A phenomenon I’ve often witnessed during my years of training is people finishing their lifts sluggishly. No matter what exercise you are doing, squats, lunges, deadlifts, pushups etc… there is a strength curve. What I mean by this is that through the range of motion there are times during the exercise where the movement might be harder or easier. I will use the squat as an example. You don’t have to be an elite lifter to know that the lower you go on a squat the harder it is. As you come up to the top part of the squat, the movement becomes exponentially easier. What I see happening over and over is people finishing the movement with only the minimum amount of force necessary to get the bar up. This usually makes for a slow lift in bad formThis can lead to an abundance of problems, and can really be limiting your progress.
First off, without getting too in depth into physics, acceleration matters. When you are strength training, you are trying to increase the total amount of force the body can produce. Acceleration is half of the equation of force. This means that no matter how much weight is on the bar, you should be trying to lift it as fast as possible. This is especially important during your warm-ups when you are trying to gain activation and prepare yourself for a heavier work set. So going back to that squat: explode and finish the movement as fast as you can without affecting your form, and you will be better activated for the next set. Training this way as you warm up will also help you transfer speed onto the higher weights, thus giving you a potentially higher force production. Performing movements explosively has also shown to help make healthier body adaptions and fight potential disorders such as osteoporosis.
Also, if getting a lean, chiseled form is your goal, then training explosively can help promote fast twitch muscle production. Fast twitch muscle is what you see when you are looking at a ripped Olympic sprinter or NFL running back. Performing movements slowly promotes more slow twitch muscle fiber as found in joggers or long distance runners which are not usually known for their impressive physiques. This is especially important in women, who traditionally have more slow twitch muscle to begin with on average anyway. Slow twitch muscle also has a link with fat storage.
So what does all this mean? Basically, lift every weight by taking a big breath, squeezing hard, and putting everything into in like it’s 1000 pounds. This will help train the body better for strength, power, and body transformation. The forgotten concept here is also injury prevention. Finishing the movement strong, with proper muscle activation will keep you in better form, along with shortening the time of the actual lift as well, which will make for lower risk training.