Fencing Strength
Guillaume Bianchi is an Italian foilist, European champion, World champion, and 2024 Olympic silver medalist on the Italian men’s foil team. The training method at the centre of his fencing strength and conditioning work is contrast training — one of the most effective approaches available for building explosive power in advanced athletes.
What Is Contrast Training?
Contrast training pairs a heavy strength movement with a lighter power or plyometric movement that matches the same movement pattern. The heavy movement potentiates the nervous system — essentially priming the motor units to fire at higher rates — and the subsequent lighter movement captures that potentiation in an explosive output.
The principle is to progressively reduce load while maximising speed through the same mechanical pattern. The result is a training effect that develops both absolute strength and the rate of force development that turns that strength into explosive movement.
Examples from the Programme
Bianchi’s sessions include several clear contrast pairings:
Upper Body Push: Bench Press → Plyometric Push-Ups → Single Arm Medicine Ball Chest Pass
Lower Body: High Bar Back Squat → Box Jumps
Posterior Chain: Deadlift → Kettlebell Swings → Broad Jumps
The pattern is consistent: a maximal strength movement followed by progressively faster and lighter expressions of the same mechanical pattern.
Sample Programme (3–5 Sets Per Pairing)
| Heavy Movement | Reps | Load |
|---|---|---|
| Bench Press | 3 | 80–90% 1RM |
| High Bar Squat | 3 | 80–90% 1RM |
| Bent Over Barbell Row | 3 | 80–90% 1RM |
| Deadlift (Trap Bar or Barbell) | 3 | 80–90% 1RM |
| Power Movement | Reps |
|---|---|
| Plyometric Push-Ups | 3–5 |
| Single Arm Medball Chest Pass (4–10lb) | 3 each side |
| Box Jumps (80–90% max height) | 3 |
| Bent Over Single Arm Row (65–76% 1RM) | 3–5 |
| Kettlebell Swings | 3–5 |
| Broad Jumps | 3 |
Critical Points for Execution
Speed is the priority. The goal of this programme is power output — not strength accumulation, not conditioning. Going heavier than prescribed, adding reps, or reducing rest between sets all compromise the stimulus. The nervous system needs to be fresh to fire at maximum rate.
This is not a beginner method. Contrast training requires technique that is already dialled in under load. Running this programme before movement quality is solid, or before a major competition, is a mistake. It is demanding, highly fatiguing, and should be reserved for off-season or early pre-season blocks where full recovery is available.
Rest generously between sets. Each working set should be approached with a fully recovered nervous system. Three to five minutes between heavy strength sets is appropriate.
What Fencers Can Take from This
The contrast training model is available to any fencer with a solid strength foundation and sound technique in compound movements. It does not require elite training facilities — a barbell, a set of dumbbells, a pull-up bar, and open space for jumps is sufficient.
What it does require is the discipline to train for power rather than effort — to resist the instinct to add more load or more reps, and instead focus on the quality of each explosive output. That is the mentality at the centre of how Bianchi trains, and it is the mentality that produces the kind of power that wins at the Olympic level.
Related: Training But Not Getting Faster? Three Exercises Every Fencer Needs — the foundational methods that build the strength base contrast training requires. Four Training Lessons from the World’s #1 Ranked Epee Fencer — how Sera Song separates strength and power training, and why the distinction matters.
Contrast training is built into the Explosiveness fencing training program at Fencing Strength — structured across 12 weeks with plyometrics, olympic lifting, and sprint work that develops the same qualities Bianchi trains for.