Bodybuilding’s hidden secret: Power

[Warrior]

Hey ya'll - this is in Muscular Development magazine, April 2007, page 42!

Bodybuilding’s hidden secret: Power
by Warrior

Deep within the bodybuilding magazines’ lore of successful bodybuilding tactics lays an often misunderstood truth: successful bodybuilding requires increases in power to generate maximum development. But what is power and how do the concepts apply to human physiology?

In general physics terms, power is the average amount of work done or energy transferred per unit of time, again, per unit of time. When you perform resistance exercise you are generating power that can be easily measured with the often neglected variable. Many training logs record sets, reps, loads, some girl’s phone number – but most neglect the start and end times.

You show up to the gym with your game face on, ready to make some improvements. You warm up with some flat barbell bench presses, preparing for your first working set. Time to get it on; you push out 10 repetitions of 225 pounds for 4 sets. If you did the exact same thing last time, could you have progressed? Certainly, but the extent lies in using the time to completion as part of the overall equation judging progress.

If you lift 225 pounds for 10 repetitions, you lifted 2250 pounds total. If you do this for 4 sets; you lifted 9000 pounds. But it doesn’t stop there. Last workout, from beginning to end, you did this in 10 minutes. If you divide 9000 by 10 you get 900 pounds per minute. If you did the same work in 9 minutes this workout; you lifted 1000 pounds per minute – a nice gain of 100 pounds per minute! You are continuing to develop your musculature by performing the same work in less time.

Remember the infamous question, “how much can you bench?” The correct response from this example would be 900 pounds per minute. Not the conventional answer, but one that refers to this misunderstood concept.

The body needs a reason to adapt. Simply going in and adding more weight to the bar – or going in completely blind to what defines progress – can leave you feeling hopeless, when in reality, you may be gaining. Short rest intervals can leave you re-training a muscle before it has been able to completely recover from the last set, but this is where true progress occurs. It’s the sweet-spot of your physiology. You must find loads, reps, and sets that lead to you performing more power over the same length of time.

Next time you are in the gym, think about this. Think about how many times you sit around staring at the mirror as if you could mind-build greater musculature; when you should be preparing for your next set. Bodybuilding is about short rest intervals and training that creates a demand for increased power. These workouts can be brutal, sometimes straight up nauseating, but they create a powerful growth cue for the body.

Stop sitting around, start a training log if you haven’t yet, and get moving – the clock on the wall is tickin’ and you should be sweatin’.

[Mealticket]

nice post, good article

[thekaydense]

looks like someone has been reading peter sisco and john littles work?

[Warrior]

looks like someone has been reading peter sisco and john littles work?

Yeah, I have read several of them and they are good books. Their ideas on power factors have followed me for years. I don't really like the limited range of motion that they like to preach but the concept is really good.

To properly measure power output - total work generated must remain constant by sticking to the same range of motion, regardless of what that might be. The overall concept is very helpful when dieting and trying to maintain strength and LBM.

Thinking about power output time to completion variables changes your outlook when you see people sitting around - you jsut want to go shake them and say, "dude - your gettin' weaker just sitting there waiting!"

[perfectbeast2001]

well done mate, good article!

[thekaydense]

i understand it and its kind of a cool concept. i dont think it completely holds true in bodybuilding though. it doesnt take into account time under stress. basic example

supposedly, curling 135 lbs 10 times in 30 seconds is better than lifting 135 10 times in 60 seconds. how much of those 30 seconds are at the top or bottom of the lift doing nothing. how much of that is momentum speeding things up. sure your moving more weight at a faster rate, but does that mean the muscle is working harder. i dont think you would disagree that someone doing 135 for 10 reps in which they do 6 second slow negative and 4 second tight contractions which takes them a total of 2 minutes is doing less work than the person doing it for 30 seconds.

[GeneticallyInferior]

Great info, I should really start a workout log.

[Warrior]

i understand it and its kind of a cool concept. i dont think it completely holds true in bodybuilding though. it doesnt take into account time under stress. basic example

supposedly, curling 135 lbs 10 times in 30 seconds is better than lifting 135 10 times in 60 seconds. how much of those 30 seconds are at the top or bottom of the lift doing nothing. how much of that is momentum speeding things up. sure your moving more weight at a faster rate, but does that mean the muscle is working harder. i dont think you would disagree that someone doing 135 for 10 reps in which they do 6 second slow negative and 4 second tight contractions which takes them a total of 2 minutes is doing less work than the person doing it for 30 seconds.

Right... that would fall into the actual work being imposed on the muscle by changing the tempo of the range of motion. Doing a 6 second negative - or perhaps a 15 second static hold - means you are resisting the load for a greater time... but fatique and metabolic biproducts (like a build up of lactate) are going to keep you from repeating the movement. There is a sweet-spot where you can maximize how long you can keep pushing/pulling against a given load - this is a genetic thing based on your physiology and CNS effeciency. Negatives and static holds are going to rapidly deplete energy stores and lead to quicker muscular failure... resulting in needing more rest. And some are more effecient at progressing with heavier loads than lighter - or vice versa... and different muscles require different rep-ranges...

