when i'm jumping powerfully, when i wake up in the morning (afternoon), i vigorously extend my knees, it's not something i can even really control, it's just a very powerful contraction of the quads.. i wonder if that happens to anyone here? if i don't sprint, then i rarely if ever feel my hamstrings during the day, but when i'm doing maxV sprints, i can feel them throughout the day, much more activated.

sprints definitely activate my glutes/hams more than anything.. i had cut them out for a few weeks and definitely saw the activation/tonus in them decrease.. doing them the last few days has brought it back.

peace

there are too many quad haters in s&c

regardless of what you actually have to work, there's one thing that can be certain you need to improve:
- maximal strength in a "squat movement" (full, half, whatever)
- explosive strength in a "squat movement" (jump squat, dj's, rea, etc)
- improve maximal & explosive calf strength (dj, reactive, calf raise)

so, what actually muscle groups that is improving doesn't really matter, it just comes down to the movement.. but in each of those movements, hamstrings / glutes & quads will all be strengthened to produce force.. chances are, the quads and glutes will experience the most strength increases, even though one would experience pretty significant hamstring soreness while progressively overloading.

other things that can't be forgotten, just to make sure i don't leave it out in case anyone gets gung ho on only focusing on those 3 things:
- improving fitness
- jumping
- upper body strength/power (push/pull)
- sprinting

so ya, regardless of what is actually most important in terms of 'minutia', improving strength in certain movements is fundamental, regardless of advanced kinesiological/anatomical/physiological mental masturbation..

but ya, in terms of running or standing vert quads play the most important role.. even in sprinting they are so very important, to be able to land leg locked and absorb all that force to help transfer through to hip extension and plentar flexion is a very important role.. there's a reason people get 'quad dominant' -> they are just used immensely in every movement.. you can do all types of short accel & jumps and barely hit the glutes/hams, but you for sure will hit the quads/calfs HARDCORE.. extend those accels out to MAX-V (50m+ , 200m ,100m etc) then you get considerable hamstring/glute, but how many vert trainees are doing those kinds of sprints? not many... most are addicted to basketball and we know what kind of sprinting is involved in that, definitely not enough to maximally recruit the hamstrings/glutes.

peace

ya i can't stand the people that diminish the quads/calfs importance, makes no sense.. they are so obsessed with 'p-chain' that it is laughable.



*calms down*

I think the problem is that people take great quads for granted.

GREAT POST ALEX!


sooooooooooooooooooooo TRUE!

calfs are part of posterior chain.. i'm with you on the 'hamstring aspect', i mean even single leg jumps I would put more emphasis on quad/calf/glute, in that order, but there definitely is more hamstring recruitment in SLRVJ versus DLRVJ..

but i'm with you for the most part, quads remain highly underrated

ya i remember.. wonder how many other people that happens to!