Adarq.org

Do you purposefully keep the belt that high? I've read about keeping the belt that high for deadlifts somewhere, but I forgot where. Maybe it was in a video by babyslayer or something.

But how do we define "reactive ability"?

To me, reactive ability means the ability to:

1) Do quick consecutive jumps without too much muscle contribution (explosive muscle isometrics, tendon contributions);
2) Coordinate yourself at high speeds generating high amounts of power;
3) Generate good triple extension in a jump after a significant prestretch has occured;
4) Generate a ton of power quickly (same as 1) - quick voluntary power generation + accumulated involuntary power (tendon deformation + additional neural activation) = a high jump = a powerful movement = win);
5) Not collapse in high speed plants (quickly lock up, similar to 1)) / make use of your calves;

And there must be others but this is what came up in my head in 20 seconds.

If you can show me how squatting accomplishes 1), 2), 3), 4) and 5), then yeah, go for squatting only.

If not, but you want to focus on strength training now since it's winter anyway, then at least do a bunch of plyos/jumps before the strength work, and stop beating yourself to death with maximal failed attempts. That's all I'm saying.

Anyway, I've talked way too much already so... whatever you choose to do, good luck.

And to add to that - what you're doing in the weightroom does not really promote hip extension and DOESN'T promote hip hyperextension AT ALL. And these two things are paramount to jumping and being athletic (and even healthy).

Could you do stuff for the actual hip extension and hyperextension in the gym? Well, yeah, you could do hip thrusts, you could do KB swings, you could do cleans and snatches.

But you could also do hip dominant plyo work (bounding, off both one and two legs) and jumping and sprinting in general. These also promote actual triple extension instead of the deceleration that occurs with squatting at the top.

So, the thing with the squat is yes, it's the best muscle builder exercise. But it's not THAT specific to jumping. It's an assistance exercise to jumping, running, sprinting etc. These are all displays of reactivity.

You don't get athletes going to a spot, taking 10 seconds to pause and take a standing vertical jump in a real life, based 100% on their squat strength. If you were training like Kingfish specifically for the standing VJ (although I don't know why, but still) - then yeah, squatting alone would kinda make sense.

But if you want to be an athlete, if you want to be able to USE all that strength in a "functional" manner - that is - jump and dunk in games, get past your defender, be able to change directions etc etc etc - then you gotta do reactive work. It's not that complicated to understand.

This is very interesting as well:

http://inno-sport.net/Get%20Your%20Bound%20Out.htm

- improve calf flexibility/dorsiflexion

That's exactly what I thought of when I read "hypermobile" in lowerback, knees and hips (although hypermobile knees is something I have never heard of). Hypermobility sounds like a compensatory thing for a hypomobile other joint, and the only joint left would be the ankle.

But guess what? Doing these bounds will also build dorsiflexion, if you use the proper landing/planting mechanics (and you seem like you do in your videos). So...

In the winter? You're in Australia or what?

Do some depth jumps in the gym or ankle jumps, jump squats, very low volumes. 2x10 or so. Before squatting. It will also fire up the CNS a bit so they might benefit the squats if the volume is low enough.

Also KB swings work well to warm you up and potentiate that posterior chain.

Yes, but if that's your plan, don't MAX out... "kinda max out". Go 95%. Don't go full 100%.

Go for a daily max. Work up in weight set to set in your warm-ups until you get to a weight that is heavy, but not grinding. If you do this, you won't blow up your CNS, you'll give your body the time it needs to adapt (and to adapt to an actual lift instead to adapt to failure) AND you will be able to repeat this more often (more good exposure = more adaptation) while still being fresh enough to do other stuff.

That's the point I'm trying to make. If you really want to max out literally, do it every once in a while. Train submaximally, but say every month or so max out and see where you are and how you've adapted. Then back off significantly after that max out day, doing easy stuff for a while (say, for 3 days after your max-out day use 80, 85 and 90% on your max single instead of that 95%).