In the last article – How to Become a Legend – I talked about how to become a hero or legend from a mental or courage standpoint. Facing our fears is immensely important in becoming the best person we can possibly be. In this article I’m going to give you some great tips on how to improve the skills that’ll help you once that courage is developed.
Let’s assume that we have the courage to help another person if they need someone’s help. Let’s assume that we’re willing to face the things that scare us most, look our fears in the eye and push forward. We then need to have the skills and ability to succeed in helping them.
At the top of this site is the tagline: “Be LEGENDARY with Chad Howse Fitness“. I have a lot of training and nutrition articles, because that’s my background, and that’s what I’m good at. I can help people get in great shape in a small amount of time. But that’s only one aspect of being legendary, and that’s also only one aspect of being a hero.
Every training article, whether it’s about building lean muscle mass or losing fat so you can look good or become a more confident person, or building knockout power, or even becoming a healthier person is about developing an all-around unstoppable physique. A superhero isn’t one-dimensional. They have more than just their powers. But their powers are pretty damn important.
Now let’s talk about those physical skills and how you can develop your powers. In my mind athleticism is all about power…
More Powerful Than a Locomotive
Leaping ability is essentially the degree of power we can exude in a leaping manner. Sprinting is power as well. It’s an explosive burst of speed. As is punching, and lifting an object. They’re all different ways of showing power.
The more powerful and athletic we are, the higher we’re able to jump, the faster we can run, the longer we can last in a fight, the more powerful our punch is, the more weight we can lift off of someone in danger, and the less likely we are to be injured in any one of those acts of bravery.
In developing athletic power, we need to focus a lot on heavy lifting in exercises that develop that power that we’re looking for. The best exercises around for improving power?
The Deadlift
Cleans
The Snatch
Each of these exercises are to be done at full speed, and with no eccentric phase to the lift. That is, for the deadlift, perform the lift and then drop the weight at its height. For cleans and the snatch do the same thing. Once the weight is above your head, drop it. Don’t risk injury with a heavy weight by trying to ease it to the ground. Of course, bumper plates and a platform are ideal, you could send the weight crashing through the floor if you’re not careful.
For the heavier lifts like the aforementioned, you only need to be performing them twice a week for 2-3 sets of 2-3 reps at 85-95% of your maximal lift for that rep count.
In the past I’ve added deadlifts in at that rep count and frequency in with the PowerHowse Challenge as a way to improve my speed and power. However, there’s a fine balance between doing enough and doing too much, so be careful.
Faster Than a Speeding Bullet
One of my favourite exercises for building explosive pushing power is car pushing. If you don’t have access to a prowler (another great piece of exercise equipment), pushing cars is a great alternative.
Have a look at this video. Here’s a great challenge workout you can to to help improve explosive power and in turn build speed, power, and improve your leaping ability:
When training for pure speed it’s more about explosiveness than endurance. Do exercises like car pushing and deadlifts, but also sprint.
Keep your sprints short, 10-20 meters. Really focus on staying low in your stance and exploding off the blocks. Try doing 8 sprints with 90 seconds rest in between each.
What do you want to become?
Isn’t the reason why we start training to become the best, healthiest, most athletic versions of ourselves that we can possibly be?
Call it being a legend or being a superhero, the goal is still the same. It isn’t relegated simply to the physical either. Courage, and guts are just as important as braun and power.
A good friend of mine just came out with an awesome program designed to help us perform great, but also look great as well. Whether your goals are to build lean muscle mass, lose fat, or do a little bit of both, this program – as it’s title suggests – is designed to help you become a superhero.
John’s one of the best trainer’s around, that’s why I feel everyone should have a look at what he has to offer: because it’s really quality stuff that gets results. Period.
Take a look at the Superhero Workout HERE —–> Click Here
