Explosiveness: A Virtue

ex·plo'sive·ness

n.

1. state of being explosive
explosive [ɪkˈspləʊsɪv]

adj

1. of, involving, or characterized by an explosion or explosions

2. capable of exploding or tending to explode

3. potentially violent or hazardous; dangerous an explosive situation

How does being "explosive" apply to your becoming champion?

Allow me to give you 3 of the finest examples of people who highly implement explosiveness:

(Pause the music player at the bottom before watching these)

1. Branch Warren - Body Builder

2. Georges "Rush" St. Pierre - Professional MMA Champion

 

3. David Belle - Tracuer (Founder of Parkour)

When referring to explosive movements it can be summed up best by the following words:

Strong

Sudden

Quick

Decisive

Without hesitation

Without reserve

In Body Building, explosiveness can take on two forms, a technique for high weight, or for athletic performance, or lean muscle. 

When you're under your 80% or 1RM Bench Press, and that bar comes down to your chest, don't take a moment to inhale and start pushing it up slow and steady... EXPLODE, you push it through the roof, fast, strong, hard, without reserve, you give it all you got to get that bar up as fast as you can, this would be a pretty common technique to completing a heavy rep. When squatting 135 and getting a full range of motion, don't just stand back up with it, EXPLODE, go ahead and jump! Fast, explosive. Movements like that will increase your speed, which leads us in to how it applies to MMA, Parkour, sports, or forms of mastering ones physical self.

Explosive striking, kicks, etc, has been a technique passed on through Chinese Martial Arts for centuries, and made famous by Martial Artist, Bruce Lee. Compare Bruce Lee's jab and right side kick with the punches of a Karate fighter. A Karate fighter, will stand with his front completely forward, feet wide in an almost Sumo Wrestler stance with both fists facing up at his waist, from there he drives one fist out and twists it as it extends forward, completing a punch. From there he pulls its back to his waist and drives out the next one simultaneously. This technique uses the same principle as that of combinations in boxing. However, only so much power can be derived from such a stance of your feet firmly planted on the ground and moving only your torso to complete the punches.

Bruce Lee based the principles of his Martial Art, Jeet Kune Do, on being fluid and dynamic. His stance was light on the feet, standing sideways towards your opponent. The jab started by twisting your waist back and quickly snapping it forward as the motion followed upwards by the rest of the upper body into the fist while it extends, sending all the force to the punch and point of impact. Imagine a building wave until it crashes if you will. A similar motion. It starts as only a small swell as the motion moves forward and becoming more powerful where at the final moment, it is explosive, it crashes. Again with the right side kick, the back foot comes forward to meet the position of the front foot as it raises up and then quickly thrusts out to crash, or explode and complete the kick. The creating and passing of kinetic energy through the body into the target. Explosiveness.

In movement, like Parkour, a Tracuer moving from Point A to Point B in the most direct and fast route possible does not have time to stop before a chest high wall, plant his feet on the ground, and then throw himself over. He must explosively, from full running, leap forward using only his hand on the wall to guide his body over in a single motion. It takes a sudden burst of strong, decisive energy without hesitation or reserve to make it fully over the wall and continue moving along without any pause.

Here's an example in a sport most of you are more familiar with, Baseball. The there's a player on 3rd and one coming up to bat. The player on 3rd is now waiting for the batter up to bring him home and get the winning point, he positions himself for the hit, with eyes sharp on the swinging bat. Suddenly, his ears discern the sharp decibel rise, the bat striking the ball into the outfield, in the corner of his eye he sees the batter drop his instrument of success. The player with eyes keenly focused on home plate, with no time to build up to full speed, must make it across home plate before the ball is thrown back and he'll be out. He explodes forward, every muscle in his body is contracting and releasing with full effort. in a split second he's at his full speed, and before anybody blinks... he crosses home. That player, with not even enough free time to blink without risking his reaction time, has to explode into full motion or lose it all. There's no pace lap, or warm up. Just full speed ahead on a moments notice.

His training requires explosive movements weighted or body weight, and sprinting drills, among other various specialized routines. These elements are the crucial difference in all of these examples between success and failure and in some potential situations, life or death.

If becoming a well rounded champion or athlete is your goal. Be sure to implement explosive training techniques (burpees, jump squats, box jumps, clean and press, sprinting drills, etc) into your workout regiment.

Keep up the hard work and be sure to check back later for an Explosive Training Workout.