Squat jump volume.

Expert Discussion Strength Training
1

What are the most xtreeme examples of squat volume (squat jumps or standard) that people have heard off, and the athlete is still improving.

I’m doing squat jumps at the moment, and seeing as it is 2 sets per workout I wondered if I could get away with 3 times per weak.

I’m tempted to keep pushing more than ever but I’m entering my 4th weak of this now which should ideally be an unloading weak. (perhaps normal squats with the same weight for this weak.)

Kurt Angle claimed to once be able to do 77 reps with 100 kg in the standard squat, but EVERYDAY or atleast 5 days per weak he was either squatting or squat jumping.
I’ve heard of russian weightlifters doing freaky volumes that they must be mutant and on petrol or something.
I’ve also heard of 1 squat session per weak many times and the athlete is improving.

Also, what is the longest somebody with a lot of training experiance can expect to keep improving before hitting another platue. Is it really just 6 weaks?

Answers to any of the above statements or questions appreciated. :slight_smile:

Oh yeah, do ectomorphs generally need to do lower volume of sets per weak than others?

2

Here’s something from one of my upcoming article. It has not been edited yet so please disregard the grammatical errors!

"Frequency and volume of training

Functional training is a specialized form of motor learning. The key concept in motor learning is that frequency of practice is the most important determinant of success, not repetitions per se. It is better to do a low number of reps; very frequently than to do a lot of reps infrequently. For example, most elite Olympic lifters will perform between 5-20 total reps (warm-up not included) per exercise during a workout. During the competitive period, when they want to maximize performance they will perform only 5-10 total work reps on the competition lifts and maybe 10-15 total reps in the assistance exercises. However they will do this 6 times per week (sometimes more). This is motor learning at its best folks! Don’t do a lot of reps at any given time, the reps must be of high quality (quality in strength training equals high force production and proper technique) and you must repeat the process several times per week. However frequency and volume must be planned logically: if you perform 25 total reps of an exercise at each session (5 x 5 for example) you cannot repeat this workout 6 times during the week; 3 times will be the most you can do. On the other hand, if you perform only 5 total reps per exercise at each session (1 x 3, 1 x 1 or 1 x 5, or 5 x 1) it is possible to repeat the same exercise 4-6 times per week (but do vary the intensity from one session to the next). Ideally the weekly number of reps should vary between 30 and 75. The higher the intensity is, the lower the number of total reps per week.

For example, if your average weekly intensity is …

85-89% you can perform 60-75 total reps per week
90-94% you can perform 45-60 total reps per week
95-100% you can perform 30-45 total reps per week

Intensity of training and type of contractions

As it was mentioned above, motor learning requires high quality movements. In strength training quality refers to the amount of tension (and thus force) produced by the muscle (while quantity refers to the volume). Force being equal to mass times acceleration; you can have a high quality contraction either by:

  1. lifting a very heavy load (85-100%)
  2. lifting a moderate load at a relatively fast speed
  3. lifting a light load at a great speed

Depending on the physical quality you want to improve, one of these three methods will be best suited to you:

Limit strength gains = heavy loads
Strength-speed = moderate/fast
Speed-strength = light/explosive

While tempo training does have its place in structural training (as we will see later one) it really should not be the focal point of functional training.

Type of exercises

Complex motor tasks require a more important nervous system implication. Since with functional training we want to improve the capacity of the nervous system to solve motor tasks we need to use strength training exercises that are complex. Multi-joints exercises are the only way to go, isolation drills should be thrown out if you are strictly interested in functional gains. Some Swiss ball lovers will argue that unstable exercises are good for functional improvements because of the high level of complexity of these exercises. It’s true that they are complex from a motor standpoint; however since the potential of these exercises for strength, strength-speed and speed-strength improvement is very low (at best) I really do not consider them to be functional training in its truest sense.

Exercises such as squats, deadlifts, presses, cleans, snatches and chins are all prime choices.

Type of training split and number of exercises

If training only for functional gains only two splits are possible: whole-body training and an upper body/lower body split. This is because for best results each muscle must receive some stimulus 2-6 times per week. Two sessions per muscle groups is the bare minimum for functional gains, 3-4 being best in most cases. As a result it is impossible to train using a bodypart split, unless you have room to train 8-10 times per week.

Ideally you’ll want to limit each training session to 2-4 exercises. If you use a whole-body split (which I recommend for purely functional gains) only three can be used quite successfully. In that case you’ll want to include 1 upper body push exercise, 1 upper body pull exercise and one lower body exercise. You can even reduce the exercise number by using whole-body exercises such as the Olympic lifts."

