How to Program for Power Development The need for power is prevalent in almost every single sport. Look at the most dominant athletes of our era, LeBron James, Calvin Johnson, Lionel Messi, and Cristiano Ronaldo to name a few. What do they all have in common? Speed. The old adage, speed kills remains true, and finding methods to enhance speed and power development is of paramount importance in strength and conditioning. When programming for power development, the traditional train of thought has been to move weight explosively. This sparked the conventional practice of lighter, explosive exercises such as the Jump Squat or Bench Press Throw; with the goal being to avoid significant fatigue accumulation - thus hindering force production. (Baechle, 2008) This notion is sound, and a recent study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research by Talpey et al. (2014) supports the effectiveness of this method. But effective power training is not simply moving from Point A to Point B with as much force as possible. What about the vector in which we are developing this power? When training for an explosive sport such as sprinting, direction of force vectors are sometimes forgotten. Morin et al. (2001) found that the horizontal ground reaction force vector is more important than both the vertical GRF vector and total GRF. What are some take home points on programming for power development? • Bodyweight, or 30 – 40% 1RM is a good place to be • The goal isn’t fatigue, it’s force production • Use exercises that develop power in a relevant manner to your sport • Speed is a short-lasting adaptation. Some form of undulatory periodization which includes a weekly power training effect is advisable. (Issurin, 2007) - The Strength Guys
Posted on: Tue, 28 Oct 2014 07:22:02 +0000
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