Monday, April 02, 2007

Further squat thoughts from the PL meet...

I need a lot more pop at the bottom of my squat. Not necessarily a quicker decent but once I hit the hole I need the "drop and pop" out of the hole. Sounds like I need some light speed squats and squats with the Jumpstretch bands.

Placing my order today for some mini-bands from Jumpstretch.com - these will really help my bench and squat.

Also - I need a far more consistent squat set-up routine so that I am not flustered during a meet and my depth on my squats is always good so I can't watch the judging and let things get into my head.

Back to back meets was not a great idea but it did allow me to get in front of the judges and learn a great deal. Nothing like getting out there and getting "judged" to find out where you are outside of the gym. And - even better - I feel great today.

The journey continues...
at

5 comments:

  1. Mark Reifkind3:54 PM

    brett,
    for more pop off the bottom I would suggest box squats at one inch below parallel. 12 sets of 2 with 45 sec rest/sets with 60% of your current max.Relax hip flexors when you sit on the box then flex off. powerful medicine.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Brett Jones4:28 PM

    Thanks Rif - never hit box squats before - I'll have to work on that.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mark Reifkind4:59 AM

    you love/hate them. never have to think about whether you were deep enough either,lol.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Randy Hauer6:17 AM

    Hole Pop: My old PL coach used to have us do pause squats in the hole below parallel after our regular squat sessions. We would do two of sets of 3-5 reps with 50% contest max. Squat to below parallel hold for a 5 second count and explode up (explode up as best you can) Personally I like these better than box squats because you have to maintain tension the entire exercise, you therefore get a better strength increase via isometric hold in the desired joint angles ( in the hole) and you have to use real world proprioceptive feedback as to depth.("there ain't no boxes touching your butt in competition telling you where your body is" as my coach would rant) I know box squats are used a lot by very successful lifters, but I personally never found them very productive.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Brett Jones4:06 PM

    Thanks Randy,
    Sounds like straight from Marty G.

    ReplyDelete