Justin Hurley
09-29-2005, 07:08 PM
Gotta lift heavy, and explosively, if you want max power.
Power is at foundation of many sports because having it means you can move with great speed. And if you're a strength athlete, it means that you can move a heavy implement with great speed. But power isn't the most critical aspect in all sports.
Take powerlifting for example. In the sport, you're required to move the most weight possible in a squat, bench press, and deadlift. How quickly you move that weight, however, isn't part of the success formula. In fact, if you look at the relationship between strength and power, the more strength you need to generate in order to move something, the slower it'll move. Nevertheless, many powerlifting programs emphasize training for max speed, therefore resulting in less weight on the bar. Not the best approach.
http://www.powerliftinguk.com/files/powerupimage.jpg
BACKGROUND
To be specific, whenever you lift something, speed (power) and force (strength) are part of the equation: they're inseparable. Their relationship, however, is of opposites not attracting: as one increases, the other decreases. In simple terms, this means that as the weight on the bar gets less and less than your max, the more quickly you can move it. Conversely, as you approach your max weight, you'll end up moving it slower and slower. That is simple physics and only gets muddy when people make assumptions.
A frequent assumption is that whenever you can move a given weight with more speed or power, the stronger you'll be. It therefore follows, some argue, that if you trained with a weight that allows for the most speed of movement, you'll be able to demonstrate more strength in a sport such as powerlifting. The research seems clear, however; the weight you can move the fastest is somewhere between 35 and 60% of your 1-rep max. Training with such weights will increase your power, but it won't make you stronger. The bottom line, therefore, is that if you're a powerlifter or if you want to develop maximal strength, you need to focus on lifting heavy weight, not on lifting it fast.
MIDDLEGROUND
But since strength and power are interrelated, what would happen if you trained in an alternating fashion with heavy weights for max strength and with lighter weights for max speed and power? This form of training has been referred to as complex training or contrast loading. What you do is perform a heavy (80% or more of 1-rep max) squat or bench press followed by a light (30 to 45% 1-rep max) jump squat or medicine ball throw. The basic idea is that the heavy weight will increase nervous system function in the muscles trained and will in turn allow you to move a lighter weight with even more speed than would be otherwise possible. And indeed, this does seem to work.
Unfortunately, the majority of studies thus far have looked at lower-body exercises. The upper-body data are less clear. Besides, you shouldn't consider your upper- and lower-body musculature equal: the leverage advantages aren't the same, the muscle construction isn't the same, and the neural demands can be quite different. But research is available...
FOREGROUND
As a postgraduate student at Edith Cowan University's School of Biomedical and Sport Science in Joondalup, Australia, Daniel Baker set out to investigate how contrast loading might affect power output in the bench press. He recruited 16 rugby players who had at least one year of weight training experience and divided them equally into an experimental and control group. At the beginning of the study there were no significant differences in power between the groups.
Power testing was conducted on a machine called the Plyometric Power System. This device is similar to a Smith machine in that a barbell moves up and down on slides and the mechanical power is recorded and then analyzed via an attached computer. All subjects ended up using this device with 110 pounds and were instructed to move the bar as explosively as possible for five consecutive repetitions. The repetition with the greatest power output was the one used for analysis. However, before conducting this test, the experimental group performed six repetitions of a regular bench press at 65% 1-rep max. Then they rested for three minutes before the power test. After the data were analyzed, Baker found that the experimental group was able to exert 4.5% more power on the power test compared to the control group.
BATTLEGROUND
The acute increases in power output were similar to those found in lower-body studies. This slight, yet significant increase in power is likely due to a number of neurological mechanisms, including and not limited to motor unit synchronization, inhibition of the Golgi tendon organ, and myoelectric potentiation.
One of the concerns you might have is that the weight used for the bench press was fairly light, only 65% of 1-rep max. This is in stark contrast to other studies that look at lower-body effects with weights between 85 and 90% 1-rep max. However, the fact that this light resistance also resulted in greater power output is an indication that you need not load the bar real heavy in order to walk away with power increases.
Another concern lies in the power training aspect of contrast loading. It's imperative that you're able to explode through the entire range of motion for maximized power effects. However, this isn't possible during a regular squat or bench press because there's a marked deceleration period toward the end of the range of motion. Therefore, you must use a Smith machine device, push-ups, or medicine ball throws for your upper body and jump squats or similar jumps for your lower body for the greatest power effect.
