In our current 12 week block- FOCUS – we incorporate a dedicated dynamic or speed day into our training week. Although we always incorporate some kind of jump, throw, or sprint work into our programs, in this phase we dedicate a whole day to work on our rate of force development...or in other words...how fast you can display your strength.
Why is that important for first responders/tactical populations? If you can’t display your strength quickly...whether that be during the start of a foot pursuit, taking someone down, striking, moving someone to safety, etc...you’re limiting your performance. In high stress situations there will be times you will need to be able to act quickly. Straining with heavy weight is certainly part of the equation...but it is only part of the entire picture of a well rounded first responder.
We always train this quality in our programming. Sometimes we use this after our generic warm up as a way to “prime” the body for our lifts and wake up our central nervous before we start throwing around weight. Why did we change it up for this phase?
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Mental break from our last training block
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Avoid Accommodation (overreaching/over training from doing the same thing for too long)
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Prioritize it for a bit...then maintain it later
If we always put our throws and jumps as part of our warm up or even in a complex most people will get tired of it and even our bodies won’t respond as much. We’ve also in past training cycles used contrast sets which our phenomenal training tools to train both strength and power, however they’re very intense and if you stay with them for too long you might start to overreach a bit. This isn’t a case for overhauling your program every week, but if you do the same thing for too long and too high of intensity you risk building up too much cumulative fatigue and overuse injuries.
FOCUS Dynamic day general outline:
One Upper Body Dynamic Movement (Plyo Push Up Variations)
One lower Body Dynamic Movement (Box Jump Variations)
Single Leg Anterior Chain (Lunge/Pistol/ect Variation)
Single Leg Posterior Chain (RD/Glute Bridge/Ect)
Weighted Abs (Halo/Chops/ect)
20 minutes of Zone 2- This can be technique work for BJJ, Boxing, etc. Just keep your heart rate around 115-150 bpm.
The main focus of the day are the jumps and plyo push-ups. The reps for these are low, and the sets are higher. The accessory single leg work and abs are just 2-3 sets. We are just getting some quality jump work in and then hopefully ironing out some strength imbalances after that. It is a short day.
We start these 12 weeks with pause box jumps and plyo push-ups off of a bench without any rebound. We’re working on our ability to generate force from a dead stop without much impact. We later add in movements that require more of a force absorption component and then we even add weight. It is all about long term progress. Force absorption and heavy plyometric work can be very hard on the central nervous system. This is why we tread carefully as we move through this 12 weeks.
Some Progressions Below:
Closing
Please, if you’re on the program...follow the program. We have a progression for and reason and the reality is adaptations take time, and the more patient you are the longer they’ll “stick” as opposed to quickly dissipating once you move onto something else.
Any questions please reach out.
