How to Get Stronger: Strength Speed

I’m a big fan of EMOMs

Also known as “Every Minute on the Minute”

Not to be confused with “URMOM”

Also known as “Jokes my 6-y/o loves to tell”

I like using EMOMs for a couple of different things:

1. Muscular Endurance
2. Conditioning
3. Strength

Let’s dig in…

Muscular Endurance

In the last article, I wrote about Muscular Endurance and how you should probably be spending most of your training time here.

Because when we focus on Muscular Endurance we are working on of few different things:

1. Your muscle, uh, endurance…
2. Motor Coordination
3. Movement Sequencing

And EMOMs are great for this because you can get a ton of super high-quality reps done in a relatively short amount of time.

An Example:

EMOM 20

Even Min – 3 Pull-Ups

Odd Min – 6 Push-Ups

That’s 30 pull-ups and 60 push-ups in a quick 20:00 workout so you can work on that muscular endurance while, most importantly, keeping the quality high & building the skill of strength (Motor Control & Sequencing).

This is basically what I talked about in this article on How to Improve Your Push-Ups

In that article, we talked about “greasing the groove” or basically knocking out a 50%-ish effort every hour throughout the day.

In this EMOM, we are knocking out a sub-maximal set of each movement and giving yourself plenty of recovery time (without feeling like you’re just standing around).

Which means it’s going to be way easier for you to maintain your movement quality (i.e. perfect practice makes permanent)

The EMOM is also easily scaleable depending on each individual.

3 pull-ups & 6 push-ups too easy? Add reps or more time.

Too hard? Knock a couple of reps off or scale back the time.

Simple & effective.

Conditioning

I also like using EMOMs for conditioning for the same reason I like using them for Muscular Endurance.

You can go super hard for a short period of time, recover, and repeat until your pace and/or mechanics go to shit.

Example

EMOM 30

5 Burpees

or

EMOM 20

Even Min – :20s Ski Erg

Odd Min – :20s Air Dyne

In the first example, if you’re doing the math, that’s 150 burpees.

But it will feel completely different than just trying to knock out 150 burpees as fast as possible (One is torture and will probably result in some really crappy looking burpees, the other is a viable aerobic conditioning workout).

In the second example, we are picking a couple of standard aerobic movements and turning them into high-intensity intervals.

In both examples, we are still able to get some high-quality work done.

The combination here is almost endless, which is awesome.

Strength

As I have recently mentioned…

Once we know we can move heavy loads consistently, the next logical step would be to move those loads faster.

Which means we need to increase our Power. (Power = Work / ΔTime )

So if we want to increase our power, we can do one of two things:

Do more work in the same amount of time, or

Do the same amount of work, faster

When it comes to getting stronger you should be focusing on moving that barbell FAST!

And the EMOM template works great in this regard.

An Example

EMOM 10

Back Squat

2 Reps @ 60% 1RM

This is a pretty classic, although simplified, example of a Westside Barbell Dynamic Effort lift.

The goal would be to move that sub-maximal load (60% in this example) as fast/explosive/powerful as possible.

This is how we improve Strength Speed

If you remember from our last article about Absolute Strength Strength Speed is number two on our “Get Strong” priority list.

1. Absolute Strength
2. Strength Speed
3. Speed Strength
4. Absolute Speed

Speed Strength, or what I like to refer to as Dynamic Effort (Taken from the Westside methods), is simply defined as moving submaximal loads with maximum speed.

And training speed-strength increases your rate of force development (How fast you can apply force), gives you a chance to focus on movement quality (since weights are light, mechanics stay sound), and makes you a more powerful and explosive athlete overall.

Typically, we’ll alternate between the maximal effort lifts and the dynamic effort lifts each week and we want to keep the load below 70%.

To figure out “why 70%” we have to go back to the USSR days of weightlifting monsters we can draw from A. S. Prilepin who found that when working at 70% of a 1 rep max for greater than 6 reps force production declines, which means we aren’t moving that bar fast enough.

And one last benefit of using EMOMs for strength is we avoid Zatsiorsky’s law of accommodation which states “the response of a biological object given constant stimulus decreases over time.”

So if the only stimulus you’re getting is grinding through max-effort (absolute strength) lifts, they will get less effective over time (It’s also rough on your body and you probably won’t be recovering well).

So if we alternate Absolute Strength workouts with Strength Speed workouts we’re going to see quicker and more sustainable strength gains.

And EMOM style workouts, like in the example above, are a simple and effective way to get them #gainz.

Ready to build some serious strength?

Like GI Joe said, learning is half the battle, well, the other half is doing.

You can read a million article on strength training but unless you apply the concepts you’re never going to add weight to that bar. So if you’re ready to get serious about your training and pack on some of that confidence building, I can do anything strength & muscle you want then you need to check out one of the programs below.

Good: 4-Week Strategic Squat – In this one, you’re gonna squat. In fact after the first week I guarantee you’ll think I hate you & have something against people with functioning legs. #doyouevensquatbro

Better: 8-Week Strategic Strength – This program is exactly what you think it is. You’ll spend three days per week working on getting stronger. You’ll squat, press, and pull your way into a stronger, healthier, more functional body. And you can follow the bonus cardio days added in or combine this with your current endurance or conditioning training without an issue.

Best: 8-Week Custom Strength Coaching – Get your own personal coach to design a program custom to you & provide the instruction, coaching, and accountability you need to dominate the barbell & really life in general.