By Dan Wagman
PhD, CSCs
Power is at foundation of many sports because having it means you can move with great speed. And if you're a strength athlete, it means that you can move a heavy implement with great speed. But power isn't the most critical aspect in all sports.
Take powerlifting for example. In the sport, you're required to move the most weight possible in a squat, bench press, and deadlift. How quickly you move that weight, however, isn't part of the success formula. In fact, if you look at the relationship between strength and power, the more strength you need to generate in order to move something, the slower it'll move. Nevertheless, many powerlifting programs emphasize training for max speed, therefore resulting in less weight on the bar. Not the best approach.
http://www.powerliftinguk.com/files/powerupimage.jpg
BACKGROUND
To be specific, whenever you lift something, speed (power) and force (strength) are part of the equation: they're inseparable. Their relationship, however, is of opposites not attracting: as one increases, the other decreases. In simple terms, this means that as the weight on the bar gets less and less than your max, the more quickly you can move it. Conversely, as you approach your max weight, you'll end up moving it slower and slower. That is simple physics and only gets muddy when people make assumptions.
A frequent assumption is that whenever you can move a given weight with more speed or power, the stronger you'll be. It therefore follows, some argue, that if you trained with a weight that allows for the most speed of movement, you'll be able to demonstrate more strength in a sport such as powerlifting. The research seems clear, however; the weight you can move the fastest is somewhere between 35 and 60% of your 1-rep max. Training with such weights will increase your power, but it won't make you stronger. The bottom line, therefore, is that if you're a powerlifter or if you want to develop maximal strength, you need to focus on lifting heavy weight, not on lifting it fast.
MIDDLEGROUND
But since strength and power are interrelated, what would happen if you trained in an alternating fashion with heavy weights for max strength and with lighter weights for max speed and power? This form of training has been referred to as complex training or contrast loading. What you do is perform a heavy (80% or more of 1-rep max) squat or bench press followed by a light (30 to 45% 1-rep max) jump squat or medicine ball throw. The basic idea is that the heavy weight will increase nervous system function in the muscles trained and will in turn allow you to move a lighter weight with even more speed than would be otherwise possible. And indeed, this does seem to work.
Unfortunately, the majority of studies thus far have looked at lower-body exercises. The upper-body data are less clear. Besides, you shouldn't consider your upper- and lower-body musculature equal: the leverage advantages aren't the same, the muscle construction isn't the same, and the neural demands can be quite different. But research is available...
FOREGROUND
As a postgraduate student at Edith Cowan University's School of Biomedical and Sport Science in Joondalup, Australia, Daniel Baker set out to investigate how contrast loading might affect power output in the bench press. He recruited 16 rugby players who had at least one year of weight training experience and divided them equally into an experimental and control group. At the beginning of the study there were no significant differences in power between the groups.
Power testing was conducted on a machine called the Plyometric Power System. This device is similar to a Smith machine in that a barbell moves up and down on slides and the mechanical power is recorded and then analyzed via an attached computer. All subjects ended up using this device with 110 pounds and were instructed to move the bar as explosively as possible for five consecutive repetitions. The repetition with the greatest power output was the one used for analysis. However, before conducting this test, the experimental group performed six repetitions of a regular bench press at 65% 1-rep max. Then they rested for three minutes before the power test. After the data were analyzed, Baker found that the experimental group was able to exert 4.5% more power on the power test compared to the control group.
BATTLEGROUND
The acute increases in power output were similar to those found in lower-body studies. This slight, yet significant increase in power is likely due to a number of neurological mechanisms, including and not limited to motor unit synchronization, inhibition of the Golgi tendon organ, and myoelectric potentiation.
One of the concerns you might have is that the weight used for the bench press was fairly light, only 65% of 1-rep max. This is in stark contrast to other studies that look at lower-body effects with weights between 85 and 90% 1-rep max. However, the fact that this light resistance also resulted in greater power output is an indication that you need not load the bar real heavy in order to walk away with power increases.
Another concern lies in the power training aspect of contrast loading. It's imperative that you're able to explode through the entire range of motion for maximized power effects. However, this isn't possible during a regular squat or bench press because there's a marked deceleration period toward the end of the range of motion. Therefore, you must use a Smith machine device, push-ups, or medicine ball throws for your upper body and jump squats or similar jumps for your lower body for the greatest power effect.
By Dan Wagman
PhD, CSCs