Static holds would be a pretty basic way to apply this theory... if you can hold a weight - say 100 pounds) in the contracted position for 20 seconds... then you you graduate to holding it for 30 seconds - obviuosly you are getting more effecient.

Another example: say you do 5 sets of flat bench presses for 5 reps each... over 20 minutes. But then during your next workout you incorporate negatives - obviously you can not push the same amount of reps to failure and then expect to hold a negative for an appreciable amount of time; nor could you do 5 sets of negatives. So you shift the load and how you lift it to accompish less work but also in less time. Which is better? Which ever makes you a powerful human in my book...

As far as momentum and what not... that can't be a factor. The trainee should have enough discipline to consistently keep to good form for accurate records. If you do a half rep, swing a weight or anything outside the standard for calculating the power you are producing - it should not count into the overall score for the workout.

Of course there are many limiters to this idea... but it is an interesting one. The human body is quite complex with it's muscular systems, ball- and hinge-joint movements, bone structure, as well as an athletes CNS and mind-muscle connection effeciency... but in the end, this idea gives you an approach to measure workout effectiveness based on a simple idea: a more powerful body will be a more muscular body.

BTW - I like these types of discussions... ya dig what I am sayin'?

[Thin Ice]

This is one of those things that sounds like it makes sense, but it just doesn't hold true in reality. Just imagine lifting 90% of you maximum 3 times, versus 45% of your maximum 6 times at twice speed (the same time). The power (as defined in physics, work / time) is the same, but the first scenario is much more intense, right?

From personal experience, I've found that the most effective way to strength train is to use the maximum amount of weight that you can *explosively* lift, lift as fast as you can on the way up, then fight the weight all the way down for a few seconds. Go to exhaustion. I read somewhere that this helps work the fast twitch and slow twitch muscles, and it helped me get past some frustrating plateaus.

[IronAdam]

Nice article and congrats on making it as Romano's pick, thats bad ass man! Thats an interesting way to look at strength training, but there's something to be said for fully recovering between sets to give another all out effort on the following set. When lifting for strength I'll usually wait as long as I need till I feel ready to give a max effort on my next set (usually <5 reps).

[Warrior]

This is one of those things that sounds like it makes sense, but it just doesn't hold true in reality. Just imagine lifting 90% of you maximum 3 times, versus 45% of your maximum 6 times at twice speed (the same time). The power (as defined in physics, work / time) is the same, but the first scenario is much more intense, right?

From personal experience, I've found that the most effective way to strength train is to use the maximum amount of weight that you can *explosively* lift, lift as fast as you can on the way up, then fight the weight all the way down for a few seconds. Go to exhaustion. I read somewhere that this helps work the fast twitch and slow twitch muscles, and it helped me get past some frustrating plateaus.

Well, lets punch in some ficticous numbers...

405*3 = 1215 lbs in 10 seconds would be 121.5 pounds/sec
365*6 = 2190 lbs. in 20 seconds would be 109.25 pounds/sec

However, some people can push a higher power indexes using high reps - some people progress better using lower... figuring in a percent of your 1RM is not a consistent thing. Don't believe me? Find someone with your same limit strength - say you both can max bench 405. 90 percent of that would be 365 pounds - unless you both have nearly the same muscle physiology - and CNS capabillities - you won't push the same reps out with 365; even though you both max bench 405.

I knew a guy in Vegas that was highly adaptive to high rep training... he could pull 20 reps and turn around and do the same weight again in less than 60 seconds. But if he worked low-rep, he couldn't recover nearly as fast. Muscle mechanics and physiology is such a complicated subject...

This is better when looking at the whole picture - not pounds per second but pounds per minute over multiple sets.

Some muscle groups allow you to gain high power scores while taking more time because there is a dramatic increase in strength when the RI interval is allowed to increase... every one is different as far as that is concerned. Simply cutting out all rest will not generate your maximum power index for the workout - there is a sweet spot to it... just have to find it...

[marcus300]

Well, lets punch in some ficticous numbers...

405*3 = 1215 lbs in 10 seconds would be 121.5 pounds/sec
365*6 = 2190 lbs. in 20 seconds would be 109.25 pounds/sec

However, some people can push a higher power indexes using high reps - some people progress better using lower... figuring in a percent of your 1RM is not a consistent thing. Don't believe me? Find someone with your same limit strength - say you both can max bench 405. 90 percent of that would be 365 pounds - unless you both have nearly the same muscle physiology - and CNS capabillities - you won't push the same reps out with 365; even though you both max bench 405.

I knew a guy in Vegas that was highly adaptive to high rep training... he could pull 20 reps and turn around and do the same weight again in less than 60 seconds. But if he worked low-rep, he couldn't recover nearly as fast. Muscle mechanics and physiology is such a complicated subject...

