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With your bodyweight coming down are you feeling much change with your vert?

yes. less BW = higher jump as long as power is maintained. from repeatable 38s SVJ to 40s.

I have a question for you. When checking your training entries, i see you mostly do your heavy squats before you do your jump squats or jumps. Why is this? I thought it was better to do more explosive things before any strength-draining exercise?

i've always done it unconventional. heavy lifting first to get my muscles warmed up properly. i find it hard to go all out on speed/explosive work unless my muscles are firing nicely - something that heavy lifting does well.

also note that i take my time between sets and lift only until i feel completely recovered. if the squat workout is too exhausting, i will skip the explosive/speed work.

Was it just diet?  How far down did you cut your calories?  Did you up protein intake?  While cutting the weight you were able to maintain close to your maxes just by doing the ramp up singles?  How much did you have to cut the volume when you were in negative energy balance?  And finally, did you add any additional cardio?

 
there are days when i cut my carbs from 1 cup/meal to 1/2 cup. protein intake is always ridiculously high. i did not really diet my way to lose wieght. i did high cadence/low resistance cycling / road biking. ive done 1.5-2 hours while still jumping near max the following day. did not affect explosiveness at all and IMO helped in my recovery nicely.

goodluck on your training peoples!

^ yes. all my maintenance reps aside from 1RM testing a while ago are all paused. im trying to keep my strength while doing more speed and jump drills. BW also went down from 188-192 to 172-174lb while improving my paused rep to 425x1.

i like paused reps. trains me to really explode and go all out really quick. non-explosive paused rep will slow down too much and get me pinned nicely.

^ no. im very flexible but i still use oly shoes to get good form on my full squats. dress shoes / leather shoes with elevated heels will also work if you dont have oly shoes at the moment.

Fri
Aug 26, 2011


[135x8][185x6][225,275x4][325x2][365,385,405,1][425x0]

Jumps
- SVJ 2 hand dunks

* i was burnt out yesterday and was still a little fatigued today. the 405x1 was not very bad but the concentric on 425 was not explosive enough - i slowed too much halfway up and had to drop the rep. the max jumps even with just 95lbs were so draining. i was exerting a lot of power to drive the bar up to max height. should have kept reps to 1-2max and rested more between sets. and kept total reps low.  yesterday, i was so tired that it felt like i just lifted multi sets of max weights.
* did a pickup game for wamrups and some SVJ 2 hand dunks again. Jumps were good.

Wed
Aug 24, 2011


[135x8][185x6][225,275x4][325x2][365,385,405,425x1]

* did not do anything else. just need to do squats so i dont de-train. would have gotten 440x1 again today. the speed of concentric on 425x1 coming from the pause was not very slow. il just maintain this warmup paused sets up to 425. il eventually get stronger anyway. 3x a week of paused 425x1 + good diet should work.
* maintaining 176BW at gym after all the liquids.. 174lb in the morning empty. next squat is on friday. thinking about doing some jump squats tmrw. if i feel tired from work, il just skip the jumps. been jumping a lot lately anyway. 

Mon
Aug 22, 2011


[135x8][185x6][225,275x4][325x2][365,385,405,425x1]
- 440x1
- 455x0

Paused Ballistic Full Squats - Waveloaded - 60-75%RM
- 345 | 275 2x1, 4x1, x2

Jumps
- SVJ 2 hand rim grabs - no armswing, paused full squat start x6-8

* got a solid diet, sleep and a non-fatiguing sunday workout. i felt strong today. did 425x1 paused easily. 440x1 non-paused was not so bad either. i would have repped 445 more explosive compared to last weeks. i was able to bounce off my calves on the 455x1 up to about 1/2 depth up but did not get enough momentum out of the hole to drive the bar upwards with decent speed. fought the bar for a few mili seconds but did not feel like exerting too much energy today to make the lift.
* i can maintain 425x1 paused but its still not light enough - i still use a considerable amount of energy IMO to get the rep and ran out on the 95%+RM attempts.  3-4 workout straight of non-425x1, stopping at 405x1 would get me fresh enough to attempt another 455-475x1 at this 174-176lb BW. it just feels good to pause rep 425x1 after an easy 405x1.
* got good hamstrings and glutes "pull" again from the ballistic drops using 345/275lbs.
* did some no-armswing rim grabs from a full paused squat position - using purely leg drive to get up. id say ~ 32=34" SVJ without armswing from the paused full squat start. 30" to tap the rim with both my hands at 92" reach, 34" to hold on and grab with both hands to do a pull up. will vid that also at one point. these were cold jumps. no pick up game.

Fri
Aug 19, 2011

Jump Squats - 20-30%
- 95 8x2
- 135 8x2
- 95 8x1

Jumps
- SVJ 2 hand dunks

* will do cycling tomorrow. no jumping or lifting. my legs and knees are tired. still jumped good today.

Wed
Aug 17, 2011

Jump Squats - 20-50%
- 95 4x1, 6x1, 8x1
- 135 4x2
- 185 4x2
- 225 2x4

Stiff Legged Deadlifts
- x8

* did some explosive work with jump squats. all were at least 1/2" deep or deeper. did all the way to 225s and i was still able to get good form with the 50%RM weight. i was emphasizing pushing the ground with my forefoot at takeoff and landing in pretty much the same way - plantar flexed, then absorb and dissipate landing force to knees - dropping knees quickly to a deep bend and then quickly stiffening so i dont drop all the way to the bottom. landings were smooth and force from the landing was quickly transfered from the forefoot/ankles to the knees.. little landing force remains after the quick need bends.. lowerback was upright and solid.
* will build volume of the jump squats and do some form of waveloading again - while maintaining the full squats.
* did some light SLDLs to get lowerback some volume work. will add weight as long as its not too heavy. i will build my spinal erectors this way.. adding weight to the seated cable rows gets my arms bigger  - stopped with those and moved to SLDLs instead. dont like big arms.