Muscular Power and Explosiveness

Muscular power development depends upon the right balance of speed and agility as well as strength for specific skills and sports that require explosiveness.

Definition: Muscular power is the ability to exert maximum force in minimum time. It is a combination of speed and strength. It is the rate at which one can perform work. Powerful athletes are explosive and can accelerate rapidly (increases in the rate of speed of movements).

Denise's Mentor for the Discus, Jean Roberts, Australian Olympian

Examples: Jumping, spiking a volleyball, and throwing the discus. Olympic lifters have been known to generate more power than athletes in any other sport. See Olympic Lifting

How to Develop: Build both speed and strength in the optimum balance, with body coordination by practicing the target tasks, events, or sports. The clean, snatch, and speed squat are excellent training lifts. Examples of sports training activities include plyometric exercises (e.g., bounding), using medicine balls, and practicing starts for sprinting.

How to Measure: Generally speaking, use any activity where maximum efforts are made for 4-6 seconds. Examples of tests of tests of muscular power are the vertical jump, broad jump, standing triple jump, throwing tests (e.g., softball throw), and short sprints. There are also more sophisticated tests that provide more precise measures in the lab.

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Garhammer, J.J. (1981). Force-velocity constraints and elastic energy utilized during multi-segment lifting/jumping activities. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, (Abstract) 13, 96.

McArdle, W.D., Katch, F.I., & Katch, V.L. (2000). Essentials of exercise physiology (2nd ed.). Baltimore: Lippincott, Williams, & Wilkins.

Newton, H. (2002). Explosive lifting for sports. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Powers, S.K., Dodd, S.L., & Noland, V.J. (2006). Total fitness and wellness (4th ed.). San Francisco: Pearson Education.

Safrit, M.J. & Wood, T.M. (1996). Introduction to measurement in physical education and exercise science (3rd ed.). St. Louis: Mosby.

United States Department of Health and Human Services, President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. (2000, March). Definitions: Health, fitness, and physical activity. Retrieved August 29, 2008, from http://www.fitness.gov/digest_mar2000.html