This is better when looking at the whole picture - not pounds per second but pounds per minute over multiple sets.

Some muscle groups allow you to gain high power scores while taking more time because there is a dramatic increase in strength when the RI interval is allowed to increase... every one is different as far as that is concerned. Simply cutting out all rest will not generate your maximum power index for the workout - there is a sweet spot to it... just have to find it...

This is because of his genetic makeup, all depends on which muscle fibers are more dominant slow/fast twitch.We do know that fast twitch muscle fibers have a greater muscle growth potential than slow twitch for us bodybuilders. So logic tells us that the more fast twitch fibers someone has the greater the muscle tissue potential.The muscle fiber make-up is mostly a pre-determined genetic thing, although it is possible to stimulate fiber transformation of the slow twitch profile but not at any serious degree. So the muscle potential is genetically determined or at least it looks that way.

Well done on the article

[Thin Ice]

Well, lets punch in some ficticous numbers...

405*3 = 1215 lbs in 10 seconds would be 121.5 pounds/sec
365*6 = 2190 lbs. in 20 seconds would be 109.25 pounds/sec

However, some people can push a higher power indexes using high reps - some people progress better using lower... figuring in a percent of your 1RM is not a consistent thing. Don't believe me? Find someone with your same limit strength - say you both can max bench 405. 90 percent of that would be 365 pounds - unless you both have nearly the same muscle physiology - and CNS capabillities - you won't push the same reps out with 365; even though you both max bench 405.

I knew a guy in Vegas that was highly adaptive to high rep training... he could pull 20 reps and turn around and do the same weight again in less than 60 seconds. But if he worked low-rep, he couldn't recover nearly as fast. Muscle mechanics and physiology is such a complicated subject...

This is better when looking at the whole picture - not pounds per second but pounds per minute over multiple sets.

Some muscle groups allow you to gain high power scores while taking more time because there is a dramatic increase in strength when the RI interval is allowed to increase... every one is different as far as that is concerned. Simply cutting out all rest will not generate your maximum power index for the workout - there is a sweet spot to it... just have to find it...

I'll have to think about this for a while for it all to sink in, but I'll describe what I was thinking in greater detail with fictitious numbers. Imagine having a 400 pound maximum bench press, to use round numbers. Now imagine two workouts:

Bench 90% maximum (360 pounds) for 5 sets of 3, with 5 minutes between each set. (360*5*3/5 = 1080 units of power)

Bench 45% maximum (180 pounds) for 5 sets of 6, with 2.5 minutes between each set. (180*5*6/2.5 = 2160 units of power)

According to this article, the second workout should be much more taxing that the first, but I beg to differ. You'd feel the first workout in the morning for sure. However, if you can bench 400, 180 will feel like an empty bar to you. You could do reps from now until tomorrow with such low weight. So a few sets of 6 reps, even close together, would essentially be a null workout - a long warm-up at best.

Just my

[goose]

Great read!!

[D-Bo Dre]

Interesting topic. I've always been a fan of resistance training and negatives to increase strength...

[Doc.Sust]

great info

[Doc.Sust]

I'll have to think about this for a while for it all to sink in, but I'll describe what I was thinking in greater detail with fictitious numbers. Imagine having a 400 pound maximum bench press, to use round numbers. Now imagine two workouts:

Bench 90% maximum (360 pounds) for 5 sets of 3, with 5 minutes between each set. (360*5*3/5 = 1080 units of power)

Bench 45% maximum (180 pounds) for 5 sets of 6, with 2.5 minutes between each set. (180*5*6/2.5 = 2160 units of power)

According to this article, the second workout should be much more taxing that the first, but I beg to differ. You'd feel the first workout in the morning for sure. However, if you can bench 400, 180 will feel like an empty bar to you. You could do reps from now until tomorrow with such low weight. So a few sets of 6 reps, even close together, would essentially be a null workout - a long warm-up at best.

Just my

not true at all, have you ever heard of dynamic trining? it is used for speed, for the bench lifters would use 50% of their max for 8 sets of 3 reps with 30 second breaks btwn sets. strength x speed = power/ this method is used by some of the top powerlifters on the planet,i myself dont find spped work neccessary all the time, but it definately has its place in powerlifting and training for power

[Thin Ice]

not true at all, have you ever heard of dynamic trining? it is used for speed, for the bench lifters would use 50% of their max for 8 sets of 3 reps with 30 second breaks btwn sets. strength x speed = power/ this method is used by some of the top powerlifters on the planet,i myself dont find spped work neccessary all the time, but it definately has its place in powerlifting and training for power

Early on in my weightlifting, my lower body workout consisted of deadlifts. I tried doing a bunch of sets, close together, not going to exhaustion, and all it did was make me really sore later. To get real results, I had to do as I described earlier. In all fairness, though, I was doing 10 sets of 10 with 2 minutes between, using 70% to 80% of my maximum. Maybe I was overtraining and if I did less as you described, it would have worked, or maybe it's just different for different people.