Continuing on this journey I came across some information from a study which I believed all along but actually never applied it for myself, that study in question was the different types of squats related to the vertical jump. Full, half and, quarter squat all were tested in a study done with 28 men assigned and divided to one of the three squat variations. The results? Were eye opening, and I am blown away that there are not only more studies on this but why it took this long to come out with this information.
The quarter squat showed the best results when it came to increasing vertical jump and sprint speed. Maybe it’s because the quarter squat movement mimics the actual joint angle of the movement of the a jump and sprint itself, duh! Simply put load up the bar with enough weight that you can handle and generally this will be 30 percent more than what your using for a full or half squat as you will be able to lift more as you don’t have to go as far down. You are basically mimicking the same depth that you would use when you are about to jump. (Click here for the study!)
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So to me it makes sense get strong in the exercise that mimics a jump you jump higher. So what does this mean for myself? Am I going to drop the full squats and do quarter squats now? No
The athletes in the study were squatting at least 1.5 times their body weight. There have been other studies that suggested that the full squat is far superior for vertical jump performance and sprint speed, but those studies were on subjects that were not as strong as the athletes in the new study done with the quarter squat showing different. Could being strong have played a part in the results? I am willing to bet it does.
In fact if you took the beginner and got him doing the above it may help them improve their athleticism but they have muscle imbalances or may not see as much improvement as above.
As for myself, I am still going to build my base and switch over to quarter squats while maintain my strength in the full squat eventually. There is still a lot to gain for myself in the full squat. I am going to try to reach 1.75 times my body weight and then implement the quarter squat a lot more. Although this is only one study, it would be interesting to see, if more come out or are available.
Here is more on the subject…
Where am at today?
So I started this journey over a month ago with 135 lbs in the squat doing 3 sets of 5 and adding 5 lbs to every workout. I am currently at 250 pounds in my squat doing 3 sets of 3 , now technically 255 lbs. My goal is in 35 days to reach 300 pounds in the full squat, 3 sets of 3, basically the end of this year 2020.
I like this goal, and right now at 250 it fells pretty good, my only issue is getting my knees warmed up enough. I need to do a much better job of that. I do lots of warm up sets but maybe I need to do more. Sometimes I just want to go in and get out. I mean I am only doing one exercise and it doesn’t take very long so I need to be patient.
The issue I am having is my sore knee, I believe its due to the lack of flexibility, I really need to start a stretching routine. I am willing to bet my knee would feel ten times better after a week stretching. That’s another goal I can set.
I do have other plans of benching everyday eventually and getting it to 225 pounds that’s a goal for next year but we will see.