Heavy lifting is one thing and will inherently be slow(er) because of the weight used, but actively lifting slowly is a terrible idea and there is plenty of info out there to support the idea that it is worthless. I won’t bother finding it–not that important to me-- but I would look at what Louis Simmons, whose focus is purely on strength w/ Westside Barbell, has to say about lifting slowly (hint, they don’t do it).
I think using different tempos can be beneficial at the very beginning of a strength cycle (mostly for connective tissue purposes) or for hypertrophy purposes, but never just plain super slow.
The shorter the sprint, the more it relies on strength, which is probably why a lot of guys will drop their 40 time just running, but do some longer sprints and they aren’t too hot. I don’t find, however, that strength training is one of the most important aspects of top speed, the most important thing arguably in the 100m. I find top speed sprinting and plyos play a much greater role than any sort of lifting.
it doesnt matter if you run a 4.2 sec 40 yard dash. you could be a gifted athlete. but go ahead an continue and soon you will find a level of diminishing returns. how do i know this, because ive done it. also the article you posted has a lot of sceintific flaws. it talks about the importance of force in developing power but doenst hit on the fact that the greater the time it takes to generate that force the lower the power output
from the link "Add it all together and you have the prescription for power, which is force x distance ÷ time, or the rate of doing work. "
the idea of moving weight rapidly isnt to mimick an athletic event its to elicit a physiological response. how does lifting maximum weights purposly slow address rate of force developement. it seems that you want to be strong you want to have a big squat and you want to run fast. fine but in the long run its gunna end up being a detriment. if all you had to do to run fast was to lift heavy then why doesnt the majority of sprinters send their time worrying aobut their max lifts?
p.s. a greater force can be generate with a lighter weight moving fast than heavy weight moving slowly. especially eccentrically in which a falling load can generate a force 10s of times the weight of said load.
