RKC News - January 2015

A high maximal strength in fundamental movements such as pressing, pulling, bending, and lifting is important for every athlete to dominate their actual sport and be more injury-resistant.

Among technically equal athletes, the "stronger" often wins!

Maximal and explosive strength training are "brothers" because both training methods train the CNS. Maximal strength benefits from good explosive strength conditioning, and it can sometimes make sense to train both types of strength in the same training session. It is generally rare to move your maximal weight more than once in a session. Complex sets are a good method to enable this by first performing a maximal set and then an explosive strength set with 50% of the maximal weight with 3-5 explosive repetitions. The positive and negative movement should be as explosive as possible, in naturally correct execution.

Both exercises should be the same or at least similar. For example, barbell deadlifts and kettlebell double swings can be combined; you will need to test the weight, but it is worth it. All basic exercises work according to the principle: back squats / double kettlebell squats, barbell rowing / kettlebell rows, bench press / kettlebell bench press, military press barbell / military press double bells.

The first exercise is always the maximal strength exercise, which is usually a barbell exercise due to the higher weight.

Example rowing movement:
Maximal set (90-100%) barbell rowing 1-3 reps, 3-5 min. rest. Explosive strength set double kettlebell rows 50% weight per arm 3-5 min. rest.

Repeat this 4 times, and you will have completed 5 maximal and explosive strength sets.

The CNS has quite a bit to do, and everyone needs to experiment with the rest times between sets.

This training is not a permanent method, but it is a good method to overcome plateaus. Explosive strength is "transient" and should always be "kindled" again. If explosive and maximal strength training takes place separately, explosive strength has proven useful 72 hours before maximal strength training. A training partner should, of course, be present for the maximal sets.

...that I was able to increase my deadlift performance through heavy double swings, even though I hadn't done any deadlifts for 5 months?