Wanna be explosive, athletic, agile, mobile and hostile?
Step 1: Get STRONG as Hell. Strength is your foundation, you hear this all the time, and I would say this is almost entirely true. I have seen lots of guys, strong as hell, but also have little speed. So what gives?
Power is a blend of strength and athleticism. It's the OPTIMAL blend, because nothing is perfect and everything is flawed, you are trying to get the best balance possible. Only chasing greater strength will not help you reach your goals of speed / power.
I've seen guys who can bench 315, squat 405 and deadlift 495 yet they are sloooooow. Cab't get fast if you're always grinding away heavy loads, carrying excess body fat and dismissing the power of using bodyweight movements for explosive training.
Step 2: Train athletic movements. Jumping and running are the critical two that you want to use, in ALL their forms. We jump in MANY ways and I'll detail them HERE.
[youtube width="640" height="360"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=la1TliIOEu0[/youtube]
[youtube width="640" height="360"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbDR66H2RCQ[/youtube]
Step 3: Obtain optimal lean body mass. Simply put, if you're gonna eat like shit you'll be a fat bastard....AND you'll be slow. The stronger and more explosive you are in relation to your bodyweight, the more likely your body will move with speed and precision. This is why we often hear Coaches talking about training the nervous system, in their efforts to avoid adding excess muscle (adding body weight) which forces the body to work harder to move.
Instead they are trying to improve the body's ability to fire the muscles while maintaining the same body weight or becoming lighter through burning fat / losing unnecessary pounds.
Final Note: If you're weak and have NO muscle and NO strength, do NOT be a fad follower and think you can use plyometrics blindly and without a solid physical base as plyos are an advanced method of training. (most of which are confused with movements that are NOT plyometric in nature).
Get strong as hell first, when the technique is there, move the weight and / or your body as fast as possible to promote speed and power development, eventually, begin using jumps of various kids, throwing / releasing objects as well as sprints of various types.
Sure, this is a very general "heads up" on developing power, the full article will be up shortly at The Underground Inner Circle.
Peace
--Z--
6 Responses
I love the way you phrase it Zach! Certainly know what I’m going to do now – take the KB’S up to a woodland circuit with a steps climb and knock out a few circuits with KB swings, clean and press and jerks between circuits- thanks!
Holy crap! He was standing like 6 feet away and still made it to the top of that box! Now thats explosive power. I have some work to do. Nice one beast!
Super great stuff as always Zach!
In the past year I’ve been noticing I gained a lot of real world strength and power by throwing in some more unilateral training. I’m thinking that balance and coordination are pretty vital in developing power for situations where you don’t always have both arms or legs moving at the same rate.
Thanks guys, these kids do the work! We can’t argue that doing the WORK is the ticket!!!
Luke, that is CJ, kid is a BEAST, he played Football and Wrestled, hopefully he wrestles in college!
Matt – swinging the arms helps w/jumping power, you can always do things to make the jumps harder, such as NO arm swing, starting from kneeling or seated positions, weighing the ankles w/ankle weights, or using a light weight vest, holding light d-bells….
How is Vt my man?
Hey MATE!
Your dudes are straight up beasts! They are crushing it.
Your building animals Z!