Are you performing high force activity on legs prior to training for lower body power? If not you should be!
You will find a lot of discussion in my book Maximum Overload for Cyclists by Rodale Press. https://www.amazon.com/Bicycling-Maximum-Overload-Cyclists-Strength-Based/dp/1623367743/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493769471&sr=8-1&keywords=jacques+devore about developing power. It discusses the strategy of power and also focuses on the tactics.
One of the tactics in the book is how your order exercises to maximize a training result.
There is a training principle called Post activation Potentiation Principle or PAP. As athletes become fitter and fitter it becomes harder to get overloads when training. PAP helps to increase the ability of an athlete to produce greater amounts of power in exercises subsequently to a high force activity. Greater amounts of power is of great importance in sport today.
Most of the research has revolved around jumping. The act of jumping is a good measurement of absolute power production in an athlete’s lower body. The research looked at performing hack squats at 90% of the athlete’s one repetition prior to jumping. Subsequent ability to jump was increased when the intervention was utilized. This also has validity in a number of other power exercises. The optimum time between the heavy lift and the power exercise seemed to be around 12 minutes (Andy V. Kambui, MS, CSCS, Edward Jo, MS, CSCS,and Lee E. Brown, EdD, CSCS,*D, FNSCA ). At Sirens and Titans Fitness we utilize this science in training the body for many different vectors of power production.
Keep this idea in mind the next time you perform your plyometric workouts both for upper body and lower body exercises. The practical application of the science allows a strength coach to experiment with different types of loads and rest dependent on the athlete and the part of the body you are training. This can also be reversed to improve maximum strength exercise. When the order is reversed the power exercise is executed on the front end to elicit a bigger lift on the strength side.. Just remember too much volume of either will negate the effect if too much fatigue is produced or the athlete is not fit enough.
Truth in Fitness
Jacques DeVore, CSCS