability and strength at once. The key though is once we build competency in the sprinter stance, then we progress (this is what most miss) into rear stepping.

Rear stepping takes what is so good in the sprinter stance and raises them. Due to the more dynamic nature of stepping we have higher levels of reflexive stability and force one side of our body to both produce and absorb force so much more effectively. The idea is progressive because we can take a short to long step to alter the intensity of the movement. This really works incredibly well for movements like kettlebell swings as I teach below.

MAX Lunge Clean

In some ways, the MAX lunge clean and rear step kettlebell swing have things in common. For one, they both really challenge and build huge abilities to develop power and force through more of one leg, but also teach one of the most important, yet overlooked aspects of power, deceleration training. It is through deceleration training that people get SOOOO much more out of their power training including huge amounts of injury resilience. This makes exercises like the MAX lunge clean awesome for reducing the chances of issues like knee injuries.

The more unstable position and movement of the Ultimate Sandbag in the MAX lunge clean does make it more difficult, that is why progressions are even more important. However, the diagonal pattern that is also taught through the movement really connects so many more muscles of the body into the drill giving you such an incredible drill in so many different respects.

 

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Shoveling

To be honest, shoveling is one of the my favorite DVRT power movements! While it is one of my absolute favorites, I don’t talk about it a lot because it is very advanced as well. It is based on many layers of teaching proper rotational mechanics and strength, but once you do, this becomes such an amazing drill! Imagine a kettlebell swing in rotation.

Like kettlebell swings, the trick is not so much generating the force up, but absorbing the rapidly decelerating weight in a plane of motion that most never train….rotation. Shoveling is a great drill to teach greater glute and core power, as well as dynamic hip mobility. It will kick your conditioning up harder than just about any kettlebell swing while advancing your movement skills.

 

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Multi-Directional Thrusters

Probably the most popular form of a thruster nowadays is the wall ball throw.  Basically this is a squat to an overhead press even though our shoulders aren’t going into the same overhead placement the concepts are similar. However, the original squat and press increases the demands of the movement because we have more load we need to decelerate into the downward movement and having to accelerate much more to press the weight overhead. This is originally what made thrusters such an amazing total body strength and conditioning exercise.

Our Ultimate Sandbag multi-directional thrusters increases the effectiveness of these concepts to get more out of thrusters. We can change our stance, direction of movement, and even how we hold the weight to increase the demands on the body accelerating what we get out of strength, stability, power, and conditioning all at once. The great range of motion and the whole body being so integrated makes these amazing drills to include into any fitness program.

Around The Worlds

Ultimate Sandbag Around the World drills are powerful because they train the body to produce and resist force in multiple planes at once. As the sandbag travels around the torso, the shifting load challenges the core to stabilize dynamically rather than just statically. This trains real-world power learning to brace, rotate, and decelerate effectively while improving coordination between the hips, trunk, and shoulders. The movement also develops explosive strength through the lower body as you drive the bag upward and around, making it far more functional than isolated rotational exercises.

These drills also build exceptional conditioning because they require constant engagement of large muscle groups while keeping the heart rate elevated. The unpredictable load of the sandbag forces your stabilizers to work overtime, improving joint integrity and overall control. At the same time, the total-body nature of the drill reinforces strength under movement, not just under load. The result is a highly time-efficient exercise that blends power, stability, strength, and cardiovascular challenge into one integrated, athletic pattern.

The 5 power drills we covered today aren’t the end. Instead, learning these types of movements starts to open up not just a bigger world, but a better one of great strength, stability, conditioning, and power training that really makes a difference.

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