Explosive Workouts

[bigred6567]

Hey guys,

New here: looking for other guys' ideas and experience.

So, here's the question:

I'm trying to make sure that I'm lifting explosively when I'm doing bench. Having someone watch how fast I get the barbell up seems a bit much.

How do you guys keep track of how explosive you're lifting?

In other words, over time, how are you measuring your explosiveness to make sure you know when to either increase weight or stay where you're at.

Thanks in advance

 

[buddhabuilder]

Deciding on when to increase your weight is all about your goals and target rep range. For example, when cutting you may choose to shoot for 12-15 reps with 45 seconds in between sets. A bulking rep target might be 10-12 or even 8-10 with 1 minute between sets. And, or course, this can be modified in a million different ways. The term, explosive motion, is usually used when referring to the initial point of the concentric motion. That is, the motion that shortens the muscle. On flat bench that's the pressing motion, cable pull downs it's the pull. But even with this explosive motion you should remain in control and come to a stop before hyperextending. The opposite of explosive motion, which on flat bench will have a rep rythm of something like 3 seconds down, 1 second pause, 2 seconds up, is a rep rythm like 3 seconds down, 1 second pause, 4 seconds up.

 

[HoneyBadger50]

I keep track of explosiveness by the feel. You feel a certain pop when you push fast enough. For me I like when I press the weight with enough force that it feels like my shoulder blades are about to come off the bench on the lockout.