What is power? How do we quantify it and how can we use it for athletic performance? Power is a simple formula of speed times strength. The ability of an athlete to move a weight very quickly. Strength is not usually applicable to most sports movements because it is a slow measure of ability to move a heavy weight. Most sports involve a combination of muscle coordination, muscle control, speed, and power. Strength vs. Power vs. Size. When you lift weights for strength you are taxing your muscles from an endurance standpoint by lifting a weight to failure. A bodybuilder will train this way to give the muscles the ripped effect. When you lift for size life a strongman then you will perform heavy lifts for very fewer repetitions. This will tax your muscles to create hypertrophy in order to gain added bulk. However power lifters are more geared toward the athlete because they train multiple body parts in compound movements which mimic athletic performance. Remember power is strength times speed.

Sport Specific training. If you perform a bicep curl then you are becoming better and more efficient at performing a bicep curl. In order to train for your sport you must pick exercise that is functional towards the common movements in your sport. The human body is a functional tool that is designed to work in multiple planes. Exercises should be performed with power and using proper body alignment and using multiple planes.

Power up your workouts with Olympic style lifts. Olympic lifts are multiple joint exercises that require power, coordination, and stamina. You can't simulate most athletic movements in the gym. However, you can simulate the hip flexion in tackling a running back by performing the hip flexion in a power clean. Olympic lifts are 100% pure power. A great total body Olympic exercise with a twist is called "The Bear." It is a power clean into a front squat into an explosive shoulder press into a back squat into a military press.

Unlike strength training, power training such as plyometrics and Olympic lifts such as cleans and snatches cannot be performed every day. They should be used no more than 3 days a week. This type of exercise are damaging on the muscles as well as your joints and ligaments. They also tax your muscular neurons and result in delayed onset muscle soreness. You body needs time t recover from the pounding so you should not perform these any more than 3 days a week.

The link between training for power and performance. Your body is a whole unit not a bunch of individual components. Your body works as a whole unit and is designed to perform movements in complex multiple planes. Therefore you need to rain functionally in multiple planes. The Stretch Shortening cycle. Explosive energy is created in the muscles through this SSC function in the body. It is much the same as a rubber band or a coil. Energy is stored kinetically in an opposing stretch of a muscle and is then sprung with the contraction of the antagonistic muscle. Does it sound too good to be true? Well everyone has the capability to train this function to explode faster, stronger, and more powerful. A perfect example of this is if you are standing tall and then I ask you to sprint 10 yards your first movement will be down. You are starting to get into what is known as an athletic stance. By doing this you're contracting your lower leg muscles in order to extend them in a violent forward movement to propel your body to sprint. This can be trained by using plyometrics and elevated jumps in a scientific fashion to create stored energy that is ready to explode.