THE POWER PRINCIPLES: TIME

Power is the ultimate combination of the two most fundamental human factors of survival: speed and strength. We can hear your brain now: So what? What will being more powerful do for me?Will it help me look better in the mirror?

Here's your answer: The advantage of power training is that if you improve your rate of force development, you inevitably improve neural recruitment, which means you'll activate muscle fibers more efficiently and effectively. In the long run, this means that when you do pure strength or hypertrophy-type training, you'll activate more fibers and increase muscular size. Increasing power is also great for busting through training plateaus, a problem that every trainee is bound to face eventually.

That being said, the following five principles—which we will dish you in installments—will put you on the fast track to maximizing your body's power production. At the end of it all, we'll dish you a sample program that will show you how to tie it all together. Do that and you'll be on the path to more strength and more mass. It's just that simple.

Our third principle is time. Be sure to check back daily for the next in the series.

Click here to read our first installment, The Power Principles: Strength.
Click here to read our second installment, The Power Principles: Speed.

THE TIME PRINCIPLE
Reducing the time it takes to lift a weight is the rate part of the power equation. The speed principle advises you to move as fast as possible; the next step is taking a near maximal weight and moving it quickly. A strength rep, speed rep and power rep will all have a different application of time and force because of how much weight is being used. Whereas strength is best produced with loads of over 85% of your 1RM, and speed with 30% or less, power is best produced with somewhere between 30%-60% of 1RM.

Another way to determine appropriate resistance is to try completing sets within a specified time period. For example, use about 60% of what you would normal use for an eight-rep set (which is considerably lighter than 60% of 1RM) and try to perform eight reps in 15 seconds or less. If you can work up to using 80% of your normal rep weight in 15 seconds, you're truly maximizing power and it's time to increase the amount of weight you're using.

Check back daily for your next power principle.

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