I want to first start off by saying this is one topic that I have heard so many different opinions on when it comes to the speed and resistance of lifting weights.
There’s two sides to this:
1. You have the people who believe, if you can move a lot of weight (90-95% max squat) imagine when you are running or competing in your sport and you don’t have that resistance. (Picture pulling a sled or running with a weighted vest on.)
2. On the other hand, you have the group of people that believe you must train fast in the weight room – moving less weight, but the weight is moved faster. This means you have to fire more muscle fibers to be able to move the weight at a faster speed.
They are both great strategies. Yes you may have to contract a lot of muscle fibers in scenario 1 to lift heavy, but it wouldn’t be nearly as much as scenario 2, lifting as fast as you possibly can. But there must be a balance because scenario 2 still needs to be a decent amount of weight for all the fibers to contract. Wonder if you tie two of them together?
One of my close teammates at Iowa State was talking to an athlete from an eastern European country and his views were very interesting to me. He believed that the way we lift in North America shows why so many athletes become hurt because we train for slow power. Slow power meaning our muscles are not use to contracting fast. He said back home they lift a lot faster and see a lot less injuries this way.
You better believe that I want to know what any readers think. You also better believe that I am going out on a mission to get to the bottom of this because it drives me crazy. If lifting “slow” actually causes more injuries, that could change the way a lot of speed athletes see weight lifting.
After some further research, this article shall be continued…
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Why not combine the two ideas? Not during the same session but have alternating sessions. For Example, if you lift twice a week(Monday & Thursday) very intensely then one day work slow power and the other day work fast. I believe this might also be a good way to keep the body guessing to increase gains over the period.
Thanks for the comment Draicon,
The idea you presented is a good idea to try out. I am actually not 100% sure what to think about this whole topic yet. My only issue I could see with alternating days is that you do not have a focus in that period of training. For example during base training for track athletes it is all about getting stronger and developing the slow power. I am not sure how much benafits an athlete would get for trainining for speed during this time period also. I am not sure but if you tried it out, I would be more than happy to have you write a guest post about what you discovered.
Cool. I have not tried it yet. My newest cycle involves this training. Though it’s just an experiment on myself since I’m no longer running at the collegiate level and am not good enough to go pro. lol. I just continue to see how fast I can become. I coach now so maybe I’ll try it on them if it works for me.
Sounds good to me, thanks for the comment, I hope to hear from you again soon.