The central nervous system (CNS) controls muscle contraction. When the body needs to produce force, such as lifting a weight, the CNS signals an appropriate amount of muscle fibers to contract to get the job done. The more muscle fibers the CNS recruits, the greater the potential for growth. One way to increase the number of muscle fibers recruited is by lifting a weight in an explosive manner. This is due to the fact that it takes more force, and therefore more muscle fibers, to lift a weight in one second than it does in two. If that wasn’t enough reason to train ballistically, recent research has given another.

A study performed at Ball State University was conducted to compare the effects of explosive versus slow contractions on energy expenditure (calorie burning). Subjects performed squats using either explosive (less than one second) or slow (2 seconds) concentric (muscle shortening) contractions, but used the same amount of weight (60% 1RM) and followed the same rep/set scheme (8/4). Results showed that subjects burned 12 percent more calories when they lifted the weight explosively than when they did slowly.

Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. 2007 Aug; 39(8): 1291-1301.