Explosive strength - everything you need to know

Whenever fast movements, quick actions or changes of direction are required in sport, explosive strength is needed. But how can explosive strength be trained? We show you how in this guide.

spized | Training tips

December 4, 2023 |

Whats’ on this page

1. What is explosive strength?

2. What factors influence explosive strength?

3. How can the speed strength of athletes be measured?

4. Which sports require high-speed strength?

5. How can I plan a high-speed strength training programme?

6. You can plan your training with these speed exercises

7. Conclusion: high-speed strength training is important for almost every sport

What is explosive strength?

Explosive strength is one of the most important athletic abilities of sportsmen and sportswomen. It is considered "performance-limiting". This means that your speed can limit your athletic performance.

In general, speed is a dynamic force that is determined per unit of time. In sport, this is the ability to develop as much force as possible during a specific movement in as short a time interval as possible.

Good to know: Physically, or from the perspective of training science, a force is either dynamic or static. With a dynamic force effect, a concentric or eccentric contraction occurs in the muscle fibres. As a result, the muscle becomes shorter or longer. A dynamic force effect involves a concentric or eccentric contraction in the muscle fibres. Accordingly, the muscle becomes shorter or longer. An eccentric contraction is a decelerating movement, e.g. in the biceps during a pull-up when you lower yourself in a controlled manner. The concentric contraction occurs when you pull your body up again. During the eccentric contraction, you can develop more strength than in the concentric phase, which is why classic eccentric training is performed with over 100% of the 1RM.

However, if you remain at a certain height during a pull-up, this is a static force that causes an isometric contraction in the biceps. The muscle length remains the same while the tension gradually builds up. When training your speed strength, you are moving in the area of dynamic contraction.

What factors influence explosive strength?

There is a common misconception that the stronger you are, the better your explosive strength will automatically be. In other words, many people think that greater maximum strength also increases your speed. However, this is not entirely correct.

Of course, you need to know that strength and speed are related in muscles: The faster a muscle is moved, the less force it can develop. For example, if you do a very heavy squat, you will do it very slowly. Nevertheless, more maximum strength is required, but less speed strength. Expressed in a formula, this means that the highest speed power output is one third of the static maximum strength and around 25 to 30 per cent of the maximum contraction speed.

To get back to the topic: You are not automatically faster if you are stronger. A high static maximum strength does not mean that a person can also develop it quickly. Two people with the same maximum strength can perform completely differently in terms of speed. This often becomes clear in super-heavyweight boxing matches, for example. Both boxers then have a very high maximum strength. But in order to convert this into a knockout, speed is required. It ensures that a punch can get through the defence, for example, and hit the opponent.

But to come back to the beginning: A person with a higher maximum strength will usually have an easier time with explosive movements than a person with a lower maximum strength. This becomes clear in the shot put. Maximum strength plays an important role here, as the ball is a relatively lighter load if you are stronger, so you can move it faster.

From a biological perspective, the size of the cross-sectional area of the fast muscle fibres (type 2 fibres) is crucial for speed. The more of these fibres there are and the thicker they are, the more speed strength an athlete can develop. As a coach, it is important to check how well the respective athlete is able to develop strength quickly in movements relevant to their sport.

In addition to the quantity and thickness of type 2 muscle fibres, there are other non-biological factors that limit performance in the sport-specific application of high-speed strength:

How good is movement coordination? Improving the sequences of individual movements can significantly improve performance.
How long are the limbs (=anthropometric characteristics)? The lever function plays an important role here, e.g. in throwing disciplines.
How good was the pre-tensioning of the muscles? Isometric or eccentric contraction prior to the actual movement improves the development of speed strength.
How motivated is the athlete? This psychological factor is often decisive in competitions.

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How can the speed strength of athletes be measured?

Various methods can be used to measure increases in performance during high-speed strength training. There are many different valid tests for this, for which no special technical requirements need to be met. The following performances can form the basis for the measurement:

10m, 20m sprint: How long do I need for this distance?
vertical jump: How high do I jump?
Standing long jump: How far can I jump?
backwards medicine ball throw: How far can I throw the medicine ball?

Of course, you can also use various devices to measure your speed strength:

Moving a defined load with maximum voluntary contraction in certain strength exercises. This is possible with a leg press in the gym or weights room.
Recording the force using force plates leads to a force-time curve (diagram). According to this, the quick force = Kmax/tmax (maximum force divided by the time it took to reach it)

If such technical measuring devices are used to determine the speed force, diagrams are created. These can be used to read off other parameters that count towards speed:

Explosive strength Ability of the neuromuscular system to maximise the development of a strength increase that has already begun.
Ability of the neuromuscular system to develop the greatest possible/fastest possible increase in force from the start of the contraction

Which sports require high-speed strength?

