Adarq.org

interesting stuff lance

what do you think the importance of the  strong psoas/lower abdominals is?

is this the l-sit video you were referring to? I couldn't find any single legged

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqwiuZIvFNw&feature=plcp&context=C490ecafVDvjVQa1PpcFOlGAHDP3OnSLOxcrEQ6poWrhpvwNKQ7yk%3D

looking forward to hearing your version for 2 legged jumpers

The psoas and low abs are doing a couple of things, they "grab" the femur so the glute can do its work, and they also assist the swing leg, contributing to more force production on takeoff.

this is the iso hold, note that Im not nearly as good at it as the really good single leg jumpers, they would tend to get a lot higher with the knee, and higher on the toe as well.


<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAaBXq90AAM" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAaBXq90AAM</a>

Quote from: LanceSTS on April 15, 2012, 01:17:00 am

* Hip dips.  This is one of my favorite exercises, not only for athletes.  You stand on a 12-24 inch box, one leg off to the side, one leg on the box. Set it up so you have some type of handles to hang on to, dip handles work well as does the front of a squat rack.  Dorsi flex the foot of the non working leg, and lower under control until the heel of the non working leg lightly touches the ground, then stand back up.

 The key is to really focus on the GLUTE during the eccentric, sitting back, as well as maintaining a very tight core as to really fire them as much as possible. The concentric done correctly should feel like a hip extension rather than a knee extension. Try and use as little help from the arms as possible, they are for balance only. Once youve mastered bodyweight, you can easily load them in the same manner you would a 1 leg calf raise.

You mean a short range pistol squat?

 Nah, the trailing leg will land directly under the torso, or slightly  behind with these.  The primary focus is to touch the non working legs heel, using as much of the glute as possible.  Pistols are alot more quad/knee focused.  I guess you could think of it / cue,  more as lowering the pelvis, vs simply lowering the body if that helps make it more clear what we are after.

 If you have a place to do them handy, try a few, really focusing on hammering the glute of the working leg.  Once you get some  blood flow going in the hips, do a couple of Jumps off that leg, focusing on the same things... really "grab" the femur with the hip flexors, abs firing hard, and see if you dont notice a difference.  You dont have to go all out at first, half speed and feel for differences.

Nice article.  Looking forward to the update on how to improve on each of them.

glad you liked it man, getting the second part up now.

What does this mean for two-leg jumpers?

Im going to do another entry on the two leg jumps and vertical jump in a similar fashion/comparison next.  The two leg jumps have a lot more variance in strengths among good jumpers though.

   I was looking through some old print outs I had from a few years back that had some of the training sheets of some of the  athletes in track and field I worked with.  I know the jumps are of particular interest here so I figured I would write down some things that some of the better ones had in common, and things that made them unique to the others.  

  For a reference frame, these are all collegiate division 1 and 1aa  athletes Im using in this comparison, and the two "better" athletes in the group were in the top 20 in the nation at one point in their career.  Some of the things that they did very well in comparison to other athletes, and strong points are listed  below.


 * Glutes and hamstrings fired EXTREMELY well in one leg exercises, even exercises that would typically  be considered "quad" focused.  For example, single leg  box squats would hammer the glutes and hams of the higher level  jumpers, where most of the football guys would get a quad  burn.  Even some of the faster guys and sprinters would claim to feel the exercise a lot in the quad, where the  jumpers would report very little quad activity.  

  An interesting point I noticed then was how far they would naturally place their lead foot in front of the  box, even without me cuing it, where most athletes will naturally put the foot closer to the  body.  It is almost as if they dont want to  break at the knee, and would rather  break at the hip if they are in a position to do so.  Front squats were one of the only exercises we could really train the quads as a main focus.  


* Very high levels of "stiffness" in the hamstrings (the ability of the hamstrings to "lock up" so the glute can work optimally".

 This was extremely prevalent on the reverse hyper, with one and two leg exercises.  We would often work up to a high level of  band tension coupled with free weight, and do a reactive type reverse hyper.  The  jumpers would almost never fail the lift  by  breaking the knee and allowing collapse, they would simply fail to reach the desired height when it got too heavy or fast.  Almost all other athletes will fail this exercise  by allowing the knee to collapse, and trying to "press" the lift rather than extend the hip.


 * Insanely strong lower legs

Calves and soleus were almost impossible to work two legged in the weight room, even seated calves were done unilaterally, as the loads on two legs got ridiculous, and this is solid controlled form, all the way up on the toe and all the way down.  I remember setting up the 24 inch hurdles for one of our higher volume drills, and it looking like a stiff legged single leg  jump series, with PLENTY of clearance.  Very little to no movement except from the ankle.


 * Flexible glutes and hamstrings

 Really not much elaboration here, but it held true with all the best  jumpers.  I didnt include hip flexors and quads here due to the fact even though they were definitely mobile in those areas as well, most of my other athletes were on par with them, in those particular areas.


*Strong Lower abdominals, psoas

 Try this, go to any elite level high or long jumper, have them get into an L sit position on the dip handles, and see if you can push their legs down.  Then try that same experiment with anyone else.  There is a very large gap between their lower abdominal strength, especially statically, than other athletes.



  So, there are some of the similar characteristics that held true with very high level one leg jumpers.  Correlation doesnt imply causation, and there are of course other factors at play as well in their success as athletes.  If you can take something away from that, then thats great, if you cant, thats great too.  Its always interesting to me to see if I see some similarities in different athletes who are at a higher level in their particular event/strength/sport, and definitely helps with training targets and specificity.

I usually came to gay porn but... I guess to each their own

to each their own is correct sir.

Yo, Lance, wassup. I've been doing sprints for a few weeks now (been mixing it up with standing 2 pt. starts and sprints coming in from a jog) and feeling good about improvements in my speed. Would it be beneficial to add bounding to the sprinting that I already do, though?

 Depends on how much volume youre doing with the sprints alone. The  bounding can help potentiate the sprints if you complex sets  between the two.  It will definitely help your  jumping.

I CAME TO IRC GUTTS!