Explosive strength training: what is it for?

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Let’s see how to increase strength with the right training and good supplementation

Regardless of the type of physical activity you engage in, whether at a competitive or amateur level, muscular strength is one of the fundamental abilities of athletes and therefore needs to be trained well. But how do you increase muscle strength? How do you train strength? And above all, what type of strength is best trained for your discipline? If you want to increase your muscular strength and don’t know how to do it, in this article we’ll give you a few tips, explaining what the different types of strength are and going into specifics of explosive strength training.

The strenght

Muscular strength is the motor capacity to overcome or oppose a resistance through the development of tension by the muscles. The main physical characteristics that determine strength are the diameter of the muscle, the capacity and number of motor units recruited, muscle coordination and the number of fast fibres.

Three main types of force can be distinguished:

maximum strenght: the highest force that the neuromuscular system is able to generate with a voluntary contraction
resistant strenght: the body’s ability to resist fatigue during training
rapid strenght or fast strenght: the ability of the neuromuscular system to overcome resistance with maximum contraction speed

These are the main types of force, but they are not the only ones:

explosive strenght is the ability of the neuromuscular system to express high force gradients in the shortest possible time
elastic strenght is that obtained by exerting force in a very short time by means of the muscular ”stretching-shortening” mechanism (stretching of muscle-tendon structures is followed by immediate shortening)
reflex elastic strength, in which the ”stretching-shortening” mechanism lasts several cycles and the movements are very reduced
resistant strenght, is the expression of muscular contractions of small magnitude, in cyclic form and for a long duration
absolute strenght, refers to the maximum muscle tension that can be generated, regardless of the subject’s weight
relative strenght, is the maximum muscular tension in relation to the subject’s weight

Explosive strength training

Each of these types of strength can be trained depending on the type of sporting activity you intend to perform. Today we will focus on explosive strength, i.e. that which allows you to develop the power needed to respond more quickly to an action or stimulus. Explosive strength training will allow you to make rapid accelerations, preceded or followed by sudden decelerations, sudden changes of direction and rhythm, and high and deep jumps without any difficulty. This type of strength is developed when the contracting muscle is suddenly released, as in a sprint or a jump from a standstill, and mainly involves the white fibres, muscle fibres with a high speed of contraction.

Explosive strength is indispensable in numerous disciplines such as football, volleyball, basket, athletics, cycling and boxing. As we have already said many times, depending on the goals you want to achieve, it is good to rely on a specialized trainer who can create the right training program. We, therefore, will limit ourselves only to recommending some types of exercises that are really effective as explosive strength training:

squat jumps
snaps with elastic band
frontal squats
jumps on seated steps
double under

Creatine, a valid ally for increasing strength

In addition to lots of training followed by adequate rest, nutrition and the integration of specific nutrients are also essential for increasing muscle strength. In the world of sports supplements, when it comes to strength, one substance stands out above all the others: creatine. It is an amino acid naturally present in our body and essential for muscles to create ATP. But, since natural reserves are depleted very quickly, athletes need to replenish it through specific products to maintain high performance.

By using valid products it is possible to increase stocks by up to 40%. CREAFos by Sprintade® it is the right supplement for this purpose. Thanks to the high content of creatine and fructose 1,6 diphosphate, in fact, it can be consumed regularly in order to increase muscle reserves of creatine and phosphates and be used to better tackle explosive strength training.