Explosive Strength Is Required in Daily Life Too

Explosive strength or “power” means being able to overcome resistance in the shortest possible time. It is not only a decisive performance factor in sports but also in day-to-day activities (Izquierdo & Cadore 2014). Functional movements carried out in everyday life, such as “climbing stairs” or “getting up from a chair,” requires your entire body weight to be accelerated within fractions of a second.

Older people in particular often have problems doing this. They don’t lack the basic strength needed to get up from a chair, for example. What they lack is the ability to build up strength quickly. The main reason for this is that explosive power drastically decreases with age when compared to maximum strength (Izquierdo & Cadore 2014).

Power Deteriorates with Age More than Maximum Strength

Studies show that exercising for power is the most important type of exercise for maintaining general capabilities and muscle performance. Unfortunately, however, explosive power is also the physical ability that disappears most quickly in old age (by -3.5% per year starting from the age of 65) – much faster than maximum strength (-1.5% per year), endurance, or mobility.

Working out for power is considered to be particularly important in old age for functional rejuvenation and the prevention of falls (Izquierdo & Cadore 2014). Increased power ultimately means better performance, smoother movements, and greater safety in everyday life (Cadore et. al 2014).

Fig. 1: Power vs. Time Curve Annual reduction in maximum strength from the age of 65. Power has the greatest slope in the Power vs. Time Curve (Granacher & Gollhofer 2005).

Each Rep Performed at Peak Effort Optimally Improves Power

A basic rule is: Train at the limit you want to increase! If you want to train muscular endurance, you have to do a lot of reps. If you want to train maximum strength, you have to train with maximum weight. If you want to increase your power or performance, you have to train at peak performance.

What Is Peak Performance? Performance (physical) is the product of force and speed. Speed should always be kept as high as possible when working out and then vary depending on how heavy the weight is.

If you use a heavy weight for repetitions, you can only move very slowly and thus obtain a low level of performance (e.g. 100 kg × 0.1 m/s = 10 watts). Working out with low weight lets you achieve a high speed but ultimately only low performance (e.g. 10 kg × 1 m/s = 10 watts.) A medium weight lets you work out at an average speed and thereby achieve a higher level of performance (50 kg × 0.5 m/s = 25 watts). This means that if you work out with a medium weight and go as fast as you can, you will achieve a higher level of physical performance per repetition. Depending on which muscle group is being trained, the ideal weight for working out should be approx. 45–60% of the maximum strength.

The Breakdown of EGYM’s Explonic Training

The aim of explonic training is to carry out a push movement at full force The return movement should be slow and smooth. The workout has been divided into individual phases so you can train as safely and effectively as possible:

Warm-up – 1st interval – Break – 2nd interval

Warm-up:
Five reps are carried out on the EGYM Smart Strength machines at a “normal” speed at the beginning of the workout to warm up the joints and thus prevent injuries.

Intervals:
The goal of interval training in this instance is not to exert yourself to complete exhaustion but to keep your effort up as high as possible for every rep. During each interval, 6 repetitions are carried out with a weight that allows for approx. 15 repetitions to be completed. This means that you don’t push yourself to utter exhaustion, but only to the point where the maximum possible speed drops off by around 10–20%.

Powerful movements enable the most energetic substance in the body (creatine phosphate) to be used. Although this substance is expended quickly, it can also be absorbed by the body very quickly. That is why the workout includes a 15-second pause after the first 6 reps.

Exercising for Power Is Not Possible with Conventional Machines

Power cannot be trained on traditional weight-stack machines. The weight plates would fly off the guide during acceleration and provide no workout resistance upon speeding up. Consequently, conventional machines are not built for power but rather to ensure smooth movements.

This also applies to working out with free weights such as barbells and dumbbells, which would fly all around when you need to turn up the speed.

Effectiveness Drops with Bodyweight Exercises

The disadvantage of using functional workouts or bodyweight exercises to train for power is that there is an increased risk of injury because it is quite easy to make incorrect movements. Older individuals or beginners should therefore not use bodyweight exercises to train for power.

Workouts are also less effective if you cannot train with the optimal weight but only with your given body weight. The best performance per repetition cannot be achieved at all or only randomly achieved when you train with your body weight.

That’s why EGYM developed “Explonic” for everyone to have access to the best power workout.