[Emerge]

Does anyone know anything about explosive rep type of training? I don't know if that's the proper term for it, as I just made it up. However, I'm talking about the type of reps where the weight leaves you and comes back.

For example:

Say you are on your chest day, and instead of bench, you go to a smith machine load up somewhere close to like 50% of your 1RM, and then explode the weight up so that your pushing it enough to leave your hands and then you catch it again on the way down.

I've seen football players doing these type of reps in squat like exercises or leg press type of exercises. So, I was wondering if there was like a complete protocol for every body part and exercise.

[dsade]

Plyometrics

[Emerge]

I thought plyometrics was just doing box hops and things of that nature. Is it good for gaining muscle, strength, or anything of the sort?

[dsade]

Originally Posted by Emerge

I thought plyometrics was just doing box hops and things of that nature. Is it good for gaining muscle, strength, or anything of the sort?

It's great for dexerity, strengthening mind/muscle neuroconnections, explosive strength, and control.

Same concepts, just that adding weights in there means you have be be extremely careful.

I love doing throw-benchpresses.

[Emerge]

Would you recommend to try these as a staple of a workout, or just as a supplement. What I mean is, would I benefit from doing bench-throws, incline bench throws, decline bench throws, and then regular pec dec flyes as much as I would if I were just doing bench, incline, decline, and then pec dec flyes?

I'm just trying to change things up a bit, but I wanted some opinions before I did this.

[Hank Vangut]

throw benchpresses are crazy!

if your primary goal is bodybuilding, just add them in occasionally.

[Saurabh]

Originally Posted by Emerge

Would you recommend to try these as a staple of a workout, or just as a supplement. What I mean is, would I benefit from doing bench-throws, incline bench throws, decline bench throws, and then regular pec dec flyes as much as I would if I were just doing bench, incline, decline, and then pec dec flyes?

I do it with my squats in every workout. Here is my front squat routine.

Bar * 20
Bar + 90lbs * 12
Bar + 145lbs * 12
Bar + 180 lbs * 8(3 sets).

After I am done all of the sets, a$$ to grass, I will take off the weight and just have Bar + 90lbs. I will then do a slow rep, rest at the bottom for a second, fire every single fibre and raise up real fast. Since I have already had about 6 sets of squats by this time my legs are tired and every single fibre is called into work. I am not able to go heavy on these but boy are they nasty!

You can use the same in any exercise really.

[dsade]

Originally Posted by Hank Vangut

throw benchpresses are crazy!

if your primary goal is bodybuilding, just add them in occasionally.

Yes...this.

[Joshua86]

You could give ballistic training a try. This is a technique for increasing intensity where you drive a weight with explosive power, yet remaining smooth in form, rather than just throwing the weight as hard or as fast as you can, which leaves you at a very high risk for injury if you're not careful, especially if you're using really heavy weights. This training requires the central nervous system to coordinate and produce the greatest amount of force in the shortest time possible.

Now with this technique you use a relatively heavy weight, so when you drive the weight, or explode it, you're not really going to be moving the weight very fast. However, you benefit from this effort in numerous ways.

First of all, ballistic training creates variable resistance. As you explode the weight, you accelerate it, and it become heavier (physics). So at the beginning of the lift, when you are stronger and more able to explode the weight, you're essentially lifting a heavier weight due to a mathematical mix of leverage, speed and gravity. So towards the end of the set, after you've become somewhat fatigued and you're weaker, you're not going to be able to explode the weight with the same force and acceleration, therefore the weight is not as heavy. Therefore, the weight is heavier when you are stronger, and not as heavy when you are weaker. This is known as variable resistance.

Ballistic training also tend to recruit more fast-twitch muscle fibers, due to the nature of the movements and forces being applied. Fast-twitch (white muscle fibers) are larger and stronger than slow-twitch (red muscle fibers).

Also, after each rep you should be getting weaker and weaker as your energy levels deplete to match the effort you're putting into the lifts. Even though every rep should be performed with maximum effort and intensity, obviously the muscles aren't going to be able to keep up chemically, so each following rep should become harder and harder. Therefore, ballistic training is a great way to increase intensity, for whatever reason.

To clarify how ballistic training is performed: lower the weight smoothly, at a constant speed, like usual. Pause at the bottom, like usual, but as you drive the weight, explode it, accelerating it in a controlled manner (rather than just throwing it up and letting it fall to bounce off of you, or something like that, which unfortunately happens all the time.) Also, ballistic training is usually performed with exercises that involve multiple large muscle groups (heavy compound lifts). Use a weight that you could normally lift anywhere from 8-12 reps. With ballistic training, you're probably going to fall within a range of about 3-4 reps lower than what you're used to, due to the nature of this training technique.

Hope that can prove useful to someone out there!

Good luck with your training, bro!