Okay, now that you are all fired up about adding power to your everyday exercise or thinking routine, I have to start with a word of caution – at least with regard to power in physical movement. While there is immense benefit and, for many of us a real need, to add power-type movements to your routine, it is wise to check whether your body is ready to jump (in). So as part of this blog instalment, I want to look at what would be beneficial to check out first. I also want to focus on where and how you might start safely to introduce power.
In order to combine strength and speed there needs to be a good basis of – you guessed it – strength and the prerequisites for safe speedy movements. This means your joints and muscles have to have the ability to support at least your own weight (ideally more) and you need to have good balance and control for the movement(s) you want to perform with power.
Let’s come back to our example from the last blog of crouching down to scoop up a little person running towards you: In order to do this successfully (or practise for this to be successful), you need to be able to perform a squat with good smooth movement with at least your own body weight and you need to be able to feel stable at the bottom of the squat. If that is not you yet, then work to break down the movement you want to add explosiveness to, start practising components until they are fluid and then string successive components together, starting with two, then three etc.
In addition, introducing power movements when your you are battling an infection or your joints are acutely inflamed or swollen is not a great idea. So for all athletes out there who are coming back from injury and itching to get back to full training, please listen to your therapist and be patient until you have full range of movement, no swelling and no more pain.
So where do you start if all of this checks out and you are completely new to explosive movements or you are coming back to this type of training from injury? Simple movements, like the (two legged) squat, in one plane of movement (say vertical) are great. You also want to start with few repetitions (or foot contacts) to get your joints, muscles, ligaments and tendons used to the forces. Think about your movement going through the three phases we touched on last time (eccentric, amortisation, concentric) and having a good amount of rest between repetitions. That will allow you to recover properly.
Also you might want to practise these movements when you are feeling fresh and you have prepared your body for what is to come through a warm-up. The fresher you are, the better your coordination and balance and the better the training effect. A general warm up to increase your heart and breathing rate and to get the joints and muscles you need for the movement prepared. So for scooping up the little person, you could do a bit of a warm-up walk at moderate pace, followed by some slow and controlled bodyweight squats.
And based on this, you can already see how you can easily progress this type of training. You can progress by having shorter rest periods, more foot contacts, involve more planes of movements, such as forward and vertical squat jumps. You could also progress from simple movements to more complex ones with a greater balance component perhaps. This could be a lunge, for example. Training this kind of movement for power might help you if you are a gardener and find it hard to get up from kneeling down to do the weeding.
Being a runner and thinking about practical everyday takeaways for the majority of us, my bias is always toward lower limb power. Take this: A simple 6-week progressive double-legged hopping programme can improve running economics at faster paces for the average recreational runner (not that any of us is average, eh?!). Wooohooo! And next time, we will look at the benefit of lower limb power as we age. But of course you can take all of this learning into upper limb power training as well, if that is relevant to your goal and/or chosen sport. The same principles of safety checks, starting points and principles for progression apply.
If you are keen to learn more about how you can develop power for your physical and mental activity, follow me or subscribe to the blogpost. To work with me one-on-one to apply some of these principles to your own life and movement, message me for a free call. I look forward to hearing from you.
References (for the extra keen)
Davies et al. (2015)
Engeroff et al. (2023)