Kenny Croxdale
Level 7 Valued Member
Compensatory Acceleration and Velocity (Power) Training
The information below reinforces this type of training...
Speed kills: 2x the intended bar speed yields ~2x the bench press gains • Stronger by Science
(May 2014) study published in the European Journal of Sports Science
Approximately double the strength gains by lifting the bar with maximum speed each rep, as opposed to a slower cadence
1. To produce more force, your body uses more muscle fibers (as opposed to each fiber just contracting harder to produce more force)
2. The first fibers your body uses are the smallest, slow-twitch fibers. To produce more and more force, it recruits progressively larger and stronger fibers, with your largest, strongest fast twitch fibers being the last ones integrated into the movement. (This is called Henneman’s Size Principle)
3. Recruiting these fibers isn’t based on the weight you’re using per se, but rather the amount of force you produce. Force = mass x acceleration, so all other things being equal, lifting a bar faster means you produced more force to lift it.
4. Therefore, lifting the bar faster recruits more muscle fibers.
5. The fast twitch muscle fibers – the last ones you recruit – are the ones most prone to hypertrophy, so lifting faster = more fast twitch fibers used = more strength and size gains.
Subjects:
24 men were recruited (4 dropped out), mostly in their early to mid 20s, and of normal height and weight (1.77 ± 0.08m, 70.9 ± 8.0kg). They were healthy and physically active, with 2-4 years “recreational” experience with the bench press. “Recreational” is a slippery term. Their 1rms averaged around 75kg to begin with – slightly more than 1x body weight. So it wasn’t the first time these guys had picked up a barbell, but they also weren’t elite athletes.
Protocol:
The subjects maxed at the beginning and end of the program to assess strength gains. Also, bar speed of all of their warmup sets was recorded (both groups were instructed to lift the bar as fast as they possibly could on all of their warmup sets) to see whether training fast or slow affected their force production capabilities.
They split the subjects into two groups. Half of them trained at max velocity (MaxV – controlled eccentric, and explosive concentric), and half of them trained at half velocity (HalfV – controlled eccentric, and 1/2 maximum bar speed for the concentric).
In every single category, MaxV saw basically twice the gains of HalfV
Notice – right around 2x the gains across the board
Breaking is all down:
So, lifting the bar faster means more gains, and it makes you more explosive with lighter weights too?
...lifting faster may produce superior gains in maximal strength.
The biggest takeaway is that being able to pick up heavier things makes it easier for you to move lighter things faster.
Getting stronger DOES help you produce more power, but it’s not highly specific. Lifting heavy things has a much higher carryover for lifting heavy things fast than it does for lifting light things fast.
So will you be able to throw a shot put further by increasing your bench, or be able to jump higher by increasing you squat?
Absolutely! To a point…
...actually recorded average velocities and concentric time under tension. TUT has been preached by some as a driving force in strength and hypertrophy gains.
However, the HalfV protocol had substantially more TUT than the MaxV protocol, but it produced substantially worse results. Perhaps TUT should be amended from “time under tension” to “time under maximal tension” – how much time you spend actually moving the weight with as much force as possible.
... there is a time and place for controlled concentrics – learning.
Wrap-up
...moving the bar as fast as possible probably produces better gains than intentionally slowing your rep speed...
Moving heavy things as fast as possible improves your ability to move heavy things fast much more than it improves your ability to move light things fast.
...use bar speed as an indicator of your strength day-to-day. You can use this knowledge to adapt a percentage-based program to fluctuations in strength day-to-day and (hopefully) improvements in strength over time without having to max in the gym regularly.
The information below reinforces this type of training...
Speed kills: 2x the intended bar speed yields ~2x the bench press gains • Stronger by Science
(May 2014) study published in the European Journal of Sports Science
Approximately double the strength gains by lifting the bar with maximum speed each rep, as opposed to a slower cadence
1. To produce more force, your body uses more muscle fibers (as opposed to each fiber just contracting harder to produce more force)
2. The first fibers your body uses are the smallest, slow-twitch fibers. To produce more and more force, it recruits progressively larger and stronger fibers, with your largest, strongest fast twitch fibers being the last ones integrated into the movement. (This is called Henneman’s Size Principle)
3. Recruiting these fibers isn’t based on the weight you’re using per se, but rather the amount of force you produce. Force = mass x acceleration, so all other things being equal, lifting a bar faster means you produced more force to lift it.
4. Therefore, lifting the bar faster recruits more muscle fibers.
5. The fast twitch muscle fibers – the last ones you recruit – are the ones most prone to hypertrophy, so lifting faster = more fast twitch fibers used = more strength and size gains.
Subjects:
24 men were recruited (4 dropped out), mostly in their early to mid 20s, and of normal height and weight (1.77 ± 0.08m, 70.9 ± 8.0kg). They were healthy and physically active, with 2-4 years “recreational” experience with the bench press. “Recreational” is a slippery term. Their 1rms averaged around 75kg to begin with – slightly more than 1x body weight. So it wasn’t the first time these guys had picked up a barbell, but they also weren’t elite athletes.
Protocol:
The subjects maxed at the beginning and end of the program to assess strength gains. Also, bar speed of all of their warmup sets was recorded (both groups were instructed to lift the bar as fast as they possibly could on all of their warmup sets) to see whether training fast or slow affected their force production capabilities.
They split the subjects into two groups. Half of them trained at max velocity (MaxV – controlled eccentric, and explosive concentric), and half of them trained at half velocity (HalfV – controlled eccentric, and 1/2 maximum bar speed for the concentric).
In every single category, MaxV saw basically twice the gains of HalfV
Notice – right around 2x the gains across the boardBreaking is all down:
So, lifting the bar faster means more gains, and it makes you more explosive with lighter weights too?
...lifting faster may produce superior gains in maximal strength.
The biggest takeaway is that being able to pick up heavier things makes it easier for you to move lighter things faster.
Getting stronger DOES help you produce more power, but it’s not highly specific. Lifting heavy things has a much higher carryover for lifting heavy things fast than it does for lifting light things fast.
So will you be able to throw a shot put further by increasing your bench, or be able to jump higher by increasing you squat?
Absolutely! To a point…
...actually recorded average velocities and concentric time under tension. TUT has been preached by some as a driving force in strength and hypertrophy gains.
However, the HalfV protocol had substantially more TUT than the MaxV protocol, but it produced substantially worse results. Perhaps TUT should be amended from “time under tension” to “time under maximal tension” – how much time you spend actually moving the weight with as much force as possible.
... there is a time and place for controlled concentrics – learning.
Wrap-up
...moving the bar as fast as possible probably produces better gains than intentionally slowing your rep speed...
Moving heavy things as fast as possible improves your ability to move heavy things fast much more than it improves your ability to move light things fast.
...use bar speed as an indicator of your strength day-to-day. You can use this knowledge to adapt a percentage-based program to fluctuations in strength day-to-day and (hopefully) improvements in strength over time without having to max in the gym regularly.
Last edited:
