Elite Physique The New Science of Building a Better Body

26 Elite Physique
Remember, the aforementioned strength guidelines aren’t appropriate for all
athletes or the general population. For example, it’s not necessary for a pitcher or
marathon runner to be able to bench-press 125 percent of his body weight, and it
might even be detrimental. But a powerlifter would typically need a lot more than
that to win a meet. And a rock climber would likely require significantly more
upper back strength than a soccer player. Consult a coach or physical therapist
to determine what’s best for you.
With all those caveats out of the way, if you choose to test any, or all, of the six
aforementioned exercises you’ll not only get a good understanding of your general
strength but also potentially expose any significant imbalances. For example, if
you can bench-press 250 pounds (113 kg) but can row only 150 pounds (68 kg),
that strength imbalance could decrease your overall performance and increase
your risk of a shoulder injury. Or maybe you performed well on all tests except
the reverse lunge. Adding that exercise into your program until you can perform
it with 40 percent of body weight could significantly increase your strength where
you need it most, which will likely increase your overall sport performance.
Explosive Strength
Explosive strength is the ability to express maximal force in minimal time. Force is
measured in newtons, which, not surprisingly, are named after Sir Isaac Newton.
One newton (N) is the force required to accelerate one kilogram of mass at one
meter per second squared in the direction the force is applied:
1N = 1 kg × m/s 2
Another way to write that equation is F = ma, where F stands for force, m
stands for mass, and a is acceleration. (If we’re splitting hairs, mass is not the
same as weight, but you can think of them as being the same for resistance training
purposes.)
Consider twin guys who are performing the concentric phase of a deadlift as
fast as possible with 315 pounds (143 kg). Athlete A takes 2 seconds to complete
the lift; athlete B lifts it in 1 second. In this case, athlete B has more explosive
strength than athlete A does. The rate at which an athlete can reach peak levels
of force is his rate of force development (RFD). An athlete builds his explosive
strength by increasing his RFD. It takes in excess of 0.3 to 0.4 seconds to reach
peak levels of force, but many explosive movements such as a jump, shot put,
or javelin throw occur in less time than that (Komi 2003). An athlete, therefore,
doesn’t have enough available time to reach his highest level of muscular force.
This is why it’s essential to improve your RFD: You will reach higher levels of
force in less time. When you hear a basketball announcer mention that the older
athlete with the ball has “lost his first step,” what he’s technically saying is “His
RFD has decreased.” For any sport that requires lightning-fast movements, from
baseball to karate to football, RFD is one of the most important qualities to develop
and sustain, as shown in figure 1.15. Increasing the RFD of your calves will also
reduce the likelihood of an unexpected fall (Hester et al. 2020).
There are two simple ways to test your explosive strength. You could perform
a vertical jump or a standing long jump test. This section covers the particulars
of both tests.