help on working the speed part of the muscles

[cringer]

I was wondering how I can work them, I know not to do heavy lifting and such, are push ups a good way to work on it?

[Heavy D]

Work on plyometrics. Basically theyre explosive exercises that give you explosive strength. A quick example would be those clap pushups, where you do a push up, forcing yourself up far enough to be able to clap your hands. Catch yourself in the push up position and repeat.

[cringer]

Yeah Ive tried them before, what else should I do? should I stop doing normal push ups and diamonds or can I still do them?

[Heavy D]

you can still do em...usually on a 5 day workout schedule, you'll do one day of plyometrics. I'm really not the best for this info, but I'm sure in a few hours, someone who knows a lot more about this stuff should be on to be a lot more specific

[Von Milash]

As D said, plyos are great. plyos with body weight and a medicine ball are almost all you need. however, you can also do e-lifts, which are about 50-60% of your ORM. You explode the weight away as forcefully as you can to about 90% extension. These work white twitchies too.

I also like to use what I've terms regressive weight training.

[Von Milash]

my theory is that if you can't move the load with enough force such that you can send it flying, even if only a few inches, it's too heavy.

[DaxxKahn]

Do plyo like suggested because it makes the muscles stronger without bulk...Bulk is a fighters worse enemy I promise you...Plymetrics will gige you power and the long strong muscles...EG Tommy Hearns or Roy Jones...Also add resistance training with bands start with one then two and so on they help you learn how to keep form and when you need speed your body will train it self to move like it is expecting the resistance...thus making you faster when the resistance isn't there...it also help keep form too

[Dizaster]

I know this is the boring part, but do a LOT of stretching as well. The second worst enemy of speed, behind bulk, is having a stiff body... If your really well stretched out before a workout and work on your flexibility, you feel your body has a lot less resistence when you start wanting to speed things up.

[Scrap]

Dizasters right on the money, and its not boring. Now theres stuff we do what cant be shown, the old stuff 5 year old we can but not the new. But with a bit of thought and imagenation, I think anyone can improve their speed. think how can I make fast twitch fibres work, balance simulation, shock overspeed over 3 inch of movement and gently shocking the things that cause and make movement possible.But before you do it make the muscles and joints ready for the task by stretching

[Heavy D]

Also, don't forget to train everything equally. Not sure how true it is, but Bruce Lee or someone said that if you, for example, overtrain your biceps, it will hurt the ability of your triceps to perform as well. Like I said...not sure entirely how true that is, but that dude was faster than hell, so he must have some idea what he's doing. Not to mention...it never hurt anyone to train equally.

[AdamGB]

Very true...

People will get bored of me saying this but this is why isolation is very bad. Look at how muscle groups manipulate the Skeleton:



Muscles work by shortening during contraction and pulling on tendons which in the case of the elbow joint either extend the joint by having the tricep pull the forearm or flex the joint by having the bicep pull the forearm.

If one is too tensed and too short it causes imbalance which leads to injury, and fatigue because other muscles in the group are having to work harder to compensate.

In the case of each individual muscle... to much contraction and not enough stretching means that the muscle cells are not at their maximum length and the muscle does not contract as much as it should, so it doesn't achieve the strength it is capable of pulling.

Theres an animation of the elbow joint flexing and extending... I'll find it to give you a better idea of how it works

Muscle work by shortening from a length... if the length isn't there... the contraction is shorter... guess what that means?

[DaxxKahn]

Dizasters right on the money, and its not boring. Now theres stuff we do what cant be shown, the old stuff 5 year old we can but not the new. But with a bit of thought and imagenation, I think anyone can improve their speed. think how can I make fast twitch fibres work, balance simulation, shock overspeed over 3 inch of movement and gently shocking the things that cause and make movement possible.But before you do it make the muscles and joints ready for the task by stretching

Also one of the biggest mistakes young guys make is when they get to the weight routine part of their workouts they always seem to lift for bulk....As much weight as they can possibly lift for as many reps as they can thinking this is going to make them stronger quicker....Instead of less weight with more reps to keep the muscles long and slender...They dont understand the power is still there

[El Gamo]

Daxx,could you elaborate on that please? I always thought that lifting heavier would make one stronger??

[jesse]

heres a good websight with some good plyometrics you should check out, hope this is help to you.

http://www.exrx.net/Lists/PowerExercises.html

[Scrap]

Lifting heavier weights does make you stronger, but the problem is as Ive said before is the eliment of feel, its very missunderstood.