Strength vs. Power: What Is The Difference and Which Should You Focus On?

Power training is strength training, but faster. If you are power training, you lift weights at a faster speed. This activates different parts of your muscles than regular strength training.

In essence, power training allows you to apply the most strength you can in the smallest amount of time. This is beneficial for athletes who participate in sports that utilize speed, such as soccer or basketball.

Power Training

Power training is essential to your workout regimen if you want to get faster and stronger. It is best to supplement your power training with strength training to ensure continual progress over time.

Benefits of Power Training

There are many benefits to incorporating power training into your workout. If you play a team or other competitive sport, speed is often a crucial part of success. Power training helps you increase your speed and access your strength much faster. 

Power training can reduce your risk of ijfnjury by strengthening your muscles and improving your overall balance and coordination. Because of the sudden movements involved in power training, these exercises can also enhance your impact absorption, making you less susceptible to impact-related injuries. These benefits are especially evident in older individuals.

Power training will also help you improve your strength training. If you are someone who already spends a good amount of gym time focusing on lifting heavy weights, you’ll benefit from adding in a power move or two. This will improve your overall strength, eventually allowing you to lift even heavier.

How to Power Train

The most important thing to remember when power training is that you should be focused on speed instead of weight. When completing your power training moves, you should use the highest amount of weight that allows you to move quickly with good form. You need to lower the weight if you cannot complete each exercise at high speed.

Focus on the intensity and volume of your workouts when training for power. You want to work at various intensities throughout the week. While lower intensity, faster workouts are great for some days, more intense higher volume workouts can help you see better results.

Incorporate plyometrics into your workout to improve your power. These moves are popular in the CrossFit gym, but you can do them at home, or anywhere you have space. Sprints, burpees, or box jumps are popular options for improving your power.

There are also weightlifting moves that focus on power over strength. The snatch and the clean & jerk are some of the most effective power moves you can do at the gym are the snatch and the clean & jerk. Take a look at the Olympic lifts for more ideas because many of these are power-focused.

Practice your form and technique before jumping into Olympic or other power lifts. Power moves involve quick movement of the weight, which can result in injury if you are not careful. Always start with less weight than you think you can handle until you perfect your form in each move.

Diet For Power

Dieting for power is similar to dieting for strength training, focusing on high protein foods, healthy fats, and complex carbs. It is best to spread your meals throughout the day instead of eating a few larger meals in two or three sittings.

Like the diet we described above for strength training, concentrate on getting as many grams of protein as pounds you weigh. You can use the same calorie guidelines (15 x Your body weight) to calculate your ideal daily calories. Don’t forget to add an additional 200 calories on the days you lift in the gym.

There are many great protein sources to easily incorporate into your daily diets, such as chicken, red meat, fish, turkey, and low-fat dairy. Keep your diet varied by choosing different sources of protein every day.

Make sure you are eating enough carbs to fuel your powerful lifts at the gym. High-quality carbs like whole-grain bread, baked potatoes, and green vegetables give you the energy you need to keep improving your power lifts.

Will Being Vegan Diminish Your Power?

As mentioned in the above section on strength training, there is little research about weightlifting and vegan diets. However, no evidence suggests vegan diets are inherently detrimental to your power if you meet all your dietary needs.

Be sure to incorporate adequate protein and amino acids into your diet. You can find protein in many plant-based products, such as nuts, beans, and edamame. You will also need to seek out sources of amino acids, such as sesame seeds and tofu.

If you are unsure about getting all the protein and amino acids you need from your vegan diet, consider adding a daily supplement. There are many supplements available that can provide these essential nutrients.