Every week my inbox gets hit up with skaters looking to improve their Pop game. Some looking to get their pop back, others simply looking to push the envelope in search of more of it. The good news is there are scientifically–backed ways to train off the board and get maximum transfer to a greater pop game. This article is here to show you how.
When skaters talk about getting more pop they are often referring to the ability to get more height when they perform their tricks. There are 3 components that feed into the ability to do this:
- Explosive Power: A skater’s ability to exert the most amount of force in the shortest amount of time. The majority of this is expressed in the rapid movement of driving the back tail of the board into the ground.
- Mobility: Seen in the skater’s ability to move freely into positions that allow for maximum pop height of the board.
- Ability to decelerate their body weight: Your ability to decelerate your newly-found power is going to be crucial in keeping you on your board. An inability to decelerate can lead to problems at the ankle, knees and hips that will see you spending more time off the board than on.
The following exercises are at the advanced end of the scale, intended to be employed after a skater has mastered the ‘best leg exercises for skaters’ ( https://youtu.be/UAKO3H9-ZV8 ) series on the Skateboard Strength YouTube channel. These on their own can deliver huge benefits as ground work for improving your pop, so I recommend taking advantage and starting there before tackling the following program.
This program can be implemented into your workout routine at the beginning of your training day. First up is a mobility sequence to not only prep you for the training to come but also to work on the qualities of movement needed to pop in to positions freely.
Next, we use an advanced training method called a contrast set (more on that in a sec) in order to train the qualities needed to decelerate the power from your newly found pop and keep you injury-free. Then we will give you the super powers you came here for: The ability to have God-like pop on the board.
More on the science:
A contrast set is where we choose an exercise that will work on the qualities we need to express on the board, overload it with weight, and then complement it with the same movement done with lighter loads in an explosive manner. What we are trying to take advantage of here is something called Post Activation Potentiation or PAP (I know, fancy right?). Simply put, the body will only fire up as much muscle tissue as it deems necessary for a perceived task, so what this program aims to do is trick it into an all-systems-go approach to firing up a movement, similar to what we need to express on the board.
We can then take advantage of this window of maximum potential to teach the body to move in an explosive manner, as well as build the right neural pathways to allow the body to move this way again. This now sets the stage for you to transfer this newly found power over on to the board.
How to interact with this program:
This program is designed to complement the training you are already doing, although it’s important to slide it in at the beginning of your training day to maximise results. Perform it up to twice a week with a minimum of 2 days rest in between, and ensure you rest the required amount of time in between sets. A lack of rest could affect your recovery and therefore miss the intended benefits of the program. Failure to do both will see you not able to recover properly and create the stimulus we are after.
Phase 1: Minimum 2 weeks, maximum 4 weeks on program.
Aims:
- Work on mobility of hips to minimise friction when exploding into the air.
- Use the Bulgarian split squat to overload the movement most relative to the pop phase on the board.
- Use the reactive catch to teach the body how to decelerate power to come in the next phases.
| Order | Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest | Load |
| W1 | Pigeon Stretch | 3 | 30 secs | – | BW |
| W2 | 90/90 | 3 | 10 | – | BW |
| W3 | Squat hold | 3 | 30 secs | – | BW |
| A1 | Bulgarian Split Squat (perform both exercises on same side before swapping) | 3-4 | 4-6 | – | (loaded) |
| A2 | Bulgarian Split squat (reactive catch | 3-4 | 4 | 2 mins | (unloaded) |
Phase 2: Minimum 2 weeks, maximum 4 weeks on program.
Aims:
- Continue work on hip mobility.
- Use the Bulgarian split squat to overload the movement most relative to the pop phase on the board
- Use the reactive jump to take advantage of PAP in order to teach the ability to explode.
Phase 2:
| Order | Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest | Load |
| W1 | Pigeon Stretch | 3 | 30 secs | BW | |
| W2 | 90/90 shin box with hands | 3 | 10 | BW | |
| W3 | Squat T-Opener | 3 | 30 secs | BW | |
| A1 | Bulgarian Split Squat (perform both exercises on same side before swapping) | 3-4 | 4-6 | (loaded) | |
| A2 | Bulgarian Split Squat – Reactive Jump | 3-4 | 4 | (unloaded) | |
Phase 3: Minimum 2 weeks, maximum 4 weeks on program.
Aims:
- Continue to work on hip mobility whilst advancing challenge of stability at the hips.
- Use the Bulgarian split squat to overload the movement most relative to the pop phase on the board.
- Us the continuous jump to train the qualities needed to express explosive power continuously.
| Order | Exercise | Sets | Reps | Rest | Load |
| W1 | Pigeon Stretch | 3 | 30 secs | – | BW |
| W2 | 90/90 Hip Through | 3 | 6 total | – | BW |
| W3 | Squat Hold – Band Rotation | 3 | 6 total | – | Light band |
| A1 | Bulgarian Split Squat | 3-4 | 4-6 | – | loaded |
| A2 | Bulgarian Split Squat – Continuous Jump | 3-4 | 4 | 2 mins | unloaded |
Click the link and head over to the Skateboard Strength YouTube channel for video demonstrations of all the exercises above, and get started on your 12 week program to improve your pop game today.
Not ready for this? Check out the Skateboard Strength Fundamentals PDF for a program to create better skating and get you ready for this pop program in a 12 week period.