It’s no unusual for 20 and 40 meter races to be won by fractions of a second. What can you do to shave about half a second off your best time? A study published in The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness suggests plyometric jumps using a weighted plate.

Two days apart, 10 male track and field athletes raced 20 and 40 meters. On one occasion, after their usual warm up, they did jumps holding a plate weighing 24.7 pounds. They didn’t use this experimental treatment on the other race day. The jumps decreased finish time by an average of 0.459 seconds in the 20 meter event and 0.405 seconds for the 40.