Dumbell Exercises for Explosive Strength

Compensatory acceleration training or CAT used in conjunction with dumbell exercises can develop your speed and power. Dumbell workouts with heavy weights done in a slow fashion will make you stronger, but CAT training is superior for building explosiveness.

Compensatory acceleration training is done using a weight (such as a dumbell) and moving it upwards as quickly as possible. For example, using a dumbbell bench press, you would lower the dumbbells slowly in a controlled fashion, and once you hit the bottom of the exercise, you explosively push the dumbell up as hard as you can. Ideally, you want to move the weight faster as the dumbbell travels upwards, to compensate for the momentum produced during the exercise.

Since explosive training with dumbbells, or any other resistance activate the largest number of motor units in the muscles, they are effective for developing strength. Adding compensatory acceleration training to your dumbbell workouts can aid you to develop powerful and explosive muscles.