Plyometric power-over pushups

I first learned about plyometric power-over pushups from Ross Enamait’s great out-of-print book, “The Underground Guide to Warrior Fitness”. If you have the book, this exercise is explained on page 61.

Ross states that they can be done using either a basketball or a medicine ball. Personally, I prefer to do mine using a medicine ball.

Here’s a video of me demonstrating how to do them – I definitely lack the grace and explosiveness of Ross, but I’m old enough to be his father:




I like to keep my set reps low, and concentrate on performing them with maximum speed and explosiveness. What I like about this exercise is the hand-to-eye coordination challenge. Blink an eye or miss the hand placement by an inch and it can be a whole different ballgame. You can see that I had a hand placement problem on the first rep in the video demonstration and it haunted me for the rest of the reps.

For the advanced fitness buff, this pushup variation works great with the workout I suggested two days earlier in my October 21st blogflection - 10 rounds of 10 reps of walking lunges with a kick followed by 10 reps of pushups.

So when you want a maximum challenge of your pushup prowess, do plyometric power-over pushups.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum