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But how do we define "reactive ability"?

To me, reactive ability means the ability to:

1) Do quick consecutive jumps without too much muscle contribution (explosive muscle isometrics, tendon contributions);
2) Coordinate yourself at high speeds generating high amounts of power;
3) Generate good triple extension in a jump after a significant prestretch has occured;
4) Generate a ton of power quickly (same as 1) - quick voluntary power generation + accumulated involuntary power (tendon deformation + additional neural activation) = a high jump = a powerful movement = win);
5) Not collapse in high speed plants (quickly lock up, similar to 1)) / make use of your calves;

And there must be others but this is what came up in my head in 20 seconds.

If you can show me how squatting accomplishes 1), 2), 3), 4) and 5), then yeah, go for squatting only.

If not, but you want to focus on strength training now since it's winter anyway, then at least do a bunch of plyos/jumps before the strength work, and stop beating yourself to death with maximal failed attempts. That's all I'm saying.

Anyway, I've talked way too much already so... whatever you choose to do, good luck.

And to add to that - what you're doing in the weightroom does not really promote hip extension and DOESN'T promote hip hyperextension AT ALL. And these two things are paramount to jumping and being athletic (and even healthy).

Could you do stuff for the actual hip extension and hyperextension in the gym? Well, yeah, you could do hip thrusts, you could do KB swings, you could do cleans and snatches.

But you could also do hip dominant plyo work (bounding, off both one and two legs) and jumping and sprinting in general. These also promote actual triple extension instead of the deceleration that occurs with squatting at the top.

So, the thing with the squat is yes, it's the best muscle builder exercise. But it's not THAT specific to jumping. It's an assistance exercise to jumping, running, sprinting etc. These are all displays of reactivity.

You don't get athletes going to a spot, taking 10 seconds to pause and take a standing vertical jump in a real life, based 100% on their squat strength. If you were training like Kingfish specifically for the standing VJ (although I don't know why, but still) - then yeah, squatting alone would kinda make sense.

But if you want to be an athlete, if you want to be able to USE all that strength in a "functional" manner - that is - jump and dunk in games, get past your defender, be able to change directions etc etc etc - then you gotta do reactive work. It's not that complicated to understand.

This is very interesting as well:

http://inno-sport.net/Get%20Your%20Bound%20Out.htm

- improve calf flexibility/dorsiflexion

That's exactly what I thought of when I read "hypermobile" in lowerback, knees and hips (although hypermobile knees is something I have never heard of). Hypermobility sounds like a compensatory thing for a hypomobile other joint, and the only joint left would be the ankle.

But guess what? Doing these bounds will also build dorsiflexion, if you use the proper landing/planting mechanics (and you seem like you do in your videos). So...

In the winter? You're in Australia or what?

Do some depth jumps in the gym or ankle jumps, jump squats, very low volumes. 2x10 or so. Before squatting. It will also fire up the CNS a bit so they might benefit the squats if the volume is low enough.

Also KB swings work well to warm you up and potentiate that posterior chain.

Yes, but if that's your plan, don't MAX out... "kinda max out". Go 95%. Don't go full 100%.

Go for a daily max. Work up in weight set to set in your warm-ups until you get to a weight that is heavy, but not grinding. If you do this, you won't blow up your CNS, you'll give your body the time it needs to adapt (and to adapt to an actual lift instead to adapt to failure) AND you will be able to repeat this more often (more good exposure = more adaptation) while still being fresh enough to do other stuff.

That's the point I'm trying to make. If you really want to max out literally, do it every once in a while. Train submaximally, but say every month or so max out and see where you are and how you've adapted. Then back off significantly after that max out day, doing easy stuff for a while (say, for 3 days after your max-out day use 80, 85 and 90% on your max single instead of that 95%).

Quote from: Brent kimmy

I used to do this, back when I still scoured t-nation for useful articles, thought Dan John was more than a high school PE teacher

^ lol

relax raptor, that overtraining, HIIT nonsense is bs. Naturals have to work hard and lift heavy/hard to make progress. You read too much nonsense from people who like selling their easier sounding pussy training bs off as wisdom

Not at all. Naturals can't afford to work as hard as people taking steroids, or as genetically gifted people. Why? Because they lack the recovery abilities of those people. If there's anything that steroids or good genetics does, then it's great recovery, among other things.

So a hard gainer actually needs to work less in order to maximize recovery.

The fact that you list endless failed attempts does nothing but to prove your continuous road towards overtraining and ultimately, failure and even health risk.

Legs were jelly, had no desire to front squat heavy but i forced myself to attempt a 132kg max single anyway

i had meant to do triple with 130kg but wore myself out before i could attempt them

A string of failures today when I should have done a lot better. Oh well. I prob picked the wrong weight after getting that 2nd very good triple, should have done doubles with 135kg after that, or maybe just one double and then another double with 132.5 or something like that instead of failing 2 doubles!

Im getting that dreadful about-to-hit-the-wall feeling as I aproach 120kg though

That 130 was a max effort lift though. I think i repeat it until i can get the 130kg easier

I wanted to do triples or doubles with 135-137.5kg, in reality the 135 doubles were close enough to 2RM that i had no business thinking of doing more sets

My goal from last session was to do a PR of 8x120kg today -- but -- having failed the 4th rep of 130kg

so i thought go for the 7x122.5 PR instead, and came close but failed the 7th

It's been so long since i front squatted 130kg but we're back there albeit it's a ugly grindy max right now rather than easy warmup

In contrast:

In the classic text on training the prototypical power athlete, the high jumper, Dr. Vladimir Dyachkov
offered a timeless recipe for Easy Strength training. The Distinguished Coach of the USSR advised to
stop the strength training session when the athlete starts feeling fatigue or starts experiencing a loss of
speed or a decrease in muscle elasticity. Dyachkov stressed that high-caliber jumpers have no business
training to failure. He also recommended that the athlete limit his reps with heavy weights to 1 or 2 and
to stay with 3 or 4 even with light weights.
By the way, Vladimir Dyachkov was no armchair quarterback. He was the USSR champion and record
holder in the high jump, the 110 m sprint hurdling, and the pole vault. Dyachkov won his last national title
at the age of 41, and his showdowns with Ozolin in the pole vault are legendary.

For the record, I have no interest in what you “could have” made. Please, no failures on max
deadlifts. Just make the lifts! For whatever reason, max DLs seem to take a ton out of your CNS,
and it doesn’t come back easily. Max DL misses seem to take even more out of the body. So again,
make the damn lifts!
I don’t suggest more than 2 max attempts, and most people are only good for 6 DLs in a heavy
workout. So, I consider that warm-up with 135 for a single part of the 6. If you don’t know how
to deadlift perfectly or at least properly, don’t use a max as a teaching unit. Please, know what you
are doing when you grip the bar, and leave it all on the table for these few attempts.
Does it work? Oh, absolutely. I love to tease men who are using an exaggerated vocabulary
about some minute fitness detail and tell them that they are almost as strong as my homecoming
queen with a 355 deadlift. So, save those max efforts for max efforts!

On the other side of the spectrum we have this:

The heavier the athletic implement, the more power gains an athlete can squeeze out of more
strength and vice versa. A javelin thrower will hit his point of diminishing strength returns sooner than a
shot putter, and a weightlifter will never hit his. But good luck finding an event in which strength is not
needed. German scientists Jürgen Hartmann and Harold Tünneman stress:
It should be noted that movements of negligible resistance are a rare occurrence in sports. Body
mass must be overcome explosively by sprinters and swimmers on starting, by fencers at flèche, and
by volleyball players when jumping at the net. Boxers, fencers, and javelin throwers must be able to
develop considerable strength to accelerate their equipment in addition to the resistance of the
mass of their arms (approximately 5% of their body mass).
An advanced athlete needs to get stronger in the time-deficit zone. One way to do this is what
Zatsiorsky termed the dynamic effort (DE) method, back in the 1960s. According to him, this method “is
used not for increasing maximal strength but only to improve the rate of force development and explosive
strength.” The parameters for DE training offered by Professor Verkhoshansky are 5 to 10 RM
weights lifted for sets of 3 to 4 reps and with the focus on the maximum rate of force development.
Fred Hatfield pioneered the use of DE as a combined modality for developing both explosive and
absolute strength: compensatory acceleration training (CAT), or maximally accelerating a moderate weight
throughout the concentric range of motion. His recommended protocol is 60% to 85% for 5 x 5 of
squats or other big and long movements with 5 minutes of rest. Dr. Squat assures:
Powerlifters who are using this technique have never failed to add well over 100 pounds to their
squat . . . in three months or less. Many football players I have trained claim that they are coming off
the mark far more explosively than they had ever done before, and basketball players are jumping
as much as five or six inches higher than before. . . . This technique requires very concentrated effort
on your part. You must concentrate! Concentrate on exploding every inch of the way through the
movement—not just initially or at the top, but all the way.

The examples are endless. Do with this information whatever you feel is right.