The StoWicks Conversations
by
Carolyn and Seth Wicks
Carolyn: On Thursday, my wonderful and extremely handsome husband, turns 33. Now you might be thinking to yourself, "huh, I wonder what he wanted for his birthday? A watch? New driver for golf? A pair of new shoes?" and you would be completely wrong. He asked my parents for a box...
Yes, literally a box, but specifically a box that is 20" on one side, 24" on the other, and 30" on the other side. It's for box jumps. If you don't know, we got a home gym. It has been without a doubt the best purchase we have ever made. We use it almost daily and we never have to leave home so when the baby naps, we workout. We have some dumbbells, a rack, plates, and a bench, but we wanted a few other things to really make it useful. We have bands, medicine balls and some kettle bells. Seth wanted a box jump. We usually talk through why he wants specific things and not others, but he didn't have to explain this one to me. What box jumps actually train is more critical than you'd think: power.
Seth: Strength and resistance training get a ton of press, and we love that. Science fully supports weight lifting and building muscle. But power? That's not as mainstream.
First off, what's the difference between strength and power anyway? Well, for all my physics nerds out there, strength is basically just force, while power is force x velocity. Strength is moving the barbell, but power is how fast you can move the barbell.
What does this have to do with me? you might be asking. Great question! Power is actually more applicable to the real world. Catching yourself before you fall, running to your car in the rain, swinging a golf club or tennis racket - they all require power. Being strong and slow only gets you so far, so we're here to make the case for not only strength training, but power training as well.
Carolyn: Now, it's time again for Carolyn's Science Corner π€. Here's something fascinating: you don't lose strength and power at the same rate as you age, you lose power almost twice as fast. Research shows sβtrength declines at about 1-2% per year once you hit your 40s and 50s, but power drops at closer to 3.5% per year. That gap doesn't sound like a big deal until you do the math over a decade: your strength might dip 15-20%, but your power has already fallen closer to 35-40%.
So you can be fairly strong and muscular but still lose the ability to catch yourself if you fall. Those are two different systems, declining at two different speeds, and most of us have no idea it's happening until we're the one tripping on the sidewalk instead of catching ourselves before we hit the ground. And I hate to be the barer of bad news, but after 60, the decline accelerates even further, which is exactly why you see so many athletes retire well before they "get weak." Their strength is often still there, but their power isn't.
So when Seth asked for a 20x24x30 box for his birthday instead of, I don't know, a nice watch, this is why. He's not trying to jump higher for fun (okay, maybe also for fun). He's training the thing that keeps you upright, quick, and able to catch a falling baby, a dropped pan, or yourself off a curb, decades from now.
Seth: Carolyn must be impressed by my decision because she's mentioned it twice now. That's because she didn't marry an old bag and I won't be one for half a century. Moving on!
Why does power disappear faster than strength as we age? It comes down to what's happening at the muscle fiber level. You've got two main types of muscle fibers: type I (slow-twitch) and type II (fast-twitch). Type I fibers are your endurance fibers (think marathon runner, built for sustained, lower-force output). Type II fibers are the ones that fire fast and hard, letting you sprint, jump, or catch yourself before you hit the ground.
The problem is that as we age, type II fibers atrophy faster than type I. Your body is losing the exact fibers responsible for producing force quickly, while the slower, more endurance-oriented fibers stick around comparatively well. That's why strength holds up better over time, while power, which depends specifically on that fast, high-velocity output, takes a much bigger hit.
Carolyn: Okay, so now that you know why your fast-twitch fibers are leaving you out to dry, let's talk about how to actually keep them around. The training principle here isn't complicated: you have to move with intent to be fast, not just intent to move. Slow, controlled reps build strength beautifully, but they don't train your body to fire quickly, and that's a completely separate skill you have to practice on purpose.
The easiest place to start is with your own body weight. Sit-to-stand speed work is the most underrated power exercise out there: sit in a chair, and instead of standing up like you normally would, stand up as fast as you possibly can. That's it. That's the whole box jump program's little sibling, and you can do it at your kitchen table. From there, you can graduate to actual box jumps, broad jumps, or even just fast, exaggerated step-ups.
If you want to add load, the trick is to keep the weight light and the speed high. Don't accidentally turn a power exercise back into a strength exercise, because heavy and slow is your default setting. Think kettlebell swings, medicine ball slams, or even just picking up a lighter dumbbell than you'd normally use and moving it as explosively as you can on the way up, then controlling it on the way down. Medicine ball throws are great for this too, since there's no eccentric phase to slow you back down. You literally get to let go of something and watch it fly (which, ten out of ten, very cathartic).
And if you're more advanced, or you've got some lifting experience already, look into contrast training: pairing a heavy strength movement (like a squat) with an explosive one (like a jump) back to back. It sounds intense, but it's really just teaching your nervous system to switch gears quickly, which, conveniently, is exactly the skill you're trying to build.
Seth: Back when I was a wee lad on the Texas A&M football team, we did the 4 main "cleans" each week - squat, power, hang, and hang power. These were all explosive movements that would translate well to the field, and for the kickers especially, our kick distance (power is even more important for us).
So no, I didn't ask for a watch this year. A watch tells you time is passing. A box jump platform will help me turn back time, so that's a birthday present I can get behind.
Carolyn: Your one thing this week: pick a single explosive movement and actually do it. A chair-stand speed test, a few box jumps, a medicine ball slam into a wall you don't like very much. Chase speed!
Seth: We like hearing from you each week, so tell us about a movement we missed that could be added to a "power mix".
Both: Strength gets all the attention. Power is the quiet one that actually decides whether you're still moving well at 80. If this issue changed how you think about that, the best thing you can do is send it to one person who needs to hear it.
See you next week,
Carolyn & Seth
βThe StoWicks
Quote of the Week:
βPower = health currency. Muscle power outpredicts strength for mortality.β
Dr. Janette Watkins
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