Chris Shah – Terra Nova Fitness, Strength Coach
Power can be define as “the time rate of doing work” Essentially
getting something done as quickly as possible.
A woman walks in Terra Nova fitness observing a few fighters
working on power development. She instinctively asks “do you train woman
?” I smile “we actually train more woman
than men.”
Similar scene this
time a guy walks in an observes s a 73 year and 64 year old woman working power
development and asks “do you only work with woman?”
Power development is essential for all sexes and phases of
our life. For each phase of our life the thought process or justification is
slightly different.
For athletes usually
the fastest (among other qualities) has the competitive advantage so of course
properly progressed power development is a main stay of our programming.
For the youth athlete power is a must for the long term
athletic development. Speed kills and wins in competitive on field sports.
We have both slow
twitch muscle (endurance) and fast twitch (power) muscles.
Youth also have transitional muscle fibers that can be
influenced to go one way or the other. Depending on what stimulus the muscles
are exposed too. We want our kids developing transitional fibers to fast twitch
(power muscles) for there on field sports.
But if power is usually thought of as athletic development
why in the world would you program power for the senior client? With each passing year we lose power
development and/or our ability to react quickly.
We have all heard of the stories of a senior falling and
breaking their hip. We talk about and blame weak hips, and osteoporosis. Don’t
get me wrong they also deserve some of the blame as well. But it all started
with a fall remember?
Why couldn’t they prevent the fall? They lacked power and/or
the ability to quickly react to prevent the fall. With seniors power development
means fall prevention.
Training seniors and
not working on there power development is like investing your money with out
contingency plans. Plain FOOLISH!
I know what you’re thinking power training and seniors
sounds intimidating. Here is the comforting thing; power is relative to the
individual. You just have to move at a speed or velocity quicker than they are
accustomed to. It’s been our overwhelming experience that seniors really enjoy
the power training part of there fitness program.
Here are a few phase
1 power development exercises that are usually appropriate unless your
assessment and/or screen deems them contraindicated. (Special thank to Ernie who is 70 years young in these videos)
Mball overhead slams
Mball chest pass
Box jumps
Volume or foot contacts- Very low, no more than 15-30 foot
contacts per foot per week for first 3 weeks.
Phase 1 regardless of population is all about mastering
landing mechanics
Most injuries happen not on take off but on landing. Start
as low as possible with jump height. Someone in this population might not have
jumped in 40 years.
Each height we go through for 2-4 weeks for senior
population.
 |
| Height Phase 1- ( 2-3" Take off) |
 |
| Height Phase 1- (2-3" landing) |
 | |
| Height phase 2- (3-6") Take off |
 |
| Height phase 2- (3-6") land |
 | |
| Height phase 3- (6-9") Take off |
 | ||
| Height phase 3- (6-9") Land |
Ladder (note: for my athletes I would consider this
more agility or dynamic warm up)
Power can be relative for the population. We simple want
seniors to move at a faster velocity that they are accustomed to.
