DYNAMIC EFFORT LIFTING

In 1997, I started reading articles about Louis Simmons in the magazine Powerlifting USA. I was familiar with Louie. He was in a famous picture of Don Reinhoudt squatting 903, while Louie was on the side watching. This lift was in 1979, I believe. Louie is an extremely smart researcher when it comes to strength and explosive development. I'm actually selling him short because he has also written on a variety of interesting topics while squatting over 900, and benching 600, at the age of 50 plus. He has done consulting work with the Cleveland Browns, Green Bay Packers, New England Patriots, Seattle Seahawks, many colleges, and worked with Butch Reynolds a 400 meter world record holder. He is an amazing person!
One topic he has written on extensively is dynamic effort lifting. The athlete's goal is to use a specific percentage on their one-rep maximum (1RM) and do the lift as explosively as possible. For example, if your 1RM in the bench press is 250 and the goal is to do 8 sets of three with 50%, then 125 pounds for 8 sets of three would be part of the workout. Each week a slightly different percentage is used, and the reps and sets can be slightly changed. This application is for powerlifting. But can it be used in other sports? The answer is yes!!
The idea can be used in a variety of different lifts and a variety of different sports. The key is the word variety. In football, the average play lasts from 5 to 10 seconds, with roughly 7 being an average. With that in mind, sets should last 7 to 12 seconds. In the off season program I used at Fountain Valley High School, we used 5 reps in 7 seconds in the squat, and 5 reps in 6 seconds in the bench. In the squat we use a box with a pad on the top. There will be an article in the next week talking about the squat and its variations. I apologize for jumping the gun on that. After roughly six sessions, the players established maxes in those lifts. There are 3 criteria that I stress. These are the following:
1) The technique of the exercise must permit performing the movement with extreme velocity.
2) Exercises must be mastered so well that an athlete can focus attention solely on the velocity of movement, and not its form.
3) The time of an exercise or the number of repititions (for example, takeoffs) per set has to be established such that velocity does not diminish before the end of a set because of fatigue.

This information and more is from the book Explosive Power and Jumping Ability for All Sports.
As time went by, I increased the amount of reps but maintained the same time frames. For example, an athlete will have to do 6 reps in 6 seconds in the bench and 6 reps in 7 seconds in the squat. Remember, good form. Don't cheat to inflate your little egos. The only person you cheat is yourself.
The results were interesting. We are in the last week of our maxes, so I can't print my final results until Friday May 13th, 2005. I do have 2 athletes that speed bench 80% of their bodyweight. I also have at least two athletes that speed squat 100% of their bodyweight. The best athletes are the most explosive. I will be talking more about this topic in future articles. If you have any questions with this or any other articles, e-mail me at acudave@yahoo.com