Wednesday 11 April 2012

Strength and Power, what's the difference?


Strength and Power are two different abilities that muscles may have. It is easy to confuse the two terms but the most simplistic way to describe them is this;


  1. Strength - The ability for the muscle to stay contracted under a maximum load.
  2. Power - The ability to generate the contraction of strength.

In short, Strength is Static and Power is Dynamic.

If we look at climbing terms, there are many different types of strength involved in climbing:

  • Hand Strength - Strength required to hold on.
  • Arm/Back Strength - Strength required to bend your arms.
  • Core Body Strength - Strength required to keep your feet and hips in place.
  • Power - Ability to move quickly and in control. maintenance 
  • Opposing Muscle Strength - Non-climbing muscles that you must strengthen in order to keep joints and muscles balanced.

The strengths can be trained using isolation movements, focusing on a specific set of muscles, while power is best trained using compound movements, possibly numerous muscle groups with movements involving more than one joint.

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