Again, im not at the position to say one is "better" than the other...just like one could argue a person could get GREAT results all doing these exercises, even though like u stated and its true the movements and muscles loaded are totally different
-high bar full squat
-low bar full squat power lifting style(no knee travel)
-low bar power style(rippltoe)
-Bulgarian Split Squats
-Heavy Lunges
- box squat wide
- box squat regular
- front squats
front squats have the highest transfer to standing vert IMO, next in line would be high bar full squat or high/low bar half squat.. as for RVJ, half squatting has by far the most transfer imo, but should not be used solely by people who can easily squat ATG in the various styles (people with high SHR for example).. for people with really lanky leverages (low SHR), half squatting can be used entirely IMO.
box/pin squat variations are fine, they have less transfer imo, but they are fine for mixing it up or utilizing them as more of an assistance to help increase strength on the other squat styles.
deadlift just makes you rugged, and i'm coming to be a big fan of it purely for stim, as the eccentric portion of the lift can be minimized greatly, so you get a ton of p-chain (emphasis on glute) activation and of course still activate the quads.. good way to leave yourself stim'd up 2 days later. shouts to
raptor for always promoting that one..
unilaterals have the least transfer of what you listed, but still, they can help improve the bilateral lifts greatly.. so i relegate these to assistance but IMO, they are absolutely necessary, even though I don't do them right now because going heavy on them flares up an issue I have in my sacral spine.
ETC
My view is strength is strength(unless its your sport). If your getting stronger your getting stronger, who to say if you display it in the box squat, or the low bar squat, or the freaking BSS that your going to be better off? Now this is taking into account that its an exercise thats not detrimental to your safety or performance and will give desired you desired adaptations(muscle mass,not kill your CNS every workout just to load it(extra high squats,leg press etc)
I agree here regardless of the statements I made about transfer above.. You can still achieve significant results using the various methods above, but some do transfer a bit more and will give you the absolute utmost bang for your buck.. If you're truly making strides to push your limits, getting legitimately stronger, as well as staying in shape & jumping & making sure to focus on reactive work, everything will come together.. but the glutes, quads, hamstrings, core, shoulders, calfs all have to be legitimately increasing in maximal strength to lay the base for improvements in explosive strength, which itself, leads to the HIGHEST transfer to vert/sprinting etc.. weight room stuff is way less specific than explosive strength exercises (plyos, drops, drop-catch, throws (jump squat/med ball/etc), oly's etc.
In terms of your statement about power snatches, I again disagree with you. They are great explosive strength exercises, but although much harder in degree of difficulty technique wise, I do not believe any superior to other explosive strength means(jump squats, paused jumps, from box jumps whatever)
Again, this is my view on the matter and trying to convince me otherwise and that I "have" to squat till my ass touches my calves or whatever will not counter the view that i have witnessed and read about(James Smith a ton) that strength is general work and should be viewed as such.
I don't believe snatching/oly's is any more effective than the stuff I listed above. A jump squat is a throw, which itself, is more specific to vert, because you are throwing yourself into the air on both exercises, except one is overloaded with ~30% of your 1RM squat. Both oly's and throws are limited by max strength, so their usage just becomes trying to produce more of that strength you already have in the time needed for an athletic movement. The amount of stimulus for "growth and adaptation" in each exercise, is not much really, I mean you make improvements in form/motor programming/small yet significant improvements in rfd/explosive strength, but you are limited by max strength. For example, shock plyometrics shits on both methods, because not only is the specificity way higher than both ideologies just talked about, but the stimulus upon impact causes a protective involuntary flood of nervous system output, that of which you cannot achieve in jump squatting or oly lifting. So now you have a REAL stimulus for growth, independent of your max strength.. sure max strength is still the base, but shock plyos can actually improve max strength in their utilization ALONE.. the only problem is, shock plyos are so intense that they cannot be used throughout the year (you can however use oly's/other explosive/reactive work), but you get the idea.
adarq cant squat hardly a lot of weight at all. I bet he cant even bulgrain or lunge a lot, or box squat a lot. He still damn strong.
hey bish calm teh fawk down.. ;d
right, i'm pretty weak, i've never been one to brag about my strength.. to my defense, i'm 152 today and I can hit 225 x 10 on half squat in waffles last night, which is near a projected 2xBW half squat.. I did lunge some pretty impressive weights last year before my detraining, 225 x 1 for multiple singles (high frequency) @ 165, but i have an issue in my sacral spine which flares up badly when I get strong on unilaterals, even more so on stepups, it's debilitating.
My sole reason for half squatting is this: deep squatting in oly shoes severely injured my hip, and I have seen many others, even those with perfect form, suffer similar injuries. With half squatting, it rarely flares up, and allows me to actually walk without pain :d I get significant glute/hamstring by half squatting, improving my bilateral strength, improving mass in those muscles groups, while not having to worry about my hip.. Improvements in my half squat lead to improvements in my jumping, that's how it was last year and that's how it is now.. I probably improve more than others because of my build, long legs short torso, those who can easily hit depth on squat with proper form, would not see the improvements that I see, most likely.
My little brother squats wide low bar and defintely no where near full and has tremendous lower body strength which helped him make huge strides in speed and explosiveness while also becoming a state champ and also working himself basically into being a division one football recruit..I have seen the results personally of James Smith and how he coaches his guys, although he would not advise my forward knee travel technique at all.
your forward knee travel is not as bad as kingfish's or frank yang's, and they are both around 40" RVJ and damn strong.. i don't like shifting onto toes at the bottom of the squat too, for sure, that's something to fix, but i personally don't care much about a little forward knee travel.
But I degrees, your statement on form holds true 100% accurate. Whatever general strength exercise you use, being orthopedically sound is THE most important issue, period. And if my form is setting me up for injury, obviously this is something I must alter.
From a squat perspective, I always view the following in terms of safety
1) Low back rounding - Mine I believe is fine, maybe its because im quite parallel or at parallel though
2) Knee travel- Again I think its natural, BUT your right when mine is extreme. My ass should be back farther.
Solution- I am going to watch ripptoes videos tonight and tomorrow, place the bar lower, although not ridiculously low,and hopefully this allows me to get ass back more and knees less. Ill try to tape. Appreciate your input
Also, Im not trying to start an argument or be a jerk and I appreciate your input.
just make sure you don't drastically alter your squat form right now, i mean, sure, play around, if it feels better go with it, drop some vids etc, but you just hit some recent PR's on jumping, so no need to start worrying about changing up squat considerably, especially given your squat really isn't that much of an issue when it comes to athletic improvement.
peace
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cool trapezius tho.
