Today’s guest post comes from Mike Lovas and Matt Kuzdub, chief designer and sports scientist respectively of a new technology called PUSH Strength, a method of measuring force, acceleration, and a whole bunch of other factors right in your workout with a simple arm band. I’m really excited to see how this technology can be used in the gym, especially since he’s already tested it out with a bunch of hockey, football, and other pro athletes, as well as recreational lifters.

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They’re currently looking for crowd-sourced funding, as well as pre-orders, so if you’re interested in getting in ahead of the crowds, click HERE for more info. 

I’ll let Mike take it the rest of the way today.

# 1 – The Foundation

Traditional Resistance Training

According to many sport science research studies, untrained populations will experience significant gains in power and explosiveness by beginning a traditional strength training program. This same fact with less experienced athletes; initial gains in power will be much higher if a strength protocol is used. For example, if you want to be able to jump higher, try squatting.

Why is this the case? A quick rundown on exercise physiology may help explain. Strength and power sports, like football or baseball, require the primary recruitment of type 2 muscle fibers. Type 2 muscle fibers can generate a considerable amount of power (think of David Ortiz belting a homer over the Green Monster); however, this incredible source of energy won’t last forever. Type 1 muscle fibers, on the other hand, can sustain a certain amount of work for a much longer time period (think of a marathon runner or a Tour de France cyclist). So let’s revisit our question from above, how can squatting improve your chances of dunking? When you start squatting with resistance (a few sets for no more than 8-10 reps), you recruit high threshold motor units, located within type 2 fibers only. These motor units can only be activated and developed when a certain stimulus level is applied; and these are the foundational muscle fibres you need in order to be explosive.

Bottom line: if you lift too light, you may not activate enough ‘appropriate’ muscle fibers, sending your chances of generating explosiveness, or dunking, down the drain.

# 2 – PAP

Post-Activation Potentiation

PAP, or post-activation potentiation, is a really complicated way of saying – if you lift something heavy, and then immediately lift something lighter using the same movement, you’ll feel as though you’re moving that lighter object a heck of lot faster. Let’s use David Ortiz again as an example. When Ortiz is next up to bat, he might swing two bats at the same time or put a weight around the top of his bat and swing that around a bit. He does this so that when he actually steps up to bat, the bat feels lighter than it did during his warm-up swings, hence, his ability to generate awesome bat speed.

So how can you incorporate PAP into your training routine? Let’s say you’ve been squatting for over a year and your vertical jump went from 18” to 24” (BTW – Kobe can jump 48”) but your gains have slowed dramatically over the last few months. This could be a great time to incorporate some ballistic exercises into your squat routine. It’s really simple: you perform one set of your regular heavy squats, wait at least 30 seconds (some research suggests waiting up to several minutes) and then perform a ballistic jump squat with a light-to-moderate load. The ballistic jump squat will feel considerably lighter and you’ll begin to really increase your explosive abilities.

What mechanism is involved in this process? Remember our little physiology lesson from before? The way PAP works is by helping increase muscle firing frequency. What this basically means is that you will be able to not only activate those type 2 muscle fibers associated with explosiveness, but you’ll be able to activate them at a much faster rate. So not only will you start improving your jump height, but you’ll be able to get up to the rim quicker (think of Lebron driving down the lane and getting up for a dunk; nobody has a chance to block him because he gets up there so much faster than anyone else).

# 3 – Reactive Ability

Drop Jump Training

So now you’ve been training for a while and you want that extra edge, that first step quickness that will leave your opponents behind. This is where a concept called “reactive ability” comes into play; this is your ability to go from zero to a hundred in no time, or your ability to change direction on a dime (think of Adrian Peterson dodging tackles). Reactive ability is closely tied to your ability to generate a certain amount of force (or power) in the shortest amount of time possible. Research suggests that developing a foundation of strength and power will allow athletes to increase their reactive ability much quicker, versus weaker and less explosive athletes.

So how can you improve reactive ability? Drop jump training, a form of plyometrics, is the way to go. You need to stand on a box (or chair), step off the box and as soon as your feet hit the ground, you jump! The idea is to minimize ground contact time, that is, get off the ground as fast as possible. Note: that jump height is not critical here. To increase the chance of transferring this reactive ability to the court, field, or pitch, it’s important to vary the directions that you jump. For example, if you want to be able to move laterally with explosiveness, step off the box and jump in either the left or right direction as quickly as possible.

How does drop jump training improve reactive ability? The mechanism involved is called stiffness (think of a pogo stick). When a running back is changing direction, he actually creates stiffness in his joints because this will allow the energy generated in his body to be transferred into the ground in the most efficient fashion. Similarly, if you’re performing a drop jump, the intent should be to stiffen your foot-ankle complex upon contact with the ground to achieve maximal power transfer in the direction of your jump.

Summary:

1) Start an appropriately prescribed strength training program

Ideal For:

– less experienced athletes

– athletes coming off an injury

– athletes coming off a long break

 

2) Incorporate PAP into your routine

Ideal For:

– more experienced athletes

– strong athletes

– athletes that have gone through a strength block

 

3) Drop Jump Training for Reactive Ability

Ideal for:

– experienced athletes

– athletes who have plateaued

– athletes who need to improve sport-specific agility & movement

 

Sources:

1) Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research. Kawamori and Haff 2004.

The Optimal Training Load for the Development of Muscular Power.

2) Sports Medicine. Cormie et al 2011. Developing Maximal Neuromuscular Power Part 1 & 2.

3) Supertraining. Siff 2004.

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