3

Question for you. Can you cycle the exercise choice through the week for the lower body with the same effect?

For example:

  1. backsquats, flat bench, bent over row
  2. snatch grip deadlift, standing shoulder press, chins
  3. powerclean, push press, Seated cable row or chins
4

One point I’m sure Christian would acknowledge is that the neural adaptations that result from high frequency training are generally specific to the exercise. That’s great for Olympic lifters but is not necessary for other athletes using technical exercises in their strength training. Sprinters may have inferior inter/intra muscular coordination and greater antagonistic inhibition, but forces produced in the prime movers may actually be similar.

5

I agree with you on that point David. However frequent training doesn’t just relate to specific neural adaptations to one movement, but rather the general neural adaptations to high intensity stimulus/motor commands. In that regard, frequent/low volume CNS stimulation through intense training will improve the general efficacy of the nervous system which can be transferred to movements besided the ones included in the training program.

6

Oh yeah definately but you have to weight up the (small?) positive general neural adaptation with the increased risk of overtraining. Sprinters, even the elite, who have many other training components, will struggle to do more than three sessions per week.

Not that it says much for British weightlifting but I have three national champions who only train three times a week!

7

For sprinters 3 is enough, 3 whole body sessions (3 exercises per session) or 4 sessions (2 lower body, 2 upper body sessions).

During the season, 2 sessions might be more than enough considering the high amount of quality CNS work on the track.

8

Many sprinters perform a pull and a push exericise, squats, and another hamstring exercise ie. reverse leg press. This is 4 exercises, but if the pull is bent over rows or pulldowns, this may be acceptable since such exercises are less CNS stressful. If the pull is an oly lift then possibly too CNS stressfull. At certain times it may be more beneficial to use 3 exercises max. Thoughts?

9

And cant high intensity neural stimulation that causes general neural adaptation be developed with other forms of high intensity exercise such as plyometrics(im still not sure whether plyo falls under low, med, or high intensity category) and other things…?

10

Christian, quick question-

How did you determine the volume parameters for each loading zone? That’s been something that has been giving me grief for quite awhile. There’s always Prilepin’s Table, but that’s geared for weightlifting…I’d be most interested in knowing how you arrived at those numbers for more “general” training.

Many thanks.

11

The higher the weight the more the CNS is hit, so in order not to burn out the CNS or overtrain, the higher your intensity the less reps and the more focus on maximum tension, quality of the rep, and stimulation of the CNS to improve max strength as overall volume will take care of muscle stimulation and cause functional hypertrophy.

12

I realize that.

My question was in hopes of a more specific answer. I know that CT works with a number of athletes, and was simply wondering if he had come to that conclusion by working with them, or through some other means.

Thanks for the post anyway :slight_smile:

13

haha sorry i just post whats on my mind normally i have a question mark at the end as im trying to figure things out as well. Your best bet to get answer from him would be to post the question at his guest forum on t-mag.com

14

You are asking the wrong question here. The proper question is “What is the least squat volume you can get away with and still improve?” You are trying to do the least amount possible to get the maximum training effect. This is the magical point you should be striving for. If you apply this test to all training elements in your program, you may even find that the least you can do for some element is none, thus dropping the element all together. Charlie has often said “Less is more.”

Also, what is the longest somebody with a lot of training experiance can expect to keep improving before hitting another plateau. Is it really just 6 weaks?

This actually depends on the training element. EMS will generally plateau at something like 15 sessions (around 3 weeks!) Max strength training takes a bit longer. Charlie had a graph with this information somewhere. I looked in the eBook but couldn’t find it…perhaps it is on the Vancouver tape. Note that you generally don’t want to hit the plateau before switching…try to cycle your program so that you switch just before you plateau.

15

I have toyed with that idea on total reps per type of exercise in a workout, and setting a kind of rep limit. foy oly lifts i try to stay at 10 reps or less per session going for maximum tension, technique, and speed. For ME exercises i tend to use a system where i build to a 5RM in the first block, 3RM in the second use 10 heavy singles in the 3rd block with 30 sec between sets. Normally the cap ends up being 15, sometimes it may hit twenty total reps, but i like this approach because it hits all parts, speed strength, strength speed, and max strength. For assistance work again I try to stay at 15 reps cap, this allows for a good range of exercises and for good quality on all exercises in my mind.