Strength & Speed – How Strong Is Strong Enough?

 

 

 

Its an ongoing debate and battle and one that depending on which side of the fence you’re on you’ll be biased toward one over the other.  There are numerous articles, scientific data, videos, testimonials, gyms, athletes, and the list that could go on about what is necessary to develop speed and how they believe, who told them, and what is best method in achieving both strength and speed.  

 

I will agree, believe, practice, and teach strength for speed development; HOWEVER I believe that younger-less experienced athletes are the ones who will benefit from an increase in Relative Strength and Max Strength.  You must be able to apply a great deal of force into the ground for acceleration, be able to absorb forces from change of direction and landings from various depths.  Ground reaction forces for athletes are very demanding and require a great deal of strength as a solid foundation of strength is a must for speed development.  A great example is the table below that lays out the stress the body endures no matter the age, gender, sport, etc.

Ground Reaction Forces

Running

• Vertical Forces: 3 x body weight
• Anterior & Posterior Forces: .5 x body weight
• Mediolateral Forces: .25 x body weight

Vertical Forces

• Starting (Accelerating): .8 x body weight
• Lay-up Landing: 8.9 x body weight
• Stopping: 2.7 x body weight
• Cutting: 3 x body weight

Anterior & Posterior Forces

• Stopping: 1.3 x body weight

Mediolateral Forces

• Shuffling: 1.4 x body weight

Let’s do assume that we have a young athlete maybe……13 years old and he and his father say what every parent says, “need speed and power.”  I would agree and second that but ladder drills are not the “optimal” modality at this stage and offer nothing more than peace of mind to parents and coaches. 

Here is a fact, the Max Effort method is the optimal method for increasing strength and is necessary BUT at what point are you STRONG ENOUGH?  Does an athlete benefit anymore from a 400lb squat to 450lb squat or what about even 500lb? Maybe but most likely not. 

Youth athletes or novice lifters have incredible capabilities of increasing strength and speed from the simplest of things such as lunges and push ups.  As our youth athlete advances the direct correlation between strength and speed become less evident and at some point can have adverse effects.  Now, for you westside barbell guys that are out there and screaming, “that’s why you use the dynamic effort method” and “strength is measured in time.”  You’re correct on that but I’m not discussing the Westside Template as it really is most advantageous to power lifters. 

 

 

 

 

Heavy loads and max strength work becomes a hinderance in speed development and slows the CNS down.  The body is amazing in that it adapts to the stresses placed on it and how it is trained.  Focusing on ONLY slow heavy lifting day after day, week after week, and so on will make you slower.  There are situations and programs necessary where you must train slow to move fast but again I’m not discussing that at this moment.   By the way, you don’t see scrawny sprinters!!

 

 

 

 

 

Parents, coaches, and athletes please know that speed and strength are correlated but more so early on in an athletes development.  This is why our younger athletes learn proper technique in the weight room and get stronger THEN we incorporate high speed movements so the table illustrating the forces above can be tolerated by the athletes.  Asafa Powell will not run any faster by adding 50lbs to his squat but a 10th grade athlete will so once they get to that ELITE status ore an above average level of strength then direct speed training can become more primary in there training.  If constantly adding pounds to your squat and deadlift above was the only way and the primary goal then Matt Kroc in the first photo at top would be a world record holder in the 100m sprint.  Once that desired or necessary strength has been developed and it’ll vary by sport and demands then the optimal thing to do is maintain it while honing other motor abilities.

 

Many coaches especially Olympic lift coaches believe the best and most direct correlation with speed and strength are the Olmpic lifts.  I’m not an Olympic coach so I won’t out-step my realm of knowledge but the most technical sound lifter may only reach 1.3 meters per second while max speed may be as high as 6 or 7 meters per second.

 

 

 

I mentioned briefly and I mean briefly that strength is measured in time and grinding out reps in a max effort attempt is not beneficial unless you’re an up and coming lifter and even then grinding out is hard on the young bucks so as I’ve mentioned, once a foundation and necessary level of strength has been achieved and demonstrated, focus can then switch and should switch.  The number one concern should now become displaying speed and power which demonstrates strength.

