Power or Olympic lifts, squats, dead lifts, power cleans, hanging cleans, clean and jerks are lifts of strength, not power. If that is the intent, I have no problem with training for strength, but power lifting is not training for power. I had a college strength coach try to explain to me that a power clean “develops explosiveness”. What? He hasn’t done his home work. Scroll up to see Power page. Developing Strength is the advantage of power or Olympic lifts. However, those lifts do not focus on or recruit the physiological elements that increase speed and power!
Furthermore the “risk/reward” of doing power and hang cleans and cleans and jerks, dead lifts and squats improperly or properly can create premature degeneration and potential injury to the lower five lumbar vertebra and discs of the athlete.
Dr. Mark Brown, professor and chairman emeritus of the Department of Orthopedics and Rehabilitation of Miami’s Miller School of medicine states, “back pain is the most common reason for doctor visits today, and it is the most expensive disorder”.
I am not an experienced power lifter and have not been trained to incrementally develop proper technique and form for power or Olympic type lifts. I believe I am in the majority of trainers and coaches. Plus once those lifts get introduced, most coaches and athletes want to “amp up” too quickly and increase their weight loads.
Dynamic Force Weight Training methods and techniques may initially be “coloring too far outside the lines” for those who have approached weight training traditionally over a long period of time.
The three major influences on the methods and techniques has been SuperTraining, Mel Siff’s work of science for training first published in 1993 and last in 2003, and the referenced sciences in Patrick O’Shea’s Quantum Strength and Power Training, published in 1995. While not directly related to training athletes or preparing for competition, Richard Koch’s, The 80/20 Principle, first published in 1998, was an eye-opening experience for determining how to train!
Siff’s information is based largely on decades of research and training in the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries. His nearly 500 page “encyclopedia” will create brain damage for most trainers and coaches. O’Shea’s 250 page training manual is most useful if you are interested in the sport of Power Lifting or olympic type lifts. We are not, but his science is solid. The 80/20 Principle’s theory is 20% of what we do is essential, productive and responsible for creating the desired positive outcome. The remaining 80% is non-essential, irrelevant and counter productive, potentially destructive to creating our desired results.
The following are basic Dynamic Force Weight Training methods and techniques, influenced by but not exclusive to Siff’s, O’Shea’s or Koch’s work. We have been influenced by many and some we worked out ourselves.
Occasionally an unique athlete requests training assistance. They are special because I intuitively sense they have that “it”, what ever that “it” is. My intuition was right, Shane always wanted me to train him harder!An Exceptional Athlete
One summer, as a high school junior to be he had me believing he legitimately wanted to become the best he could be. Let’s call it his personal optimum! He was from a small rural high school [their high school still has a cinder track] and had only participated in football and basketball. He had a desire to get faster and bigger. So that was where we concentrated.
We were able to train three days a week for eight weeks. For speed, I kept it simple. He had no idea how to start properly so we concentrated on Dynamic Force Weight Training methods and techniques, proper starting mechanics and using speed training sleds for 10 to 20 yds, with various weight loads.
The results. At the end of eight weeks, he ran the third fastest 10 yds of any athlete I have ever trained. That included a junior college All-American returner/receiver whose best 40 yd dash was 4.38 and routinely was in the low 4.0’s, and a NCAA D-11 All-American running back who routinely was in the low 4.0’s, who in recent years was the all-time four year NCAA rushing leader, and as a Free Agent led NFL Europe in rushing.
I once trained a good high school athlete that was urgently in need of getting bigger, more powerful and faster. I don’t like urgent, training an athlete properly takes time, but this was the circumstance.
The athlete had QB’s his football team over two years to a 24-3 record and into the State Championship football game his senior year, playing 14 games that fall. Following the State Championship football game, he had four days before starting on his high school basketball team, which played 20 games into the last week in February.
Prior to his senior football season he weighed 182 lbs. Although he was in a weight training class at his high school, by the end of basketball season, his weight had dropped to 168 lbs. He nor his parents were paying close attention to his eating habits or his lame weight lifting efforts and results at the high school. Often he would go to school in the morning with a bottle of Gatorade for breakfast.
Losing 14 lbs over six months of practice and games, the transformation in his physical profile was transparent. He had signed a letter of intent to play QB at a junior college and track season was fast approaching.
Over 100 years ago, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto introduced an economic theory of “predictable imbalance” that crops up throughout our lives. As an example, in business 20 % of products account for 80 % of sales and profits, and similarly 20 % of customers account for 80% of revenues.
Years ago, when owning my own business, I was introduced to the concept that 20% of sales people accounted for 80% of the sales. While not familiar with Pareto, and the “predictable imbalance” in sales, it was predictable!
Rich Koch, updated the theory to encompass all aspects of our lives in his 1998 provocative and powerful book, The 80/20 Principle, The Secret of Achieving More With Less.
So what does that mean to athletes, athletic trainers and coaches, determining their training programs and game plans? Write everything down that your believe to be important in training, training your athletes and planning an offense or defense game strategy. Once the list has been made, identify the 20% of activities and strategies that you consider “essential” to your efficiency, productivity, and critical for positive results. Then focus all your time on those 20%.
The cliche, “If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is”, does not apply to the recent Olympic Games opening and closing ceremonies. Any attempt to explain what occurred would only diminish the experience itself.
Several observations regarding the sports and the athletes. First, nearly 80 nations medaled in some event, including seven nations who only won a bronze medal, perhaps in some obsucure sport/game. Good for them!
Most of the sports/games would be considered “minor” sports in the U.S.. However, for anyone familiar with competitive athletics, those athletes who had a special skill and medaled had to have trained long and hard to be the “best of the best”!
Second, for the unique athletes, those that “it sounds to good to be true, but it is”. Swimmer Michael Phelps accomplished what no other athlete has accomplished in the history of the Olympic Games. And in swimming, considered a “minor sport” in the U.S. Best of all, he is not done, he will be back!
Recently an athlete, a prospective college bound football player, Jervon Graves, came to me for training to get faster and develop his agility. As a junior he was an All-State selection in the state’s largest school classification, but said he was determined to “get better”. He and his father wanted him to qualify for a NCAA D-1 football scholarship.
After our initial meeting I felt I could and wanted to help him. Physically he was 6?1? and near 300lbs, however he did not look to be a D-1caliber athlete. In our first training session, he did not demonstrate good footwork which of course limited his agility.
In that first training session as we prepared to pull speed sleds, I asked him if he was ready. His response to me was “Coach, I was born ready”! I wasn’t facing him and nearly laughed, but when I turned and saw his face, the determination and passion was transparent. I didn’t laugh! I knew then I had one of those unique athletes that would do whatever they could to reach their optimum capability.
That proved to be true. Following a tough summer, it felt I could not work him hard enough, training specifically for speed, quickness, improved footwork and agility, he entered his senior year prepared to excel. He not only was named to his school’s classification All-State team, he was selected by the State Coaches to their top eleven team. His school retired his football jersey number, only the second jersey number to be retired in the school’s history. Wow, what he did for himself to reach that level.
To begin with, most athletes, coaches and trainers do not recognize there are two types of fast twitch muscle fibers, 2X and 2A. 2X fast twitch muscle fibers contract five times faster than 2A. 2X Fast twitch muscle fibers must be recruited to optimally increase speed and power.
All forms of traditional weight training, including power lifts, primarily do not recruit 2X fast twitch muscle fibers. Power lifts, thought to have an impact on power and speed, increase strength, size and muscle endurance but perhaps never recruit 2X fast twitch muscle fibers. Therefore optimum increases in speed and power, sometimes referred to as explosive strength cannot be obtained.
To recruit 2X fast twitch muscle fibers, rapid, repeated, significant applied force is required. While plyometrics are not considered weight training, they are a training action that does recruit 2X fast twitch muscle fibers. The primary weight training methods for recruiting 2X fast twitch muscle fibers for increasing speed and power are Bar Drops and Shock reps, with appropriate weight loads for each athlete.
It must be recognized that 2X fast twitch muscle fibers have only short term energy, fuel in the form of ATP [adenosine triphosphate] and CP [creatine phosphate] which is stored in the muscles and liver. That ATP is available for 5-7 seconds and CP 10-15 seconds. So there is a 5 to 15 second supply of fuel for recruiting, contracting and training of 2X fast twitch muscles.
Have you ever wondered where did the formula come from for establishing the weight load, number of repetitions and sets that are appropriate for each athlete in strength training? Fact of the matter is an athlete can lift 50lb sacks of cement mix, throw hay bales or roll tractor tires and get stronger…..that is stronger for lifting 50lb bags of cement mix, throwing hay bales or rolling tractor tires!
Of course in these examples we are referring to Transfer of Training issues which is information for another time. So, back to the question, what is the formula for the appropriate weight load, number of reps and sets for athletes when training with weights. I assume most begin with determining the athletes one repetition maximums.
After establishing one rep maximums the issue of weight loads, reps and sets begins to get really cloudy! When you are weight training for speed and power you cannot use formulas established in popular body building magazines.
In athletes performing in sports which predominately rely on speed and power it is shown in vatus medialis biopsies they have 50% more fast twitch muscle fibers than body builders. Body builders weight lifting work outs are not the paradigm for establishing weight loads, reps and sets in training for speed and power!
Almost all coaches and trainers either do not understand the neuromuscular impact on speed and power or have no idea how to train the neuromuscular system. When engaging in a conversation regarding their Strength and Conditioning program, their eyes “glaze over” when the word neuromuscular system is mentioned. It is either as if it does not exist or is not that important to optimum starting, acceleration and top end speed or optimum power [explosive strength]. Speed and power win, so how can this be?
Coaches and trainers like to see those big numbers, squatting, bench presses, power cleans, dead lifts, etc. They presume, erroneously, that increases in speed, quickness and power automatically rise as the weight loads go up! Of course there must be some increases in speed, quickness and power when weight loads go up, but they are not in the realm of the increases when training specifically for speed, quickness and power.
The nueromusuclar system consists of the central nervous system afferent and efferent neurons, variations in neuromuscular impulse rates, muscle motor unit firing rates as well as muscle fiber contraction rates. Be serious for a moment. Do you really understand the system and the implications on weight and speed training? What are your training methods to get optimum results for increases in speed, quickness and power [explosive strength]. This is the 21st century, you should know this information. It has been available for decades!
To increase speed you must train for starting mechanics, acceleration, sprinting form and speed endurance. The two primary target areas must be stride rate and stride length. You can weight train to increase both stride rate and length, but you must understand the neuromuscular system to adopt the appropriate training methods and techniques. Sadly, most do not!