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I have found out, again and again, that I screw my dunks and jumps up because whenever I plant I tend to have my chest oriented quite a bit towards the ground and I look into the ground most of the time. That REALLY screws everything up, from not being able to use my glutes and jumping "pulling my chest up" to jumping forward.

Now I have managed to correct that somewhat by excessively trying to look up to the rim when I plant (I'm talking about two footed plants here but applies to one leg as well somewhat) and it did some good as I was quickly able to dunk, but this problem still persists. Sometimes even when I actively think to look at the rim my body just can't pull it off and my chest goes down and forward.

Same stuff happens in my squats. I tend to bend forward a lot if I'm to go deeper into my squat. Not sure what's going on here, I've tried to figure it out but it doesn't make any sense. Maybe I need to really squeeze my glutes more to prevent that from happening? Maybe it's a mobility issue (I have thought again and again and I can't localize what kind of mobility thing is it - hip, upperbody (?), what?), I just can't figure it out.

Any help? It could apply as well to some people around here (although I'm definitely in a worse shape than a lot of you in this subject)

@Joel: Have you ever had substantial success with training with a weight-vest? I would imagine that for example a 5 lbs vest was just annoying and not really adding much resistance. Don't know, maybe I should try it.

I personally had a lot of success with a weight vest while doing Joel's program in 2009. It really did it's magic. It doesn't make sense when you think about it, I was just doing some bad form bounds and stuff like that once per week with a weight vest but still it was great.

I think the harder overload in THAT particular jump does it's trick on the CNS level, although you can make an argument about depth jumps doing the same thing.

Quote from: Raptor on July 05, 2011, 02:09:54 pm

145 kg or 320 lbs squat today.

A 5 kg PR? Sick stuff! Congrats!

Haha thanks, I'd like to try 150 at one point, not sure when it will be, this 145 comes up a day later after doing the 160 kg deadlift - apparently it kind of potentiated me although my back hurts (muscularly).

145 kg or 320 lbs squat today.

Bracing is the same thing you're going to do if you know you'll get hit in the belly. And the same thing you're going to do automatically when you're pushing a car or something. Basically contract the abs and keep them flat.

When I had back problems I know the glutes were contracted almost THE ENTIRE TIME I was awake to protect the back no matter what I did.

I really have no idea how to fix that. I'm not sure if it's a matter of structure or a matter of mobility/body position in terms of correcting that. Probably strength too since even if I were to lower my hips and straighten my back, when I'd start to lift I'd still get to the same position and lift the same, so...

It's not that easy. There are structural factors, sleeping vs active muscles, flexibility issues, previous/current injuries and so on and so forth that factor in quite a bit in determining what is going to happen in terms of bending or knee vs hip bend.