
Developing and Maintaining Explosive Strength
Louie Simmons defined explosive strength as the ability to exert maximal force in a minimal amount of time. In simpler terms, explosive strength is essentially your ability to be both strong and fast simultaneously. Most people don't lift weights or do anything active once they graduate high school, but even for those that do stay relatively active or regularly lift weights, they tend to neglect any real explosive movements. While most aren't trying to be at their athletic peaks, maintaining some level of explosiveness is very important due to the fact that as we age, we tend to lose abilities that we neglect. The famous phrase "use it or lose it" is very applicable to our explosive abilities, because while we won't be able to necessarily improve it after a certain age, we can very well lose our abilities to express our explosiveness altogether. Therefore we need to keep some level of explosive activities in the mix to maintain these abilities. My personal favorites are:
*Adding bands to your barbell movements: I've talked extensively about bands and why they are so beneficial. One of the many benefits of them is that they force us to accelerate through the entire movement due to the bands wanting to return to their natural shape. If you don't "beat the bands" then you're in for a rough time. Therefore we have to be more explosive out of the bottom of our movements so we can overcome the band tension and complete the movement. Whether a squat, press or deadlift, this is extremely effective and highly encouraged for all to implement.
*Jumps & throws: two explosive movements by nature, many people neglect jumping altogether and many simply overlook medball work in general. The toolbox really gets opened up here due to the variety of ways that we can perform each exercise, giving us plenty of freedom to experiment with different variations to see what we like and what works. Regardless, both need to be incorporated in some fashion because of the many benefits that each have to offer. The other thing here though is intent. Don't be the person that picks up a medball and lets it drop from their hands and say "this isn't working." The effort and intent you put into your jumps as well as your med ball slams will determine what you get out of them.
Some may sit there and think, "I have no use of being explosive day to day, why do I need to train in such a way?" A) Preparedness for life is the ultimate objective we should all be training for. Minimizing the gaps in your game will ensure that you are ready for the demands of every day life to a much higher level. B) Not only is it going to help your lifts and body feel better, but again, if we aren't using it we are going to lose it. Those who can jump, move laterally and still move in a rather quick manner will have a much more graceful time getting through the later stages of life with less pain and limitations. These are simple ways that you can ensure some form of explosive strength qualities are being trained. This is low hanging fruit that will provide many benefits in the long run.