Adarq.org

Hey Chris,

I know you don't really work on your single leg jump, but even without the practice, has it gone up as your strength went up?

Do you have any framework to illustrate this?  For example when you were squatting/deadlifting X at a bodyweight of X, your SLRVJ was Y, and now you're squatting/deadlifting A at a bodyweight of B, and your SLRVJ now is C, etc...

Also something like, maybe your SLRVJ stopped increasing after the 2X BW squat mark, while your DLRVJ kept going up...?

Lastly, why aren't you experimenting with half squats?  At your advanced DLRVJ, they can possibly help peak out another inch or 2 if you implement them correctly

Just curious to see stuff like this... Thanks

One thing I like about your program to increase DLRVJ is the simplicity..  I may be wrong, but you seem to basically be focusing on squats, jumps squats, and depth jumps.  Basically hitting the DLRVJ from all angles on the force-velocity curve..

If you're consistently training, my guess would be that your going to the gym to train in a low state of CNS excitement too often?

From a very quick look, I seem to see a LOT of low mental states, low energy, and forcing workouts.


From my experience, mastering the ability to know if my body AND more importantly CNS is not primed, it's better to not go to the gym and waste a workout. 




For example:

today:

WEIGHT: ???
SORENESS: right shin, left lat, glutes
ACHES/INJURIES: right toe
MENTAL STATE: tired, zero motivation, had to drag myself to the gym

- jump rope and joint circles x 20 mins

- stretch

better than nothing.


I used to do this a lot too and learned that NOTHING can actually be better..  You're no beginner, so sessions that don't allow you to go 100% really are worthless imo.  What I did was figure out what light exercise primes my CNS the next day without causing any fatigue.

For example:

Day 1 - CNS and body is firing

ME jump sessions / plyo's/ weight room <-- kill it in everything

Day 2  - rest/stretch

Day 3 - SL Box squats @ 4 x 3 with challenging weight OR 3 x 10 KB Swings

Doing either of these causes hardly any fatigue, and the explosive nature of each ALWAYS primes my CNS the next day

Day 4 - repeat the cycle


I would sometimes skip day 3 and just go to the gym and train if I know my CNS is firing.  Similar to adarqs stop watch double click, I downloaded this CNS tap test app on my phone and use that under the same conditions every morning.  If my scores are high and i'm "feeling" wired up and strong, I say fuck it and go to the gym.  After a warm up, if I'm not firing and ready to go fast, I don't waste time trying to "let the drive come" and make the trip to the gym not be a waste by doing Box squats. 

If all signs are not well, I just stay home and do KB swings instead since I have one at home.  These 'priming' exercises are needed for me as just resting from day to day may allow recovery, but losing that CNS "primed" state gives you sluggish workouts.  These exercises in themselves are great because they keep you primed without any fatigue

Some other sure signs for me are having coffee right after breakfast.  If the coffee affects me at all, I know I will be fired up..  When my CNS is fatigued, caffeine doesn't do anything.  This last caffeine example I would guess is very individualized though...


Anyways, I used to be so frustrated being so consistent with training and yet always having shitty workouts that left me with no progress.  After I figured this out, I basically had 100% high quality sessions all the time.  Maybe 1 bad workout every 10 sessions.  With that consistency in training where all cylinders are firing, you can't help but make progress.

You probably read this before but forgot about it since its old but read it again

from KellyB
Performance Improvement Strategies for Intermediate and Advanced Athletes
Key #4

Don't bother training unless you're ready to improve

Unless you're intentionally challenging yourself with a high volume of work, as you might be during the "volume" phase of a training block, then don't show up to train unless you're ready to improve. Keep a log of 2 things and make note of them FIRST thing in the morning when you wake up. These things are physical energy and mental motivation. Rank both on a scale of 1-100 and write them down in your journal. The reason you want to do this first thing in the morning is because your body and mind are both honest with you at this time. When you first wake up you can't tell your body and subconscious mind whether they feel like crap or not but if you do this after you've been up for even a few minutes your "mind" can make your evaluation false . This is why the Russians used to wake their athletes up and do all sorts of tests on them to assess trainability.