Basically, speed or explosive strength is important in all sports where the development of strength per unit of time is important. In athletics, this applies to all throwing disciplines such as shot put or javelin, long jump, all sprint disciplines from the 100 metre to the 400 or 800 metre run. Speed is also important in sports where there are quick changes of pace or direction, such as in the ball sports of handball, football or basketball.

Whenever a racket is involved, you also need good speed, just like in badminton, tennis or table tennis. After all, speed is also important for gymnasts, whether on the parallel bars, high bar or floor, it doesn't matter.

A variant of speed strength, starting strength, is relevant in sports where you have to react quickly to an event with a high initial acceleration. This can be when defending or counter-attacking in boxing, when reacting to smash balls in badminton or table tennis, when starting a sprint or in fencing. Speed is even required for the starting jump in swimming. Ultimately, there is almost no sport that can do without speed, except perhaps chess.

How can I plan a high-speed strength training programme?

In fact, there is no one-size-fits-all training plan that provides a single answer to the question "How do I improve my speed?". Each speed training programme must be individually tailored to the person in question and the sport or movement sequences for which speed is required.

For example, what works very well for one person in high-speed strength training may not necessarily be suitable for another person in the same sport. In principle, speed strength training should always be tailored as specifically as possible to the requirements of the sport or the target movement. In other words, if you want to prepare for a sprint, you need different speed training than for playing handball.

However, there are general principles that you can take into account during high-speed strength training:

Your goal should be to recruit as many fast muscle fibres as possible in order to train them. This increases the cross-sectional area of the muscle fibres and at the same time the number of fibres that you can target simultaneously.
To do this, you make use of the so-called "Henneman size principle": the (faster) more strength is required, the more muscle fibres are recruited, first the slow ones, then the fast ones that you ultimately want to target!
Move fast to become fast! You should perform all exercises in the training programme as quickly and explosively as possible. Only reps with maximum speeds that the respective weight allows count here. Important: This is also exhausting for the mind and you should always maximise your motivation and focus.
It is essential that you master the movement technique of the exercises so that the execution always remains controlled and no harmful strain is placed on the musculoskeletal system.
Very important: Before you focus your training on speed strength, you should first build up basic maximum strength. As described above, a high level of maximum strength is conducive to building better speed strength.

You can plan your training with these speed exercises

Train with heavy weights:

This training stimulates the rapidly contracting muscle fibres and enables you to activate many motor units at the same time. This also increases your maximum strength.
You should be at least 85% of 1RM per repetition.

Important: There are also individual studies that have found that heavy lifts have a negative effect on speed. Therefore, you should definitely supplement this method with the others mentioned below, as otherwise the improvement in speed strength can quickly reach its limit or even decline.

This form of training works with heavy weights, so you are reliant on a gym or weight room. The following exercises form a good basis for your training plan:

Squats, deadlifts, bench press, rowing, shoulder press. Depending on which sport you practise, one exercise or another will suit you better.

Olympic weightlifting

Weightlifting with the snatch, deadlift or clean and jerk is technically very demanding. Nevertheless, Olympic weightlifting has a very good effect on improving your speed.
The training is used by many athletes in speed-dominant sports such as sprint disciplines or boxing.
Weightlifting requires maximum explosive movements per se.

ballistic/power training

As the name suggests, this form of training involves throwing weights (e.g. medicine balls) or jumping with weights (loaded jumps).
You can also perform "normal" strength exercises with lighter weights as quickly and explosively as possible.
By throwing or jumping up, you maximise the acceleration phase of a movement. The braking phase, which otherwise makes up part of the movement (e.g. in a normal bench press or squat), is eliminated.
The recommendations for an optimum load vary, but are generally given as 30-60%.
These exercises have the advantage that you can easily learn the technique. This makes them a very good alternative to Olympic weightlifting, which is technically very complex.

Plyometric training

This workout involves all kinds of jumps that you perform without additional weight.
There is a wide range of jumping exercises: the classics are squat jumps or counter movement jumps onto boxes that are as high as possible. However, you can also incorporate lateral jumps or jumps from a specific movement to make the movements as specific as possible for the target movement of your sport.

What load parameters apply to the exercises?

You should always train several sets per exercise, approx. 3-5
3-8 repetitions per set (depending on weight)
You should recover sufficiently between sets, which can vary depending on the person and exercise, but takes around 2-5 minutes. After recovering, you can start the next set again with maximum power.

Important: If you can no longer perform the repetitions explosively because you are already knocked out, it is best to abort the set.

There is also the option of cluster sets: instead of 1x12 repetitions, 4x3 or 6x2 repetitions are trained with a 10-45 second break between the clusters. This keeps the intensity/barbell speed high!

Conclusion: high-speed strength training is important for almost every sport

If you want to train your speed strength, you should create a training plan that is tailored precisely to you, your sport and the target movements required. We've already given you plenty of input for your training. You can also get support from a professional to develop the best possible speed training programme for you.