Adarq.org

http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jobes/2011/868305/

strong words in the first sentence.

Full title: THe right and wrong way to squat: most people reading this squat the wrong way.

I'm going to make this really short, but after a few responses I'll get more detailed.

Almost everyone I see in the gym does the useless type of squat for athleticism: you can call it the toe-to-heel squat. Weak glutes, laziness, ego and resultant desire to stack more plates on the bar, tight adductors/hipflexors, are all potential contributors to this calamity plaguing athletes every hour of the day.

When I teach people how to squat (as the bona fide personal trainer I am), most people will initially descend on toes and ascend shifting to heels, performing this evil toe-to-heel squat. As a result, I came up with (as plenty of other moderately intelligent men and women have), of teaching a heel-to-toe squat. Descend, focusing on heels, ascend, rising on toes. Works wonders.

It's important to understand the importance of this because many people who get interested in jumping higher subsequently become interested in weight lifting, and many waste their time due to incorrect form, and then lose interest in vertical jump and cease to see any gains so instead just focus on strength training. I've seen plenty of 'impressive' squat videos on this forum that are unfortunately toe-to-heel evil squats; and the athletes squatting this way usually have a poor vertical jump because this type of squatting won't transfer as well to VJ.

Here is a toe to heel squat:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTk7azSIAXQ" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTk7azSIAXQ</a>

at 00:11, she is on her toes, at 00:12, she shifts her weight back onto her entire foot, and then shifts back to toe.

Concomitant with toe-heel mechanics are the positions of the knee and hip joints; the knee and hip tend to move in directions that they would not during athletic events in a vertical (coronal), or horizontal (sagittal) planes.

Compare the way her hips and knees move in relation to her box jumping:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0hgELLBI08" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0hgELLBI08</a>

In weight lifting, since the planes are slightly more restricted, the knees of toe-to-heel (to be called toe squatters from now on) push back tremendously. Notice in the squat video, that while her knees move back, her hips also move back. THis would be good if the athlete wanted to improve her ability to jump backwards.

It's easier to lift more weight this way though for sure and that's why people do it.
Here is another example of toe squatting

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLnUDaxMmnU" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLnUDaxMmnU</a>

The video I was looking for though was when frank yang literally jumped backwards after a max squat, throwing the bar in front of him... That wouldn't be possible if he were heel squatting, and transferring the forces to the toes, and extending more at the hip, because HE would be moving forwards slightly with the bar. Toe squatters move backwards, and this creates a nice levrage to lift more weight up. THe clearest evidence is in the knees, they come forward, and move back exaggeratedly as I mentioned earlier. Of course the knees do that in a vertical jump as well because that is how knee extension works in the coronal plane, but not as much. And NOBODY vertical jumps descending on their toes and ascending on their heels or some part of the foot behind the toes.

Of coruse frank could jump high, but I am confident he'd be able to jump higher if he could squat the same numbers with the form I recommend... the same form everyone recommends in fact. It's natural to transfer weight forward whether it's walking, running, or jumping. I've taken videos of my deadlifts and noticed I fail to get back on my heels during the eccentric wth 70% of greater of 1rm. It's weakness.


The challenge then arises: who can jump the highest, with the weakest squat? (assuming you weren't naturally jumping freakishly high, also assuming the squat is the heel-to-toe correct squat of course). Those wth strong squat who cannot jump high are probably doing toe to heel squats.

Lastly, you'll immediately feel a difference in recruited musculature after doing it correctly.

I just learned that this kid makes mashups. They're pretty good and i think maybe techno listeners will like

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsLDhzoZ4XE" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsLDhzoZ4XE</a>

I've been pretty eccentric with my training ideas, and am always questioning the specificity of exercises for sport. I'm a little less eccentric now but I just wanted to throw this idea out there. If other people have talked about it just delete this thread.

A depth jump is supposed to overload the muscles involved in power sports. Most depth jumps however seem to overload the eccentric capacities of the quadriceps group more than is specific to vertical jumps, one or two footed. Although this is beneficial in many regards, I'm just raising the question of specificity. In a running vertical jump, the athlete usually takes three to four steps before jumping. This increases the amount of force the glutes and hamstrings absorb before transferring it to the quads, in simple terms.

What happens in a depth jump however? The trajectory of the center of gravity looks like a bouncing ball dropped off a cliff. But in a running vertical jump, the trajectory of the center of mass is more like a pinball that meets a spring and goes flying, in other words, it stays quite level for the first three or four steps, then right before the jump, unloads like a spring. Completely different.

So here is the exercise that I propose, it's pretty damn simple, I'm sure people have done this already, but while it's on my mind I'm posting it. It aims to improve the ability of the posterior chain to convert horizontal velocity/power to vertical velocity/power

1. Run faster than you ever would for a running vertical jump
2. Jump as high as possible.

Start with three fast steps, then progress to five, seven, nine, and a full sprint if that's even possible. You may be surprised how high you can jump. Someone who is very good at converting horizontal velocity to vertical is TDUB. In this video he has jumped faster than anything I have ever seen, probably as fast as Darlington or faster. He also does not get as deep as he usually does, maybe this is related to his tremendous ability to absorb force in the pchain?
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg4oPtERYqY" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg4oPtERYqY</a>

Problems with this method: targets Pchain heavily, and is therefore not completely specific to a vertical jump...lol, of course only a running vertical jump is completely specific. After one workout, the potentiation from your CNS may cause you to favor the pchain more in regular jumps, so that is something to think about for long term use. I get potentiation effects very easily so I don't know about you. I plan to do this in a week when I will be off weights.

Rest up,
Avishek

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwNWpttORgY" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwNWpttORgY</a>



Here is a link to my blog, where I explained the exercise a bit further. http://therawhigh.blogspot.com/2010/05/eccentric-pistol-squats.html

I named it eccentric because you train to absorb more force in the thighs, hopefully some people like this one . . . . feedback please

Posted this here because I think this is worthy of discussion. I thought of this exercise only a few months ago. And it mimics the RVJ more than any other exercise I've seen anyone do. Check it

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4vg1VnFaHI" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4vg1VnFaHI</a>

This forum looks really awesome..
Yeah I love training for VJ, started to do it intensely nearly two years ago, overtrained for a year during track season (sprints 4+ times a week + weight training = major dick sucking), now I'm coming back, my goal is to be reactive as hell, like gymnasts and martial artists (taekwondoe especially). If all goes well, I'm walking on the track team next year at the University of Maryland as a triple jumper.

And I'm very interested in nutrition, personally I'm a raw vegan, a very weird diet, but I have tweaked it to give me muscle gains. Just got a video camera, so subscribe to me if you want @theAktor,, my name is Avi btw.