So rank both energy and motivation on a scale of 100. A score of 75 or more meaning that you were dreaming of training before you even woke up and couldn't wait to get to the gym. A score below 25 meaning that you felt absolutely miserable when you woke up, and even more miserable when you realized that you were scheduled to train today. Males can use their sex drive upon wakening to assess state of energy (seriously).

DO NOT train unless you can honestly give yourself a rating of 50 for both energy and motivation! This is important. In short don't show up at the gym unless you feel that you're going to improve in something! Better to take an extra day off and get in some active rest (walking, low intensity cardio, stretching etc.) and put the training session on hold until the next day then it is to show up and waste your time going nowhere.

Now you might ask, "well what if taking an extra day off isn't an option?" In that case you should cut the volume of the session by 50% while maintaining the intensity (load). Also in this case you'd definitely want to pay extra attention to sleep and nutrition.

http://www.higher-faster-sports.com/gettingstronger2.html

Hey Guys,

I want to hear your opinions on something that doesn't make too much sense to me...

Using a weight vest seems to be accepted as a beneficial way to train for a higher vertical jump, but take a look at this scenario:

Single leg bounds are great for single leg jumpers... 

A weight vest does not allow you to jump as high on each bound, although power output may be equal because a lower height with more weight (vest on) is still similar to a higher height with less weight (no vest).  If this leads to a lower height (with vest), than on the landings where a lot of the magic happens, you are absorbing a higher weight but from a lower drop height (essentially canceling each other out), which will be pretty much the same landing force of a lower weight (no vest) but from a higher drop height?

This to me seems like they are the exact same thing except that the weight vest can negatively affect movement efficiency so this 1 negative aspect equates to NOT using a weight vest as superior?

The only way I see using a weight vest as being useful is for immediate potentiation/STIM effects during a peaking phase.  Doing 1 set of bounds with the vest on, and taking advantage of the CNS stim on the next set with the vest OFF (contrast sets).


What prompted me to wonder even more obsessively about this is that if my example of higher/lower drops higher/lower weight higher/lower jumps are all essentially the same, it didn't make sense that I have had more knee pain when I would go on blocks using a weight vest.  If my earlier scenario is true, this increased knee pain can be explained by the vest decreasing movement efficiency, thus me performing the bounds more dangerously.


Another example would basically be if you master 18" depth jumps, would it be the same to increase the box height as staying on 18" but add weight?

Shit load of overthinking but I want to be as efficient as possible so what does everyone think?

Are you kidding me?

How about telling me how much I waste my time having pretty much the same ratio of squat/BW in the last 7 years or so, going religiously to the gym and putting as much if not MORE effort than anybody else I know.

No matter what I did, the squat/BW ratio stayed the same all this time. And pretty much everything else. Increase in bodyweight? See SOME increases in strength, but overall the same ratio.

Genetics is genetics, and you can't go around it.

Genetics is genetics to a degree.  There is a difference between training properly and making progress that is attainable, and religiously working out but not making progress.  I don't think your squat numbers are even close to the realm of "i'm near my genetic level'

Quote from: ChrisM on July 29, 2015, 12:26:42 pm

Ive never really thought abiut it like that. It is an interesting view point and probably has great merit but it just seems to pessimistic for me. I prefer to believe i am capable of whatever i set my mind to. Its been proven many times the mind is stronger than the body, we all have limits but do we reach them mentally (via stagnation, doubt, knowledge, etc) or do we actually reach a physical genetic limit?

i mean that's cool and all, but you have to remember that you are really, really gifted athletically. tell my toes that my mind should be stronger than this:

Man you are really giving yourself excuses for your lack of improvement lately... Suck it up, just cause you're going in circles constantly don't tell people who are more "gifted" who actually worked hard to improve tons shit like that...  You may have improved since you started but you been on a hamster wheel for a long time...  No need to keep making excuses for yourself as if you have all the knowledge in the world but genetics is holding you back... If you're constantly having shitty workouts where nothing is improving, maybe you don't know what you're doing cause you're clearly not anywhere near your limit... 

Like Chris said, mental limitations are real and you created a big one for yourself

Hey Chris,

Squatting over 2x BW obviously contributes greatly to your DLRVJ, but do you feel like your deadlifts have contributed much?  Do you do them just because they are a p-chain dominant exercise to balance things out, or do you think they actually contributed to your DLRVJ?