Developing explosive power in legs

How do I develop power in legs? I want to be able to jump high which is necessary for front somersaults and back hand springs.

At the moment I squat weights and calve raises. My maximum squat is 80 kgs and I can't remember my maximum for my calves, probably 60 kgs. Should I squat 60 kgs instead but do it fast? I believe thats called explosive weight training or something as I believe explosive power is what I need to launch my body off the floor rather than slow, steady strength.

Cheers.

A lot of that comes from good technique. A high front needs a good set up. A backhandspring isn't so much about height. More about flight backwards.

Anyways, you can lift heavy weights and try to move them fast or you can move light weights quickly. Either way will help. I'd explain each one but I would have to write you a book. Remember to actually...jump too. Jumping is important for improving your jump. Go figure.

Actually moving quickly is important, but what are your stats? How tall are you, what do you weigh, how old are you? Any history of injuries? Any technique problems you know of? Training history? (how long have you been training, how long have you been using weights, what is the basic program you are using, what have your results been and over what time period?)

You may already know this, but having good foods in your diet and eating smaller, more frequent meals will help all of your training results.

Pretty much the easiest way to train this would be use of the Olympic Lifts. If you don't give a damn about the snatch, the Power Clean will suffice and the Jerk is one of those things that make you strong everywhere.

You could use some of the Dynamic Leg WOD exercises in the GB WOD instead.

Other exercises to use would be weighted Squat Jumps. This is generally done in back squat form (High Bar) with a jump to a higher surface. It doesn't need to be a jump from the floor to a higher surface.

Jumping Lunges. Coach Sommer calls these "Killers". Hold DB or a bar and jump and switch legs in a lunge.

While squat and calf raises are useful, you need some dynamic work in there besides practicing punch front somersaults and backhandsprings.

Backhandsprings don't require much of a vertical jump. I've had girls do back handsprings who could only vertical jump roughly 10% of their height in inches. They weren't exceptional BHS, but they worked good enough for one on floor for a cheerleader without being a safety risk.

I always do clean and jerk, in fact its one of my favourite exercises! I jerk 52.5 kgs at the moment. I couldn't find anything in the WOD bit. Everything's listed in numbers and I was like, "wtf does 1005398258042873 supposed to mean...???"

And what's dynamic in terms of strength training? I only heard of dynamic stretches. Thanks.

what's dynamic in terms of strength training?

Anything explosive done quickly. Sprinting, jumping, the olympic lifts would be examples of dynamic movements.

In the GymnasticBodies program "dynamic" means phasic exercise. Phasic means something like a jump, where the majority of the force is produced extremely quickly and violently. Technically it means that there is a rapidly changing force curve through the movement, with peak force lasting for a very short period of time. Pitching, kipping pull ups, rebounds, senders, handsprings, these are all phasic or "dynamic" exercises. You should think explosive or plyometric when you hear "dynamic exercise" in this program.

As a general term, dynamic is just not static. The term "Dynamic" technically covers everything that is not static, both tonic and phasic. Tonic, when used to describe an exercise type, means a steady force or rate of movement applied over the full range of motion for that exercise. You can perform a tonic version of a pitch, where you hold a cable handle or band and slowly move through the pitching ROM, or you can perform a phasic version on an impulse trainer or similar device. Bands can sometimes work for this as well. Phasic exercise, because of the extremely rapid loading and high speeds, trains the very fastest twitch motor groups only and is dangerous for the unprepared body.

My friend who is a Biomechanics Masters besides a Gymnastics Coach (trying to create Elites being his ultimate goal) defined it to me as:

Isometric - statics

Isokinetic - movement with a rate of speed that is constant. Traditional isokinetic movement is generally done with special machines but he refers to moving gymnastics movements with a constant rate of speed. So "tonic',

Plyometric - basically fast, dynamic movement. "phasic"

Yes, and isotonics = constant(unchanging) force, but not necessarily constant speed or load.

Stretch reflexes are the most phasic of all movements, and perhaps the only true phasic movements.