 

I mentioned Matt Kroc and his squat and 100m sprint.  An athlete of that magnitude and special focus of his strength-skill would be world class fast but that is not the case.  He may be fast for his size but there speed will not continue to develop at the same rate as there strength. 

Pure speed has many aspects involved more than just strength such as reactive ability, CNS efficiency, limb length, genetics (yes), stretch-shortening cycle, mechanics, and many more.

To better sum things up young athletes need strength as the foundation and once that foundation has been laid then you maintain it and hone other motor thresholds turning your primary focus to speed enhancement.

Thanks For Reading

Sources:

• Vern Gambetta, Athletic Development: the art and science of functional sports conditioning.  (2007). Sport Specific Demands Analysis. In B. B. Editor (Ed.)

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Plyometrics and The Upper Body 

Everyone either knows there vertical jump or wants to know there vertical jump but not many athletes pay attention to the importance of plyometrics or “dynamic strength” for the upper body.  This is a huge mistake as many sports and athletes need to be explosive in the upper extremities and while strength is displayed from core on out if you’re upper body is weak then there is a break in our “kinetic chain.” 

 

Whether you’re an overhead athlete such as baseball, QB, tennis, volleyball, shot put, etc upper body power is vital for success.  Dave Tate has been quoted saying, “you can’t flex bone.”  Well said and I with many strength coaches agree.  A quick run down on some basic necessities to developing power.  To display power an athlete must first have a good foundation in “relative strength” or body weight strength.  That is the minimum with the preferred having “absolute strength.”  I try to inform and educate the best I can this to parents and athletes because the number one thing they all want is speed and power.  Well, if you’re weak you’re slow(er).  It’s that simple.   

Now, at my gym FITT Warehouse  , I along with my other coaches do our best to teach student athletes proper form and technique first and then we develop strength through the Max Effort method.  This method is primarily used by professional power lifters and can scare some parents and athletes away and I will say there are some places out there in my opinion taking it a little too far with there student athletes.  You need to be strong but not aspire to follow a power lifting regimen just some of the proven methods to get us to our goal and that is power development in the case of the parent and athlete wanting more speed and explosiveness.  Check out these quick examples below.  Both of these athletes are currently in the NFL (vernon gholston has dissappointed many and is a RFA at moment) and were first round drafts.  Andre Smith below is talented yes but you can easily see that by his body composition he’s not going to be the most explosive due to the fact that his body mass is primarily “fat.”

 

   

Vernon Gholston on the other hand while maybe a little extreme for some has a physique resembling a Greek god.  His body composition is a result of a detailed training regimen, proper rest, balanced nutrition, and yes good genetics.  Out of these two start athletes which do you think will display the most strength, power, and explosiveness and stay healthy for the season?  No brain-er here.  So, a quick review, you must be strong in relation to your body, carry little excess fat, and train properly which brings me back to the origin of this article Plyometrics and The Upper Body. 

A) Lets take a look at some plyometrics exercises for the upper body and the equipment if any you’ll need.  

1. body weight
2. medicine ball
3. dynamic effort training with barbells 

1. with body weight there are many variations of the good ol’e push up.  Again, you must first be able to crank out a ton of push ups with good form.  A good number to shoot for is 40 unbroken with good form before attempting any of thevariations below. Plyometric push ups with a depth drop and weight vest (both the drop and vest are additional variations) .  Sets and reps should be monitored as these are extremely hard on the body.  3-6 sets of 3-10 reps are plenty when incorporating these to your upper body plyometric training.  

 

 

Medicine balls and there use is many and upper body plyometrics make for perfect use of the medicine ball.  These are just a few of many different exercises and combinations that can be done in order to develop upper body power and explosiveness.  All exercises were performed for 5 reps. 

1. Push press throw
2. overhead slam
3. rotational throw
4. overhead throw 

The barbell can be used dynamically as well by means of the “dynamic effort method.”  This simply means like the others performing the movement under control for desired sets and reps as fast as humanly possible.  Without getting to detailed or specific here is an example of the bench press being performed at Westside Barbell with coach Louie Simmons.

 

  Make sure to incorporate some of these simple bet neglected exercises into your upper body training regimen. 

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