May 23, 2017
Time for another sneak preview from Get-Fit-Guy!
Each week, over at the Quick & Dirty Tips Network, I produce a free, easy-to-read article, accompanied by a short 5-10 minute audio version of that article. Everything there is focused on the latest fitness research, exercise news, and quick and highly practical muscle gain, fat loss and physical performance tips. It’s called “The Get-Fit Guy’s Quick & Dirty Tips To Slim Down & Shape Up”.
Here's what we have from this week's episode “How to Increase Speed and Power“.
Ever try to move fast?
No. I mean F-A-S-T.
When was the last time you were at a gym or doing a workout and you tried to hoist a barbell overhead as explosively and quickly as possible? Or when was the last time your were running on a treadmill or riding a bicycle and moved your feet and legs so fast that your brain hurt trying to keep up?
The fact is that when it comes to optimizing the performance of your nervous system and cementing the connection between your brain and the rest of your body, it doesn’t really matter that much the heavy stuff you lift or how much muscle you build. Sure: strength and muscle-building are fantastic tools for aesthetics, for symmetry, for musculoskeletal development and even for anti-aging.
But when it comes to optimizing your brain and nervous system, recruiting muscle fibers, enhancing nerve firing speed, and optimizing brain-body coordination, it is far more important to instead focus on fast, explosive movements – whether you’re a weekend warrior or a professional athlete. I was first exposed to this concept when I interviewed a well-known sports performance coach named Nick Curson. Nick, who is the creator of a training system called “Speed Of Sport” and who trains some of the top UFC and NFL competitors on the face of the planet. Rather than giving the men and women he trains extremely heavy weights, he instead has them move light weights and their own body weight as freakin’ fast as they possibly can.
Why? Because there are two important attributes that go hand-in-hand with strength (and are often mistaken for strength): power and speed – and this in this episode, you’ll learn how to optimize power and speed so that you can move like a cat, sprint like a cheetah and spring like a tiger.
Want to see the whole article? Click here to go check it out now or bookmark for later.
Finally, if you have your own ideas for future fitness articles you'd like to see me write, leave your ideas in the comments section below.
Hey Ben!
What’s your personal opinion on using resistance bands, medicine balls and jumping rope for developing more speed and explosive power?
Asking this question because there are lots of folks out there who don’t like visiting the gym, and if they have an access to a park nearby where they live, a bit more light-weight training tools would be a smart approach. So what’s your personal opinion regarding this?
I’m not scratching the sprints, uphill sprints and explosive calisthenics/bodyweight movements here because these are a bit obvious when we think about speed and explosive strength.
The optional training tools that can be used are the ones that are in a deep interest to me here in order to help my clients achieve better athletic performance while training outdoor or even at home/garage/backyard.
Thanks for your time and wonderful podcast that you have shared in this article.
Best regards,
Vlad
Hi Ben, great article on speed and power! A supplemental example would be the difference between performing pushups very quickly (speed) and actually pushing off the ground to perform pushup claps or behind the back claps (power). Few correlation examples of velocity increased by power generation are pitching baseballs, bowling, sphere fishing, etc. On the contrary, Olympic weight lifting displays extreme forces without consequential occurrences of velocity. One key point for your readers, make sure you grease the grove for any activities requiring extreme power and speed (e.g., sprinting, cycling, throwing stuff, etc.). More specifically, ease into it the exercise, warm-up properly, and scale your power progressively over time. I managed to tear my hamstring simply by doing sprint drills on soft terrain, sustaining an injury that took me over 8-weeks to fully recover from!
Thanks again Ben, great stuff.
oops – spearfishing, not sphere…apparently I’m making up words… ;)