Building Up Slowly

[venomousbird]

potentially he will be explosive at that weight yes, and I agree, it's obviously going to decrease at higher weights as lactic acid builds up and saturates the tissues

I guess I'm looking at the difference between say a sprinter and a marathon runner

ideally I would like to be able to maintain explosive power for as long as possible without getting sluggish

I've never really been clear on reps

I used to work out with as much weight as possible for 6 reps, as I'd had that recommended to me when I was younger, but a trainer was recommending I should try to do sets of 8 instead for better gains

mainly I'm looking to build power over size, but I'm still pretty confused on what varying amounts or reps will achieve for me

either way, I want to continue building up a better core before I get too specialized in my lifting. . . I guess I'll just have to experiment to see what kind of results I can achieve

[Riddick2112]

from what i understand, power-specific training involves sub-maximal weights (around 70% 1RM), but lifted as fast as possible, always trying to lift it faster the next time. Apparently this teaches your body to recruit more MU's.
A beginner would probably not need to worry about being that specific with their training as any good basic program will yield them gains in size, strength and power.