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Quick backstory.  6 feet tall, 190 pounds.  Been training off and on for a couple months. 

So I really suck at squats (max 235) but I feel like my unilateral strength is ok.  For instance, I can perform consecutive pistol squats holding 35 pound dumbbells in each hand.  It seems like I can much more easily "express" strength with unilateral stuff than I can do with squats.  So should I just work on BSS and lunges and "max out" with those and then go for squats?  My squats have completely stagnated and I'm not sure why, whereas I feel like I can make quick decisive gains with unilateral work. 

So I've been experiencing a weird pain on the top of my left foot at the ankle (basically the opposite side of the Achilles tendon).  There are a couple tendons there that feel tender and sore when I rub them.  I sometimes experience a sharp pain when planting (I plant my left foot to jump) or when landing, but most of the time it isn't noticeable.  I don't remember injuring it..just one day it popped up when I was working out and it has lingered for the next month.  It definitely isn't getting worse but I'm not sure it's getting much better.  During normal walking or jogging I don't feel anything, it only pops up when I try to be explosive off my left foot or when I'm stretching my foot outwards.

Could this be an issue with my shoes?  Do I need more arch support?  Anyone else experience something like this?

Hey, been lurking around here for a little bit for some info.  Decided to register and introduce myself.  I'm 29 years old and 6 feet tall (183 centimters).  I'm definitely carrying around a lot of extra weight, have a gut...192 pounds (87 kg)  I used to play pickup basketball quite a bit in college but stopped exercising consistently in my mid 20's and gained a bunch of weight, inches to my waist, and lost vertical leap.  Got motivated to get back to the gym 2 years ago but due to work constraints miss months at a time when busy.  Still pretty out of shape. 

So my "jump stats" are about as follows.  I'm definitely a two footed jumper, have never been able to jump as high off one foot.  My flatfooted vertical is about 31-32 inches.  If I have a couple steps I can get to about 34 inches.  Just recently I was able to dunk a basketball again.  I recently started doing squats for the first time in my life to improve strength base but I'm really terrible at them...can somewhat comfortably do 225x3. 

I have enough time now to hit the gym a couple times a week for squats and basketball.  Also have some dumbbells at home I can use to do bulgarian split squats and weighted lunges.  My question is this.  What's my near term plan of attack?  Just trying to trim excess fat with cardio and improving my squat max to 1.5 times my weight?

I'm hoping to gain 4 to 6 more inches with a combination of losing fat, gaining strength, and just being in overall better shape.  Is this possible?  If anyone has any advice or tips for me I'd appreciate.