Explosive Leg Strength?

Fuascailt

Hi, I was just wondering if anyone has any tips for developing explosive leg strength?
I seem to be made of slow twitch muscle fibres. I can slowly extend my leg to head height, and stay there for half an hour happy out, but when it comes to sparring, i just dont have the explosiveness nessecary. Any ideas? thanks

Colm_OReilly

Sprinting, Olympic Lifting, Heavy Squatting

nij

Hours and hours of practice man... nothing else will do it. Just try and push yourself a little bit beyond your comfort zone. Time and practice will give you speed.

Squatting is king for leg strength in general, but I'm not sure if it would work for developing that explosive power.

yomchi

Kicking with resistance bands I find works very well. Also try looking up plyometrics for some info on that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plyometrics

Black Swan

Don't forget to stretch a lot to avoid injury.

Zen machine

just kicking a heavy bag as fast as you can with a few seconds between each kick,do that no more than 10 times ,take break and repeat for 3 more sets should improve kicking explosiveness.Never do this or any pure power training when those muscles are tired.Increasing max strength on the squat,one leg squat and lunges will do a lot for explosiveness for those new to it and before getting into plyos.All of this will not help much if your technique isnt good though.

HammerHeadGym

Colm_OReilly wrote:

Sprinting, Olympic Lifting, Heavy Squatting

I'm not sure Heavy squatting will develop fast twitch muscle fibres. Sprinting and oly lifts will though. Also, I hear there is some evidence that clenbuterol will promote the growth of fast twitch in legs.

arybvtcw0eolkf

HammerHeadGym wrote:

Also, I hear there is some evidence that clenbuterol will promote the growth of fast twitch in legs.

But since Clen is a banned substance its no use for anyone on this forum.

Apart from giving you the gitters I can't see how Clen would help fast twitch muscle anywhere.

Colm_OReilly

HammerHeadGym wrote:

I'm not sure Heavy squatting will develop fast twitch muscle fibres. Sprinting and oly lifts will though. Also, I hear there is some evidence that clenbuterol will promote the growth of fast twitch in legs.

Yes, they will. Strength is an integral part of power output. Strength being the ability to apply a force through a distance. Strength doesn't have a time component, but power does.

Do you think Oly lifters don't squat heavy.

The squat is one of those exercises that produces so much good in terms of structural and hormonal response that you'd be mad not to be squatting.

Dragan

Hmmmm…. I have said this type of thing a lot in the past but OP, how is your technique?

A good coach can get a low strength fighter to out kick a high strength lifter anyday of the week.

Who do you train with, and what have they said about your lack of explosive power?

Generally speaking, whenever a human loses power doing anything it will be through the hips and as such Colm is spot on with what you should be doing to develop explosive power however you specifically need a broader view…..and I would simply say to you that you can develop all the explosive power in the world…..if you can kick, you can't kick.

adonis

what about cycling? that uses speed and weight....

here is a stupid question...
is squatting lifting weights while having your legs bent....i remember doing squats in PE which were kind of jumping in between your hands if you get me...

Colm_OReilly

Cycling is by and large and aerobic activity and has a limited range of motion.

Aerobic adaptations are largely activity specific and also can negatively impact on anaerobic adaptations, such as absolute strength or power output.

Here's videos of a squat:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k45YlFHn6xs (air squats)
http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/backsquat.mpg (weighted back squat)

adonis

i can pretty much guarantee that my legs are stronger and can move quite faster at reasonable strength than they ever have been due to cycling..whether it holds true relative to other activities (squatting etc) is open to debate..

plus there is a vast range of different strengths/weights that can be tested while going to work; different gears, different speeds, inclines and even standing on the pedals and not on the saddle..

i do however notice an extra stiffness when performing stretches in class..this soon dissappears after initial warm ups though.

Fuascailt

Thanks, i'll definetely give some of those a go. Don't think i'll be taking any chemicals though :PI do a lot of cycling already though, it has definetely given me strength, but not exactly speed. Whats Olympic Lifting?

Dragon, thats exactly my problem. I train with Leonard Coughlan in Cork- ITF Taekwon-do under the ITA. I'm know i'm a good kicker, i'm strong and flexible but slow. When I have a coach behind me, watching for openings and shouting "Now, now!!" in my ear, i'm grand. But on my own I'm just too slow.

I had a particularly embarrassing day at the Midwest Championships. I'm 17, and was asked if i'd fight senior, to make up numbers. My instructor coached me, and i went through five thirty year old women and got gold. Then in the junior section, my instructor was reffing my fight. Obviously he couldnt coach me....and i got knocked out in the first round my someone half my size.

Colm_OReilly

Cycling doesn't have an eccentric component nor does it have the full range of motion as squatting.

I say this as someone who cycled for years, and continues to do so, I always thought I could get away without squatting. This is probably one of the main reasons I never made it onto the first or second eight in UCD boat club.

Now that I am squatting, I can cycle for longer with less energy expenditure.

Don't get me wrong, cycling is great and I enjoy it - just that nothing compares to heavy squatting.

Dragan

Fuascailt,

It sounds to me like you have no problem with your kicking speed or power. If you can react to a coaches advice and deliver the kick on time your issue is not with the kick itself, but rather with interpreting the right time to deliver the right strike?

It's just practice, practice, practice…..spar, spar , spar I'm afraid!