Adarq.org

OK so I'm doing the JackM split, taking weight gainers, creatine, vitamins, energizers, ZMA, I try to rest well, doing stretching, eating better... basically doing everything. Yet my squat still sucks so hard. My form has degraded as well.

I go with 2 leg workouts per week, one with 3x5 squats + assistance (so far used natural GHRs, now I'm using straight leg deadlifts supersetted with leg curls since the natural GHRs were wrecking my knees like no tomorrow) and one workout going 4x12 with bulgarian split squats + the same assistance exercises.

I also do 3x5 low box depth jumps before the squats, and some hang cleans/hang snatches in the upperbody days (the upperbody days are following the lowerbody days).

THE PROBLEMS IS - my squat sucks. I wasn't any better than last week today, struggling to do 120x5x3. Form was bad.

What should I do? I was thinking of going with what Lance suggested, one day of MSEM type stuff, maybe even in the mold that Kelly suggested (like work up to a 90% of 1RM then take 10% off and do singles with that for 8 sets or so) in one day and some explosive stuff in another, maintaing the hypertrophy day unchanged (4x12 BSSs).

So basically I'd have 3 workouts instead of 2, one MSEM, one explosive stuff squatting (like 6x2 with 60% of 1RM) and one 4x12 BSS.

Having 2 squat workouts instead of one should also increase my squatting movement efficiency as well, as that seems to be lacking right now + the benefits of having a very heavy lift in one day + the benefits of having a very explosive lift in another.

So the whole thing would be like this:

WO1: 8x1 squat singles
WO2: 6x2 with 60% explosive squats
WO3: 4x12 BSSs

What do you guys think?

Hahaha

To be honest though, all these people that bench more than me in the gym (like 99% of them) probably squat less than me, and some say that a 40 kg squat is "heavy".

Never EVER seen a GHR machine in Romania.

Quote from: nba8340 on September 18, 2012, 12:54:14 am

Quote from: T0ddday on September 13, 2012, 05:32:47 pm

Interesting video. Confusing a bit to me, because my recent PRs are broad jump (10'3''), SVJ (37.0), RVJ (37.5), and my consecutive double leg jumps are beyond my single broad jumps.   So, according to this video I am good a the tests for hip-dominance, quad-dominance and ankle-dominance, but I perform really poorly (RVJ) in the test which combines all three!

How well does that mat replicate vertec results?  Seems like calibration would be a difficult task for those who jump really high. The difference between a 48'' inch jump and a 42'' inch jump is very very little time in the air because the athlete has to take off and land at a pretty high velocities in both cases, I wonder if that tool is really designed to have the sensitivity or if it is even possible (ie a slight knee bend or change to flight time resulting from touching a surface may throw it off for high-verticals).  

yea like raptor said, maybe you just don't practice rvj often and your form isn't good?  never seen you jump so hard to give definites.   what do you mean your consecutive double leg jumps are beyond your single broad jumps?

the mat is pretty accurate actually, you can cheat it by picking up your knees and landing in like a full squat, but it's harder than it looks.  you would have to consciously be trying to do it in order to cheat.

My point is that it is not uniformly accurate for different verticals.  For example the difference between a 15 inch vertical and a 20 inch vertical is approximately 0.1 second of hang time.  But the difference between a 40 inch and 45 inch vertical is about 0.05 seconds of hang time.  So the amount that you can "cheat" (intentionally or unintentionally) goes up as your vertical increases.  This is coming from a scientist... but non-random noise is always troublesome in any device.  

What I mean is that if I measure how far I am able to cover on four broad jumps (About 40 feet) where I stop between each jump I cover a much smaller distance than if I land and bound for four consecutive jumps (greater than 42).  Usually suggests more reactivity rather than just strength. The end of the video at the bottom has some jumps:  

http://www.adarq.org/forum/progress-journals-experimental-routines/t0ddday-journal/75/

Maybe you have less than developed calves vs your hips and quads. In that situation the difference between the so-called reactive jumps vs. the reset jumps wouldn't be big, or maybe your calves are developed pretty well but your bodyweight x acceleration really really overloads them in the eccentric phase of each consecutive jump - hence they aren't doing too well on the rebound jumps.

I think belly fat actually gives some leverage as far as only squatting is concerned. Another story for athleticism.

You = stronger bench press than me. I'm at 57.5 kg x 5 reps x 3 sets and I'm borderline to failing there.

I'm not doing barbell bench pressing anymore though... too dangerous. I'm doing DB bench presses now.

Have you ever did hip thrusts, Scooby?

How good are your Romanian Deadlift numbers? In general, how good are you at hip-oriented exercises?