Strength vs. Power

Do you know the difference between the two?

Well, let's have a quick chat about two of the most popular topics in the athletic development training regimen.

To define them correctly, strength is the force that a muscle or muscle group can exert against a resistance and power is performance of work expressed per unit of time.

By themselves, these definitions don't really get us anywhere. It's a construct or an application that we need in order to truly understand what they mean.

Think of it like this...It takes strength to be able to pick up a 20lb medicine ball. But, it takes power to be able to throw that ball a certain distance. It takes strength to be able squat 300lbs, but it takes power to be able to jump up and dunk a basketball. The two ideas are linked. Without strength, our body cannot express itself through power.

I bring up all of this discussion because I've just recently started transitioning my workouts with my training groups from pure strength development, to a power conversion situation. That is to say that our focus has shifted from building only strength to being able to move our bodies explosively using that strength.

The true difference between strength and power is how fast, far, high (i.e. units of time/distance as in the above definition) your body can move itself or an implement. When we train our bodies to get stronger, we usually want to work with loads that are heavy enough that we must exhibit a certain amount of slow control in order to properly execute the technique without injuring ourselves. By doing this, we induce hypertrophy, or muscle growth.

Now, as we all know, sports usually don't occur slowly and under full control. We jump, we sprint, we cut, we throw, we push and shove. These movements don't occur slowly. This is where explosive, plyometric exercises like medicine ball throws, slams, and jumps enter our training programs. Once I've established a foundation of strength to work from, I usually pair a strength exercise (with a reduced load) with a lighter and faster, plyometric exercise in order for the body to get that feeling of unloading and moving faster through a range of motion. 

For example, I might put my training groups through a lower body power conversion series as follows:

6 Squats with a 25lb Sandbag, 3 Unloaded Broad Jumps into a 10 yard sprint

The squats are performed with good tempo and form. The broad jumps immediately follow the squats, and are executed quickly and explosively. By following a heavier exericse like the squat with a lighter, more explosive exercise like the jumps, we have unloaded the lower body and allowed the muscle fibers in our legs to fire much faster. The faster our muscle fibers can contract, the more powerful our movements become.

So, to wrap things up, athletes need to be able to perform movements with speed and power. However, in order to maximize their ability to move as fast as possible, they need a good foundation of total body strength. Once that foundation is established, we can effectively continue developing a powerful athlete!