Where there’s a will there is a way. Louie Simmons, an elite lifer and strength coach, broke his back twice using gradual progressive overload training where more weight is added to each lift from one week until the next. Eventually the training cycle ends with constant use of heavy weights and, bam! Injury occurs. This forced Louie to a look for a different way to get stronger. He discovered that this can be done with moderate weights using what he refers to a dynamic speed work. It simply means to train for strength by gaining the ability to lift a moderate weight faster over a series of several workouts.
Strength and speed are best friends when it comes to weight training. If you get stronger, you’ll be able to lift the weights that you have been using faster and easier. We can look at it from another perspective of progressively being able to lift the same weight faster. If you succeed, it’s a sign that you have become stronger. When a weight can be lifted faster, the muscles spend less time under maximum tension. Less time under maximum tension will make the weight easier to lift, and the main reason your body wants to gain strength is to make it easier to lift a given weight. This is exactly what happens when a gain in strength leads to the ability to lift a weight faster.
Louie Simmons discusses using less weight to gain more strength
Using the Right Amount of Weight, Reps, and Sets
Workouts that are designed to specifically focus on dynamic speed lifting are most often done with basic exercises using a weight percentage that ranges from 50% to 60% of a lifter’s single rep max weight. This means if your max bench is 300 pounds, you would want to work out with between 150 to 180 pounds when focusing on dynamic speed lifting. Never do speed work after your muscles are tired from previous lifting or your rep speed will suffer. This is one reason why so many lifters use mini sets of only three reps when focusing on maximum rep speed. They may be able to grind out 20 or more reps with the weight they are using, but it would cause fatigue, so they only do three reps per set to maintain maximum rep speed on all sets.
If you are trying to figure out how many sets of three reps to do, one method is take 50% of your one rep max for a given lift and find out how many reps you can do before hitting your marker rep. For those who don’t know what a marker rep is, it’s the initial point in a set where you notice that your rep speed and rep rhythm starts to slow down due to fatigue. When training at 50% of a maximum weight, the majority of people are going to be pretty close to 15 reps when this happens (give or take a couple reps), for about two sets before their strength starts to decrease. Two sets of 15 reps equals a total of 30 reps that can be done in a strong state. If you break 30 total reps into sets of 3 reps, you end up with 10 sets of 3 reps. Ten sets of three reps is a very popular formula that many top powerlifters use for dynamic speed training. Since the sets are short, you only need 45 seconds rest between each set.
Dynamic Speed training with sets of 3 reps.
It’s possible that you are an exception to the 10 sets of 3 reps formula. For example, if you push all the way to your marker rep when using 50% of your one rep max, and you find that you can do three or four sets before your strength decreases, this would probably put you somewhere between 45 to 60 total reps in a strong state. If this is true of you, then divide the total number of reps by 3, in which case you may find it better to do 15 or 20 sets of three reps, but only do that much if it’s truly within your capacity.
Tips for Maximizing Dynamic Speed Training
Another common technique when using dynamic speed training is to do a cycle of three speed workouts consisting of 50% of the maximum weight that can be lifted for an exercise in the first workout, followed by 55% the second workout, and 60% in the third workout. Then the cycle starts over again with 50% of a lifter’s one rep max. These types of workouts are generally done once per week with other types of workouts being done on other days of the week.
There’s no rule that says you can’t integrate dynamic speed training with the use of heavy weights in the same workout for the same exercise, but if you do this, you’ll have to do less dynamic speed work in order to avoid over training. Another option is to do four or five sets of three reps for dynamic speed training early in the workout before any fatigue has developed, and then follow it with a set, (or sets depending on your capacity), all the way to your marker rep. I don’t recommend pushing a set to your marker rep and then following it with mini sets of dynamic speed work at the end. Always do speed work when your muscles are fresh.
If you think that the only effective way to build strength is by using heavy weights, but it’s been taking a toll on your body, consider using moderate weights and blasting them up progressively faster from one workout to the next. It works for gaining strength without breaking your body down from over-use of heavy weights. Best of training to you.