What does the forum think about rythm squats.
Bouncing up and down quickly in partial movements. This is supposed to develope reactive strength. I’ve tried them on and off and have not had detectable gains in vertical jump or sprint speed though maybe I should do them more often.
They’ve been discussed before. If you’re talking about Defranco’s 50-rep rhythm squats, I don’t understand how doing anything with 50 reps will build explosive strength, because your speed will likely start decreasing after the tenth rep or so.
I’m not familiar with rythm squats, but greater strength gains occur if you squat quickly that if you squat slowly. Somebody who squats 1sec down, 1 sec up will achieve greater benefits than a 2 sec down, 2 sec up person.
Agreed, this will stimulate the IIB fibers to a greater extent, but Defranco recommends that as a shock exercise you do “50-rep rhythm squats” which consist of loading up about 100% of your full squat max, and doing a continuous 50 explosive quarter squats for one set. My point is that the type IIB fibers, which are responsible for explosiveness, will be fatigued after the first 5-10 reps.
I don’t know if this was what Goose was referring to, but if it was, then i think its a bad idea.
50 reps seems a bit high, if you cut that down to the 5-10 range like you suggest, you could essentially load a bar up with 110% of your full squat max and do quarter squats. It would serve as a decent means for CNS stimulation.
You are absolutely correct. Its pointless to do so much to recruit FT muscle they and CNS will go to “sleep”.
Just an FYI, here is the exact description from Defranco regarding this exercise:
“This is a little-known exercise we usually bust out about 3 weeks before one of our athlete’s would be getting tested in the vertical. You would always start your workout with this exercise and you will only perform one all-out work set after a warm-up. Try to go as heavy as possible for your one set. A good goal is 90-100% of what your max full squat is. Basically, you will perform 50 quarter squats as fast as possible. Do the first 10 reps exploding onto your toes, then on reps 11-20 keep your heels down on the way up, then, explode onto your toes again while performing reps 21-30, keep your heels down for reps 31-40 and then finish the final 10 reps by exploding onto your toes again. It helps to have a partner count out loud so you can perform all 50 reps as fast as possible without breaking momentum. This is a great exercise for athletes with a poor elastic component. It is also a bitch!
WARNING: You may not be able to feel your legs when you’re done. TOUGH SHIT! Do them anyway! They work.
Note: You can also do this exercise with bands attached to the bar. This will help in the same way we explained with the box squats (by accelerating the eccentric portion of the lift). The bands also help in this exercise because they hold the bar down on your neck. Anyone who has done this exercise knows one of the drawbacks is that the bar has a tendency to bounce up and down on your neck once you get the “rhythm” of the set going. The downward pull of the bands helps to prevent the slightly uncomfortable feeling of a heavy barbell exploding up and down on your cervical spine!”
I am sure he learned them from Poliquin. As it was told to me, this technique was first used by Romanian T&F athletes to increase SSC. I don’t know if any of that is true, but that is how it was explained to me.