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damn, you have freakishly long arms.

My arms would go forward form the 1st inch of squat descent.

  One thing that works very well with the power jumper is complexing jumps with it on, then off, so you get the immediate potentiation effect from the added resistance.  You could easily keep the same set up you have there, but add a set of unloaded jumps in between each set, after a brief rest.  These sets should be higher than normal, giving you a better training effect overall.


 Another thing that works well during the switching phase of smolov, especially when jumping is the goal, is to use depth drops in place of the heavy eccentric work.  You can play with the volume to suit your needs, but thats a heck of an eccentric overload, just more applicable to the goal of a higher vertical jump.


 Thats a great job on that clean grip over head squat btw.

I respond poorly to linear periodization, but respond incredibly well to concentrated loading. I've been banging my head against almost 2xBW high bar squat for months now so I'm trying a full Smolov+Feduleyev to get beyond that and hit almost 2.5xBW.

same, all of my best jumping has come during/after concentrated loading blocks... linear periodization is bad bad bad, i wrote some simple blog article for people, "the ratio method", which is supposed to help get people out of that mindset, introduces more of a concurrent system in simpler terms.

concentrate/high frequency blocks are the best ways to put on serious strength imo.. brozknowz is a great example of it... this forum has plenty of success stories from high frequency training, including myself/arowe/lance/dreyth/tychver/damienz etc list goes on.

I also recently discovered the benefits of jump training and made surprising gains in just a few weeks. Smolov+Feduleyev restricts the jump training to the switching phase between the base phase and the intensive phase. I'm a little worried about doing too much besides squatting during the other phases, but I've kept in the low intensity jump stuff. I figured this would be a good time to incorporate easy unilateral jumping into my squat warm up. I either do unilateral cone/obstacle hops or unilateral tuck jumps.

great, don't be one of those people to take out "impact work".. you need impacts in order to be good at, well, impacts... just keep them mostly low intensity for now, ie light rebounding exercises like jump rope, lateral barrier jumps (MR), MR halftucks, and definitely sprints... some good unilateral rebounding work comes from "light single leg sprints", any time you go real vertical, ie uni-tucks, you're going to experience alot of force so, just be careful to do it when you feel like you're firing properly, you don't want any "shutdown" occurring while trying to stabilize unilaterally, you can get away with it with bilateral rebounds though.

Are there any other recommendations? Other drills that I could be doing now? Input on what should happen during the switching phase is also welcome.

well, if you're really interested in jumping, i would incorporate it AT LEAST 1x/week.. but it doesn't have to be max right now.. save that for switch phase and beyond.. some simple submax jumping will help you maintain that efficiency better than no jumping at all.. but if you feel great, go for some max jumps.. one thing i've found is that alot of people sell themselves short on high freq/concentrated blocks, they think it's going to just kill them etc, when in fact, jumping can improve quite a bit... some of my best jumps have come on days where i didn't feel too great during a high freq/concentrated block, but I always force max jumps, not the wisest thing but im addicted so, submax dont cut it for me... so ya just get in some submax jumps 1x/week, if you feel great though, get some good jumps in...

i like to split them into multiple sessions if im going to get actual jumping in, for example:

day 1: session 1: jumping, submax or max whatever.. quality session, not quantity
day 1: session 2: rebounding/light sprint warmup etc, low level reactive work is done here, quantity and to break that sweat........ then lifting

so ya those exercises i mentioned before are good, just use alot of variety to keep yourself from feeling stale etc.. mix it up and have fun, but i'd always warmup with some impact work before the smolov sessions.. it loosens you up, reduces risk of injury, but also wakes you up better for a more productive smolov session.

I've gained 50 lbs and 40 lbs from the base phase before. But I never bothered with the switching phase or with jump training at all. Now I want to do the base, switching and intensive with the intention of getting at least 80 lbs all together. That would put me in the 2.5xBW range and I'd like my hops to have increased along with my squat.

Note: I'm not really doing anything else in training right now. I may bench and pull up once per week, but that's about it. I want to devote as much recovery as possible to squatting.

that's cool, just no straining on pullups/bench, that taps into your recovery for smolov.. use more of a 'submax effort' method with upper.. straining with upper body exercises causes more cns fatigue than lower body imo.

cool man get those gains.. just stay consistent with the reactive/impact work, one of the biggest aspects of jumping is "overall fitness", have to stay in shape and easily absorb those forces during the plant/landings etc..

peace man

Quote from: Dreyth on June 20, 2011, 03:35:53 pm

Just a note, if I were you Gary, I would absolutely continue squatting during the switching phase, maybe 3x a week.

Of course I mean light squatting

But 15 days of no squatting in a row (base cycle ends on a saturday, next cycle starts 3 mondays later) will DEFINITELY make you lose a lot of neural strength in the squat, especially after getting in 12 high-volume squat sessions in just 3 weeks.

x2, never go 72 hours without squatting imo.. submax/rep effort is better than no effort, that's for sure..

neural gains are still physiological, people forget that..

dreyth is a smolov expert, so his advice is highly respected :F

haha lol, did smolov jr for 9 weeks straight and i'm planning on doing it again after the summer.

What is the average gain / week for any smolov cycle? Experiences?

And thank you very much for the feedback.