Rick Scarpulla: Building Upper Body Explosive Power

by RICK SCARPULLA

Want Coach to come to your box? Contact Rick Scarpulla, creator of Ultimate Advantage, atrick@myultimateadvantage.com.

Explosive power should be one of the top priorities of any strength athlete, yet many athletes don’t seem to understand how it is acquired, and even less so if we break it down into upper body and lower body. Here we will take a look at upper body explosive power specifically. I know some people can get into all kinds of scientific explanations and math, but the truth is… it’s not all that hard to develop explosive power if you approach it correctly.

The Need for Speed

My upper body strength is very good, and I am very strong primarily due to my genetic build: I have a very broad shoulder girdle, which means I have more lat muscle width. I have a natural advantage when performing any of the upper body movements. That being said, I feel my greatest attribute in my upper body strength is the fact that I am extremely explosive coming out of the hole on upper body movements. That is, I create a great deal of speed coming out of the bottom of the movements. When you watch me bench, shoulder press, or do upper body movements in general, you can clearly see explosive power.

Lack of speed kills: In most cases you can lift more weight in the middle 1/3 and finish 1/3 than you can from the bottom to the middle. Yet when you fail, many times it is in that exact spot — in the middle — where you will lose or miss the lift.

That explosive power is what allows me to create the needed speed to carry the weight through the middle section of the lift. Speed carries the force through a lift. So often it is not a lack of force that makes you miss a lift; instead, it is a lack of speed that causes the miss.

We break all lifts into 1/3’s: a start, a middle, and a finish. In most cases you can lift more weight in the middle 1/3 and finish 1/3 than you can from the bottom to the middle. Yet when you fail, many times it is in that exact spot — in the middle — where you will lose or miss the lift. Is it a lack of strength? No. It is a lack of speed or explosive power in the bottom 1/3 (or starting 1/3) of the movement. Same principle applies with upper body and lower body.

If I gave you two small trampolines, one placed under each elbow at the bottom of the lift, you could easily bench more than you could without them. The trampolines will not give you more strength, but they will provide more speed, thus allowing you to explode faster out of the hole.

The concept becomes very simple: without explosive power, you are not going to lift as much. Again, the explosive power is what carries the force through the lift.

Got speed? My crew and I all have similar numbers, and we all continue to work on building more speed on a daily basis — it is one of our main priorities in our training.

Creating explosive power is done using several different methods, all of which — when put together — make you more explosive than if you only utilized one drill. This philosophy has helped create some of the strongest lifters in the world. In fact, for my age and weight, I am considered one of the best pressers around at a body weight of 210lbs. As of this writing, I am closing in on a 300-lb seated military press and a 575-lb shirted bench. I am an old man now, so if I can hit those numbers, so can you. My crew and I all have similar numbers, and we all continue to work on building more speed on a daily basis — it is one of our main priorities in our training.

Drills to Increase Upper Body Explosive Power

There are a few different ways to build explosive power, and they all must be used in order to develop maximally. It’s funny to hear people say, “This or that is an explosive lift” — just another misconception. There is no such thing as an “explosive lift.” Lifts can be done explosively, therefore making them explosive lifts. So in theory all lifts are explosive if you perform them explosively. Make sense?

Reversal Strength Work

Dynamic Effort/Speed Day

Move it! From the time it hits your chest until the lockout of your 3rd and last rep, the set should only last between 2.3-2.7 seconds.

First, you must utilize a dynamic effort day — or speed day, as we call it. It is a simple routine outlined by my good friend Lou in many articles on conjugate training. We drop the percentages slightly and use around 42-50% of a shirtless max (1RM) . I try and almost drop the bar and catch it at the bottom, then explode back up as absolutely fast as possible. Dropping the bar and catching it creates more reversal strength, which is yet another form of explosive power training. We do around 8-12 sets, though guys/girls with a bigger bench do a few more sets. We do it with mini bands doubled up.

From the time it hits your chest until the lockout of your 3rd and last rep, the set should only last between 2.3-2.7 seconds. Any longer is too slow and will not serve the purpose of building speed. Make that bar move quickly and come out of the hole violently with force.

I really like doing reversal strength work in general; I feel that is a big plus for me in generating explosive power. Unfortunately, it is greatly under-used and not understood, but at my place we know the value of that type of training and use it often.

Lying Med Ball Throws

Reversal strength work is greatly under-used and not understood.

Another great drill is an easy one done on off days and sometimes in a smoker worker workout (read: anaerobic training). Lie on your back with a med ball around 25 pounds. Throw it up and catch it, lowering down to your chest and back up again as fast as possible. I do anywhere from 100 to 200 reps in sets of 40-60. Again, the object is to utilize reversal strength.

Plyos and Presses

Plyometric Push-ups

Another good development technique is using upper body plyos. Many people use plyometrics for increasing lower body explosive power, but too few people use them for upper body. We do several versions of exploding push ups where you bring your hands and sometimes your entire body completely off the ground.

RS Press

Explode with as much force as possible, regardless of the weight on the bar.

The RS press is probably the king of upper body explosive power builders, in my opinion. We do them at my gym in some way every week, often in a de-loaded band (lightened method) with the bar hanging in the bands. This is a movement I came up with years ago to save the elbows. It is a cross between a JM, a skull crusher, and a close grip bench. Each rep is again done coming out of the bottom like it’s on fire.

Block Presses

We do block presses using all different size blocks. Sometimes we do pause blocks for a 2 count. We do from a 1 block all the way up to a 6 block. As with all our assistance training we mix up set and rep counts. Sometimes high, sometimes low. Sometimes heavy, sometimes lighter. But we move the bar fast.

Explode with as much force as possible, regardless of the weight on the bar. We use all kinds of different bars, though we really like it with the T-Grip bar. We use bands up, bands down, straight weight, chains, in combination with all of the different bars. We do it many different ways, but that movement is a great one for upper body explosive power. Of course we do lots of them, so volume counts.

“You can’t be weak and explosive.”

Final thought: I like to say, “If you train slow, you will be slow.” If you want to develop explosive power, then train explosively. Most reps must be done with max force moving the bar as fast as possible while maintaining control.

And it should go without saying at this point, butabsolute strength is another factor in creating more speed. You have to have raw power to be able to develop enough speed to create explosive power. You can’t be weak and explosive.

I like to say, “If you train slow, you will be slow.” If you want to develop explosive power, then train explosively. Most reps must be done with max force moving the bar as fast as possible while maintaining control. Explosive power is a key to your training: work on it, build it, and learn how to utilize it in all your lifts.

Train hard. Train smart.