How many reps should be done while doing weights?!
Question: Not aiming for muscle mass, but rather explosiveness, agility, and power.
Answers: Not aiming for muscle mass, but rather explosiveness, agility, and power.
The number of reps is matterless if you want to build explosive power.
You need to lift at your maximum SPEED for the weight. On the 'negative rep' (letting the weight/resistance return to your starting position), you can help to build new, powerful muscle by slowing down the movement (resisting the resistance).
The rule for 'power' is 'speed up and slow down'.
The heavier you lift in this style, the faster your power will develop. BUT you also increase your risk of injury. You should stick to training with weights that you can comfortably lift in a controlled 'perfect form' manner, and try to avoid the 'swinging' (ballistic lifting) that can easily happen when you lift quickly.
Agility is NOT related to muscular power, and cannot be improved by any form of weight training.
To increase your agility, you need to perform 'development stretches'. These long, slow, relaxed stretches increase 'range-of-movement' in a joint, by allowing the muscles that operate the joint to lengthen.
As your flexibility improves, you will become more agile because you can apply the power of each muscle contraction at a wider range of positions. The contraction of any muscle will also be more effective when its 'antagonist' (the 'opposing' muscle) has been lengthened and is resisting the contraction ('binding') less strongly.
For explosive strength, basic closed chain exercises are best, in a rep range of 4 to 6. Remember, a person's core (i.e. those inner muscles below the abs) are KEY in producing power as well, so I would suggest a mat Pilates class as well.
Use light weights and do lots of reps - 20 each side for example, in lots of three.
if you just want to condition. then you have to pick a certain amount of weights that are not to heavy. then you want to do atleast 30 reps.
do it more then one day. if are sore the next day then do it that day. if you don't work your muscles when they are sore, they are less likely to become stronger.
do more than one set. do at least 3 sets. the first couple of days you should do three sets. once you are no longer sore from the workout then add more reps and sets.
this is what i would do. i would first do 50 with my right hand then 50 with my left. then 40 with my right then 40 with my left. then 30 with... and so on.
I do 3 sets of 14 for each muscle group as I've found it's around that point I reach the (not so) 'elegant failure' as it's known.
lighter weights and a fast set of say 8 to 10 reps... (double time)
this will train your mustles for the quick off the line tourqe needed... also, think lighter weights; more reps... mix it up with lighter weights and 12-15 reps as well.. this is for endurance.
Power, is 10 reps and heavy wieghts... you can't have max power if your not aiming for mussle mass...