I hope that since reading the last blog you had a chance to try a walking meeting, or to introduce a few faster intervals in your training run, or perhaps even a bit of speed play while walking around the block. If so, congratulations. Your brain will thank you for it.
Perhaps you are also devoted to strength training for its many benefits (see ‘Strong’ blog series). If that is you, then you may already have wondered whether the concept of speed is something you can also take into your resistance training workouts. And the resounding answer is yes, particularly if you are working out in the gym to get stronger in everyday life, say for lifting the grocery bags out of the car, lifting your (grand)children or for being a better athlete in your chosen sport.
Adding faster movements into your strength workout brings additional benefit based on the principle of post-activation potentiation and post-activation potentiation enhancement. Here the contraction of a muscle group creates an electrically evoked stimulus and neural training stimulus for an explosive movement that follows straight after. In other words, a specific movement activates your brain, nerves and muscles and gets them ready for the work that you ask the muscle to do next. The idea is that the next movement is faster than it would be without the training or activating stimulus. This means you can be more explosive than you could be without activating the brain, nerves and muscles beforehand. In the gym, this can be done with bodyweight only or with resistance bands, with barbells or dumbbells. Note, the resistance (or weight) should only be at around 30% of the weight you can maximally lift once – so think light and fast.
For example, you might like to try banded push ups where you perform the downwards movement of the push up against a resistance band across your chest, and this primes the (assisted) more explosive upwards part of the push-up. Rather than slowly bringing your chest back into the starting position, you focus on speed and explode upward and away from the floor. Similarly, banded squat jumps can be fun. For this you hold onto a resistance band anchored above your head while performing a squat against the resistance of the band and this primes the jump once you hit the bottom of the squat. Make sure to watch your head on the way up!
The benefit of this type of training is additional speed in everyday life – you will be getting your (grand)kids airborne in no time – and in your chosen sport (hello sprinters, basketballers, etc.).
Quick start points:
- Best to use this type of training for movement patterns you are already pretty familiar with.
- Remember to keep it light and fast: About 30% of what you can maximally lift is plenty to get the motor system activated.
- Prime the muscle group you are aiming to get more out of for your daily living or chosen sport – think lower limb vs upper limb.
- If you already have done quite a bit of plyometric-type training and are a pro in the weight room, you might like to combine the two into what is called French contrast training (et voila). Here you prime the nervous system and specific muscle group with a heavy resistance exercise (around 85% 1RM) and immediately after perform a light plyometric-type movement relying on the same muscle group. So you might do a set of heavy barbell squats and then perform the banded squat jump.
- While there is a lot of evidence for health and performance benefits of resistance training for younger athletes, sticking to acceleration sprints etc rather than this type of training in the gym is advisable for them. Looking at my 16 year old, they still seem to need to work out every week where the limbs have grown to now and where their centre of gravity is. Bless my grocery bill 🙂
If you are keen to learn more about how adding some tempo to your physical and mental activity can benefit you, 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)
Blazevich & Babault (2019)
Cook et al. (2013)
Finlay et al. (2022)