Hi Lance,
A little background, I am 50, 6'2" 180lbs. Currently doing 5/3/1 for Squat (Mon), OHP (Wed) and Deadlift (Fri). My max on the squat is 360lbs and it is 465 on deadlift. So from these numbers, one would expect a 30+ inch SVJ. However, mine is only about 26". I have added over 60lbs to both my squat and dead in the past year and half or so but no increase in VJ. I do try to explode out of the hole when squatting but it is probably very slow.
I play volleyball twice a week from Sept. to May. During the spring/summer, I do a plyometric routine once or twice a week. It consists of Depth Jumps, Depth Drops, bounding, rim jumps, sprints and various other types. I don't overdo it, never more than 5 or 6 reps for the depth jumps and probably around 100 ground contacts each session.
Recently I've added speed pulls and speed squats as part of my assistance exercises. Also do weighted squat jumps (50-100lbs) before my squat workout.
So my question is why isn't my VJ increasing and what should I focus on to increase it.
Thanks!
As we get older, speed strength is the quickest quality to drop off. One of the main reasons is, you simply dont do nearly the same amount of explosive movement in your daily life that you once did, which affects mobility, tendon elasticity, etc., in sort of a domino effect spiraling downwards. Endocrine profiles change, and old aches and pains come at you harder as well.
It sounds like you have a fairly high volume of plyo type work for what your goals are, coupled with strength training, you may simply need to rest a little and try to peak out your gains from the strength increases. If you have tried this already, and got no increases, you may be overdoing it a little at the high intensity end of things and youre simply not recovering well.
One thing that works really well for seasoned athletes wanting to continue to increase performance is taking as much of the stress off the connective tissue as possible in the weight room, and doing low intensity/movement efficiency plyo type work for the bulk of their training.
Things like pause squats, paused rdl/ghr, paused calf raises, coupled with low hurdle hops, cone hops, etc., for high repetitions (8-12) weights, and 20-30 per set movement efficiency work. It really gives the old aches and pains from years of high end use a rest while making a platform for more intensive work later on. Cycles of what I listed for 3 to 4 weeks, then 2 weeks of peaking/heavy lifting/higher intensity movement drills works really well.
