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Start with light weights that you can lift over your head – even a can of beans works. If you’re consistent with the exercises, be sure to continually increase weight to keep your body challenged and improving.

Jones recommends the following four movements two to three times each week. All of them build explosive power throughout the body, especially in the larger leg muscles. It works best if you have a set of dumbbells and a weighted rubber “slam ball”. For each, start with 30 seconds of exercise and 30 seconds of rest. Cycle through all four exercises three or four times. Extend rest times as needed. Make it your goal to increase the number of reps you can do in each segment.

Dumbbell snatch: Standing with your feet about shoulder width apart, hinge at your hips, with a slight bend in your knees. Holding a dumbbell in one hand centred in front of your knees, explode up, extending your hips, knees and ankles in one quick, smooth motion. At the same time, rapidly pull the dumbbell up close to and in front of your body, finishing over your head until your arm is straight with your knees slightly bent. Use one arm on the first cycle and the other during the next.

Dumbbell power clean: Start with your feet hip width apart, with both dumbbells on the ground outside your feet. Starting in a squat position gripping both dumbbells, explosively extend your hips while pulling up the dumbbells alongside your body, landing them gently onto your shoulders with your legs slightly bent. Keep your heels on the ground until your hips and legs are fully extended, at which point they will lift up momentarily, returning them to the ground as you land the weights.

Slams: Holding a slam ball at floor level in a shoulder-width stance, lift the ball overhead using the full extension of your knees, hips and ankles. Slam the ball to the floor between your feet, grab it and immediately repeat the motion.

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Squat jumps: Standing with your feet about shoulder width apart, lower down into a full squat position and then rapidly explode up into a jump, swinging your arms up to help. Land lightly back in the squat position and repeat.

Once you’ve mastered all four moves and practised them consistently, add in the power skip, which requires some existing power and balance.

Power skip: You probably already know how to skip, and this is just a more explosive version of that move. As you lift one leg up into the skipping motion, propel your supporting foot up and off the floor, repeating with the other leg in a continuous motion.

If you’re already practising a regular strength training routine, you can add these movements onto the end of it, or alternate days focused on power and strength. A certified trainer can help with form.

Above all else, says Dr Ronald E. Michalak, an orthopedic surgeon from New Hampshire, “it doesn’t have to be perfect. But you want to stimulate the power-producing fibres in your muscles, because that’s what we lose as we age.”

The New York Times

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