Plyometric or Explosive Legs?

[belph]

A word to the wise here. When it comes to combat sports especially. And generally any sport that isnt weightlifting. Absolute strength is nowhere near as important as the ability to exert maximal force quickly. This is why plyometrics are useful. Explosive power is my forte and if anyone needs advice feel free to pm me

Lol.

 

[ripskater]

So the ability to exert maximal force quickly isn't important in weightlifting now?

Power lifting is much slower than throwing a punch. You can do bench presses all day and have extremely slow hand speed. In sports like boxing, it's how quickly you react, how quickly and explosively your feet, torso, arm deliver the force through your fist. And how accurately you deliver it. I think plyo's are more important for that, once a certain level of strength is acheived. And that level of strength needed is very debatable. To do plyos, your body has to relax and contract very quickly efficiently. That is probably a more important attribute to have when throwing punches and kicks. Probably more important than loading a barbell with weights and benching as quickly and explosively as you can. It's still gonna be too slow in my opinion. It's good to train both though.

 

[belph]

I'm just going to leave this here.

 

[PowerHungry]

Power lifting is much slower than throwing a punch. You can do bench presses all day and have extremely slow hand speed. In sports like boxing, it's how quickly you react, how quickly and explosively your feet, torso, arm deliver the force through your fist. And how accurately you deliver it. I think plyo's are more important for that, once a certain level of strength is acheived. And that level of strength needed is very debatable. To do plyos, your body has to relax and contract very quickly efficiently. That is probably a more important attribute to have when throwing punches and kicks. Probably more important than loading a barbell with weights and benching as quickly and explosively as you can. It's still gonna be too slow in my opinion. It's good to train both though.

Powerlifting =/= weightlifting.

 

[KILL KILL]

QUICK!!! Someone find this guy some explosiveness!

 

[LegioTitan]

A word to the wise here. When it comes to combat sports especially. And generally any sport that isnt weightlifting. Absolute strength is nowhere near as important as the ability to exert maximal force quickly. This is why plyometrics are useful. Explosive power is my forte and if anyone needs advice feel free to pm me

That word. I do not think it means, what you think it means.

 

[belph]

 

[TheeFaulted]

QUICK!!! Someone find this guy some explosiveness!

Just think what Dimas could accomplish if he quit wasting his time on weight lifting and focused on plyos.

 

[LegioTitan]

I always liked Huster's kangaroos a bit more

 

[belph]

Just think what Dimas could accomplish if he quit wasting his time on weight lifting and focused on plyos.

World domination along with that Huster fellow.

Edit: Speaking of Huster and Dimas..

 

[PowerHungry]

I know shit about OL but have always liked this duel.

 

[ripskater]

Powerlifting =/= weightlifting.

I felt like olympic lifts, but mainly the snatch was most helpful to me. And it seemed like doing unilateral hanging snatch was particularly helpful for me with a weight I could do at least 10 times. I'm not completely sure why. I have theories as to why. But when I tried more and more weight, I didn't feel that it translated as well to explosion and playing my sports.

 

[LegioTitan]

I felt like olympic lifts, but mainly the snatch was most helpful to me. And it seemed like doing unilateral hanging snatch was particularly helpful for me with a weight I could do at least 10 times. I'm not completely sure why. I have theories as to why. But when I tried more and more weight, I didn't feel that it translated as well to explosion and playing my sports.

Then you were not doing it properly. Plain and simple. The fact that you were doing "unilateral hanging snatch" at 10 reps is further evidence that you were not doing it properly.

 

[ripskater]

Then you were not doing it properly. Plain and simple. The fact that you were doing "unilateral hanging snatch" at 10 reps is further evidence that you were not doing it properly.

Proper or not, that's what seemed to work best for me. Any athlete can test it out for himself and see what and how it is translating on the field or court.

 

[belph]

......

 

[Gingervitis]

Proper or not, that's what seemed to work best for me. Any athlete can test it out for himself and see what and how it is translating on the field or court.

How can you say that hang unilateral snatches "worked best for you" when you were doing regular snatches improperly?

 

[IgorsOverhand]

So the ability to exert maximal force quickly isn't important in weightlifting now?

I meant Powerlifting. My bad.

 

[KnightTemplar]

Power lifting is much slower than throwing a punch. You can do bench presses all day and have extremely slow hand speed. In sports like boxing, it's how quickly you react, how quickly and explosively your feet, torso, arm deliver the force through your fist. And how accurately you deliver it. I think plyo's are more important for that, once a certain level of strength is acheived. And that level of strength needed is very debatable. To do plyos, your body has to relax and contract very quickly efficiently. That is probably a more important attribute to have when throwing punches and kicks. Probably more important than loading a barbell with weights and benching as quickly and explosively as you can. It's still gonna be too slow in my opinion. It's good to train both though.

A common misconception is that the Powerlifts are slow because the Powerlifter is not trying to move the Bar quickly. In reality Squats, Deadlifts and Benches with maximal weight are "slow" because the Bar is fucking heavy!

OK, I admit I was being sarcastic, but the truth is that the very techniques of Squats, Benches etc forces the PL to lift slowly, as opposed to the Olympic Lifts where it's impossible to Clean & Jerk or Snatch with any meaningful weight slowly.

I have nothing but respect for Olympic Lifters, but the idea that Powerlifters are not capable of developing/generating explosive force is deeply flawed, IMHO.

 

[ripskater]

kt, Can't disagree with anything you said here. I think a powerlifter needs to do some things fast and light to develop speed and relaxation. If we're talking about it translating to other sports. Plyos, sprints can help do that. So for explosive sport movement, a powerlifter already will have the strength part.

 

[TeddyRoosevelt]

A word to the wise here. When it comes to combat sports especially. And generally any sport that isnt weightlifting. Absolute strength is nowhere near as important as the ability to exert maximal force quickly. This is why plyometrics are useful. Explosive power is my forte and if anyone needs advice feel free to pm me

Please, sir, elaborate. If explosive power is your "forte," then I would love to have a discussion about the development of it here, rather than via PM, so the whole forum might benefit and join in.

kt, Can't disagree with anything you said here. I think a powerlifter needs to do some things fast and light to develop speed and relaxation. If we're talking about it translating to other sports. Plyos, sprints can help do that. So for explosive sport movement, a powerlifter already will have the strength part.

Plyos, sprints, etc. can HELP. Sport-specificity when choosing these movements is more helpful. Prescribing a generic sprint/plyo routine for, say, a competitive fighter, is less than ideal.