March - Time to power up!
Strength x Speed = Power
This month we’ll be working on becoming more explosive, which is often overlooked in people’s training, but makes a huge impact on performance and general life. Being able to summon strong musclular contraction is incredibly helpful for preventing injury, and also for body confidence, knowing that your body can be called on to be powerful when needed.
To do pure power training we have to complete a movement fully at a very high speed, for example a shoulder press can never be a true power exercise as you will always decelerate just before the full straightening of the arms. If you like your ligaments attached that’s definitely a good thing!
So what this means is we generally need to do some form of throw, sprint, jump, something where we can complete the movement without deceleration.
This is taxing on both the body and nervous system so is best kept to multiple sets of low reps. Luckily Usain Bolt was never asked to turn around and run back! Pure Power is only needed for a short burst, generally up to 10 seconds, with power endurance up to around three minutes. However there’s definitely a mental advantage to ‘flicking the switch’ that can really change your energy and supercharge performance.
So if working on power we know that we need to do some exercises that work specifically on that (jumps, throws, sprints etc), but some strength (Low reps, heavier weight), and some speed. However I think there are two huge components that often get overlooked; Core strength and balance.
The reasoning behind the core is simple, think of any powerful motion, and it generally started from the feet, all the way up from the floor and through the body, involving every piece. For that power to be transmitted from the ground through the legs to the upper body, the core must hold it all together, whilst allowing ‘relaxed’ movement. Again think of a fantastic shot in tennis, the way the gold medal rower glides, the footballer sprinting away with the ball. It looks so relaxed, like it’s easier for them. The reason is that the strength of contraction is there, but the tension is not. The body is doing the work, and the mind allows it to get on with the job at hand. This is really crucial and will be great to practise this month. I like to think of power to be a combination of both controlled aggression and a relaxing of something. It’s explosive but it’s also so easy. It’s best to look for the flow first and then add the aggressive element after, because as soon as tension appears it’s very tricky to lose it and find rhythm again.
The second overlooked component is balance. Generally someone that is strong will have good power, but can they use it when they’re not completely in control of the environment. For example, can somebody jump quite high from two legs, but as soon as they jump from one does it fall to pieces? Is their knee trembling underneath them when they land adding to injury risk? Does the knee move as they go to jump, so they barely leave the floor? Improving balance works the relaxed side of the coin, and also is so satisfying when it starts improving. Personally I’m very tight in the hip flexors and hamstrings, but have actually had some nice comments about my flexibility during tennis, because as my balance is there I can use most the flexibility I have, compared to someone who has more, but can’t access it as they’re too unstable to find a good base.
Feeling powerful is great, it gives a real sense of being human and that you can ‘do’ things. Lifting the washing machine out, running for the train, lifting heavy bags into the car. When it comes to sports, getting there that little bit quicker, starting that bit stronger, still having something left to give in the last 100m.
So this month we’ll mostly be working on;
Balance,
Core strength
Whole body strength
Speed
Explosive movements
Which means harder work at times, but also longer breaks 😋
I’m really looking forward to it and hope you are too, and can’t wait to see some great progress this month.
3 things you can do alongside our training to further your improvement.
Stay hydrated, particuarly for our sessions.
Stretch in the evenings, particuarly shoulders, hamstrings and calves.
Practise your core and balance work, here’s a video for some ideas.
Thanks,
Will