 Are you strong but not fast? Do you want to build power? Listen to this. Our next caller is Christina from California. Hey, Christina, how can we help you? Hi, I have a question. I've been doing some workouts on my own recently. I used to go to a gym, but it got closed during the pandemic. And I'm noticing that I am losing out on power. And I think it's because of speed. I haven't noticed as much of a drop-off in my strength, but power is not where I want it to be. And I have an upcoming Highland Games competition this summer. So I really like some suggestions on how specifically to work on power and speed. Ooh, I love this question. Okay, so power is strength that's fast, right? So for people watching right now, like, what's the difference between power and speed or excuse me, power and strength? Strength is... Explosive speed. Yeah, it's like how far I could, you know, or how fast I could deadlift the weight versus how heavy I could deadlift the weight or something along those lines. It's quite specific, meaning you have to train for it. So the way you would train for power is by using a submaximal load, training it at full speed, you know, explosive power and lots of rest in between sets and not doing it to fatigue. So you're not trying to do it to fatigue the body, but rather you're doing it to try to get yourself to be able to move faster. Very unlike CrossFit-esque. Very unlike, yeah. You're not doing it to fatigue at all. You don't need fatigue. Fatigue is your enemy with anything that you're trying to do power-wise. And, you know, the best approach to this, obviously with the Highland Games, there's very specific types of what do you call those? Like different types of events that, you know, you, you get, I know the caber tosses one of them, the hammer throw, I don't know all of them, but I know they all... Right, there are nine different events all throwing heavy objects for distance or height. Okay. The haggis throw. Yeah. So I mean, it's obviously it's gonna be hard to kind of emulate those specifically, but you can do that with kettlebells. Like, you know, something that you could, you could apply in your programming where you really just take the time to work on, you know, the technique of not just like the swings and getting the hip hinging snapping power out of your hips, but also then, you know, releasing and then throwing the kettlebell out in a field as a great exercise to apply, you know, specifically for that. But really the point is with anything power, it requires all the intent going into it, all the attention, you know, no fatigue and to be able to, you know, recover and then produce that same amount of immediate force production. Christina, how have you been training, how you train currently right now or have you trained in the past to get ready for something like this? So I certainly do some events specific training. So I have some field stones and I have a 16 pound hammer and a lighter hammer. So I do practice the events as much as I can. I don't have a convenient caber. So that one I have to trust to cleans and things to work on. But then I do try to supplement at home. So I've been mostly doing probably the lifts that I enjoy the most, things like presses and squats and deadlifts. But I've been trying to do a little bit more powerlifting, more cleans and things like that to supplement that event specific work. So more specifically, what is like the training blocks? What I mean is, okay, so obviously you're doing great exercises that you should be doing. Does it look like what Justin's saying, where you do a rep or two and then rest and then a rep or are you doing- You're doing it fast. Are you doing things where you got 10 to 15 reps and then you're also super setting that with a run around the block or pull-ups or other things like that? How is the programming look? Right, so I would say, I guess I've fallen into the trap of wanting to measure my progress. And the easiest way for me to do that is to see what I'm able to do for sets of five or 10 or something like that. So maybe I've been trying to get to a heavy set of five or a heavy set of 10 in one of those lifts. Yeah, so strength will contribute to power, but if you don't train specifically for power, you're gonna miss out a lot. So there's nothing wrong with getting stronger, but if you don't train for speed or acceleration with a weight that's much lower than you would train for strength with, it's gonna be hard for you to express a lot of power. Like, power lifters are very strong, but they're not nearly as explosive as Olympic lifters, for example. So I would do some specific days on power, on trying to throw like Justin said, a kettlebell or mimicking the events. There's also a lot of technique involved in what you're doing. I mean, he made a good point. You know, when you're doing a cable toss, you gotta have a lot of power, but you also need to have a good technique and release and know where to position your body to maximize the effect. So I would do, I would practice two days a week the events. Don't do them to fatigue, but really try to get further and further with your throws, a lot of rest in between your attempts, and then maybe a couple of days a week of strength building and some mobility, and that's pretty much it, but I think just practicing the power stuff is gonna make a big difference. I think mass performance, so there's a phase in there where we do devote. It's one of our only programs that actually does devote some time to speed power and this doesn't require a lot of heavy load. Obviously this is more about moving very, very quickly and also being able to recover and gather yourself and be able to control your body after you explode through these types of movements. So I think that if I have to pick any program that we have that I would recommend, maps performs would be one to figure that out. One more example, Christina, squatting with a barbell on your back, that's heavy, you're training for strength, trying to jump as high as you can with no weight on you at all, just your body for one attempt would be power. Okay, does that make sense? Yes. Okay, so training for power is different than training for strength. Strength contributes to power, but if you don't train for power as well, you're gonna miss out a lot on that specific type of performance. So you gotta incorporate some days where you just focus on that. That makes a lot of sense. Can I ask a question, a follow up because I'm I think really bad at recovering. I'm a pretty impatient person. If I am changing my workouts to sort of make sure I'm resting between attempts, what are guidelines for how long I should rest? You wanna feel ready to exert maximal power again. So if you do like a 50 yard dash which could also be considered explosive, you would do it and then you'd wait until you felt like you could push it real fast again, right? Or if I jump as high as I can, I'm not jumping as high as I can and then jumping again as high as I can. I'm jumping as high as I can and then I'm waiting until I feel like- You're fully composed again. Yeah, I can exert that power again. What you'll find, here's something that's interesting. I'm glad you asked that question. When you're training for power, it's typically your third or fourth attempt that's your best, okay? So when people don't rest long enough in between, their first attempt is the best. When it comes to power, you'll do an attempt and the second or third time, you start to fire more effectively with the muscles and your technique gets a little better and you'll get higher. So you should be able to do better the third or fourth time. If it's getting worse by the second, third, fourth time, you're not resting long enough. That actually fits really well with my experience at competitions where we get three chances at each event just like you said, typically that third one is the best. Exactly, because what you did is you waited, obviously in between- It's a central nervous system that. Yes, and you're able to fire more forcefully, effectively, your body feels like it's safe to do so. But if you get no rest in between, your first attempt would be your best. So keep those things in mind. Thank you very much, that's really helpful. No problem, thank you and good luck on your competition. Yeah. Thanks, bye-bye. No problem. Yeah, power is probably one of the most misunderstood elements of general fitness. Nobody does it right. Yeah, I was fishing for the CrossFit thing. I see she wrote up in there that her CrossFit gym and I was trying to see if that's how she works out there. But yeah, she didn't want to say that she was doing their workout specifically, which is, you know, yeah, that would be, I'd have different advice for that in terms of if that was what kind of protocol she was using, but it is, it's one of the segments of fitness that looks the sexiest and a lot of people will just throw it into their programming, kind of willy-nilly, but I mean, the biggest thing that is nails and chalkboard to me is when you're already in a state of fatigue and then you're gonna go and run a very highly demanding type of an exercise, like a power exercise. Yeah, at that point, you're just building- It's just wastes the entire- Yeah. It's just building, I know, I'm so glad that it came to me because I know that's kind of a telltale sign. It's like your second, third, or fourth attempt should be better than the first. That's how you know you're resting long enough and you're doing it properly. Otherwise, if it's not that way, it's like the first attempt is good and you just get weaker and weaker with each sub-diminishing attempt. Totally. Hey, if you enjoyed that clip, you can find the full episode here or you can find other clips over here and be sure to subscribe.