Develop Explosiveness With Very Little Range Of Motion
I can’t believe I didn’t know this sooner but there’s a scientific term for “Shorties.” I haven’t done my due diligence in researching…I have failed you…
On a more serious note, I’ve been having some fun the last few weeks exploring limited ranges of motion. Here’s a workout with some lighter/high-rep calisthenics…
5 min video (Watching all of it is not necessary)
This time of year, when for religious reasons I’m fasting from 99% of animal products, I figure this time around I’d also fast from full range of motion on most of my calisthenics. Despite eating far less than I have in previous years I’m maintaining my weight a whole lot better and I feel good too.
Part of this feeling good is this explosiveness. Being light on my feet. Only now I’ve become aware of a way to do it with calisthenics.
My muscles are primed, ready, deadly, the opposite unsteady, and anything else I can find that somewhat rhymes.
Part of being explosive is the ability for your muscles to be activated quickly and powerfully. This is called the rate of force production. We’re usually taught that plyometrics is one of the best ways to train this.
Jumping Squats
Medicine Ball Slams/Throws
Clapping Push-ups
But in a typical explosive movement, there’s a point when momentum takes over. Add on top of this the return of the previous position there is a great deal of time in which the muscle is not being stimulated. This, “Great deal of time” is just in seconds but who here doesn’t want their training sessions to be more time-efficient?
Now, there are positives with training proper landing or return bodily mechanics. But I’m all about the muscles and the nerves that control them. One could say my training approach…
Someone - “Please don’t say it”
…is all about the Nerve and Muscle.
Someone -
Comparing plyometrics and oscillatory/shorties; when you perform one plyometric within that time frame you can perform multiple shorties. The momentum and the time it takes to return to the starting position are robbing you of developing an effective stimulus. After filming the below video I realized this is a bad example as I should have just jumped from parallel. From parallel it would be more of a 1 X 15 Plyometrics vs 1 X 20 Oscillatory.
Is this a significant difference? Add in the fact that there is less injury with shorties…YES. Also, if you ever get tired with the standard jump squat or clapping push-ups you can always turn up the intensity.
The only real drawback is measurability but throwing in a test day every once in a while can work.
This “Measurability” in some cases is why there’s often a backlash against those using more limited ranges of motion. For dudes, it (full range of motion) provides us a way to compare ourselves to other men. Outside of the body that it develops, limited range of motion does not provide us the same pissing contest.
Take it from me, someone who spent most of my adult life in military environments doing all their fitness tests and performing full range of motion in calisthenics in my off time….Full Range of Motion is limited in the results it can provide based on your level of fitness.
What that looks like for each person will be on a case-by-case basis. For some a workout schedule where 30% of their workout is shorties and the rest is full range of motion might be beneficial. For others, it might be the opposite. When I first got into progressive calisthenics I could benefit from full range of motion cause I was young. Being that young I could recover from anything. But getting older has helped me to better discern what works…
Strenuous muscular work does not build muscle. If it did, the hardest workers, particularly those who start in childhood, would be the biggest and strongest people. But the reverse is actually the case, because strenuous training and hard labour actually break down the muscular tissue.
We know that there are the rare cases of men who are able to train strenuously and show good physical development. But such persons are possessed of extraordinary powers of recuperation and they would get better results from more scientific methods of training. Some men are vitally strong enough to withstand several years of hard wear and tear on the organs, and it is these rare cases that are held up by advocates of strenuous training as proof of the efficacy of such training.
However, few people have the time or inclination for such unnatural methods, and it has been proven that by reasonable methods everyone is able to gain and maintain their full potentialities in health, strength and muscular development. I use the word maintain because only when a natural method is used can the training be continued throughout life. - Court Saldo (from the Maxalding system)
If you’re interested in more muscle or explosiveness give shorties a few reps here and there and increase the volume over time and….
…Take Notes/Journal!!!!
Journalling can make a world of difference in your fitness journey.
Thank you for making it to the end and have a great weekend.
Until next time…
Btw I’ve done some collaboration posts with another gentleman that I think yall would like. Those two posts are down below.
Also, I found this video the other day that perfectly captures my frustrations at times.
Great update, and well done!
Research is interesting. You spend years searching for everything you can learn about something, and you inevitably trip over something new (or rediscovered) when you least expect it. It always helps to be open to listening to others who share your passion, but have taken a different road to get there.
That happened to me recently. I had spent 21 years passionately reading about health, and another five focused on reversing a particular health problem that mainstream medicine thought was unlikely to ever get better. I recently not only found the likely answer to that health problem (it is greatly improved, but I still have a ways to go), but it appears a side benefit is a likely cure to two other chronic health problems that I've been dealing with for even longer (6 years and 50 years, respectively). It looks like I've hit the Trifecta!
I think my list of health problems may now be down to just a little shoulder pain and some toenail fungus. Yee-haw! Not bad for pushing 69 years old and having had serious heart problems 7 years ago.