Building muscle power is important regardless of whether your goal is to develop more athleticism, increase muscle strength, build muscle mass, or even drop body fat.
In other words, everyone should be incorporating power exercises into their workouts. Power exercises can be any exercise done with light weight and fast reps. Although multijoint exercises such as the squat, row, or bench press work best, single-joint exercises, such as the barbell curl are also effective, especially for muscle groups that do not have many multijoint exercises, such as biceps and calves. Doing the reps as quickly as possible utilizes more of the fast-twitch muscle fibers. These are the muscle fibers that grow the biggest, the strongest, and the fastest. These muscle fibers also burn the most calories, which is why doing power exercises are also effective for fat loss.
One of the best exercises for building upper body power is the Smith machine bench press throw.
To do the Smith machine bench press throw, place a flat bench in the middle of a Smith machine. Load light weight onto the bar. I'll get into precisely how much weight in a moment. Position yourself on the flat bench so that the bar is above your lower chest when you bring the bar down to your chest. It will take some trial and error to figure out how far to put the bench in and how high to scoot up on the bench to find this sweet spot where the bar is just below your nipples in the bottom position. Grab the bar with the same grip you nornally use on the bench press. This should be a bit wider than shoulder width. Of course, you can also do this exercise to build more triceps power. In that case you would use a shoulder-width grip to do a close-grip Smith machine bench press throw. Once you have your grip set, unlatch the safety hooks to free the bar and hold it over your chest with arms fully extended but elbows not locked out. Lower the bar down to your chest and press the bar up as explosively as possible. You literally want to throw the bar as high as you can in the Smith machine as you press the bar up. Catch the bar as it comes back down lowering it to your chest again and proceed right into the next rep. Never catch the bar with straight arms and try to stop the downward momentum if the bar. This will put too much stress on the wrists and elbows and can lead to an injury. Always absorb the energy of the bar by guiding it down to your chest.
You can see why you would never want to do this with a regular barbell.
The guide posts of the Smith machine keep the bar on the same path so that you know precisely where it will be as it comes back down. Of course, it still may take you some time to get used to catching the bar. So start with a VERY light weight until you are comfortable throwing and catching the bar.
If you are interested in building new and strong muscles, then you should join the MED training program by Jim Stoppani. With this program, you will be rewarded by lots of new muscles.
In other words, everyone should be incorporating power exercises into their workouts. Power exercises can be any exercise done with light weight and fast reps. Although multijoint exercises such as the squat, row, or bench press work best, single-joint exercises, such as the barbell curl are also effective, especially for muscle groups that do not have many multijoint exercises, such as biceps and calves. Doing the reps as quickly as possible utilizes more of the fast-twitch muscle fibers. These are the muscle fibers that grow the biggest, the strongest, and the fastest. These muscle fibers also burn the most calories, which is why doing power exercises are also effective for fat loss.
One of the best exercises for building upper body power is the Smith machine bench press throw.
To do the Smith machine bench press throw, place a flat bench in the middle of a Smith machine. Load light weight onto the bar. I'll get into precisely how much weight in a moment. Position yourself on the flat bench so that the bar is above your lower chest when you bring the bar down to your chest. It will take some trial and error to figure out how far to put the bench in and how high to scoot up on the bench to find this sweet spot where the bar is just below your nipples in the bottom position. Grab the bar with the same grip you nornally use on the bench press. This should be a bit wider than shoulder width. Of course, you can also do this exercise to build more triceps power. In that case you would use a shoulder-width grip to do a close-grip Smith machine bench press throw. Once you have your grip set, unlatch the safety hooks to free the bar and hold it over your chest with arms fully extended but elbows not locked out. Lower the bar down to your chest and press the bar up as explosively as possible. You literally want to throw the bar as high as you can in the Smith machine as you press the bar up. Catch the bar as it comes back down lowering it to your chest again and proceed right into the next rep. Never catch the bar with straight arms and try to stop the downward momentum if the bar. This will put too much stress on the wrists and elbows and can lead to an injury. Always absorb the energy of the bar by guiding it down to your chest.
You can see why you would never want to do this with a regular barbell.
The guide posts of the Smith machine keep the bar on the same path so that you know precisely where it will be as it comes back down. Of course, it still may take you some time to get used to catching the bar. So start with a VERY light weight until you are comfortable throwing and catching the bar.
If you are interested in building new and strong muscles, then you should join the MED training program by Jim Stoppani. With this program, you will be rewarded by lots of new muscles.
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