Yes your right but we must look at the “talent” factor
Some people are naturally born with the factors i listed in the above post(high neural efficiency, drive, low threshold for muscle activation, and high inter and intra muscular coordination), thus resulting in the appearance of no need for weight training.
Could these people be helped with weight training? Yes, it would improve upong their already high levels of neural efficiency, drive, low threshold for muscle activation, and high inter and intra muscular coordination, but can get away without it, or do not appropriately train.
In fact, in terms of angles, many “experts” have sugggested the deadlift has more appropriate angles for standing long jump, v-jump, and sprinting than the squat.
However, my personal experiance leads me to believe a squat with heels elevated OFF the floor throughout the whole lift including a jump, is the best way to improve vertical jump.
Are u guys suggesting that neural carry overs from lifting are more important than max development of prime mover strength?
Then again, when the prime movers get max strength development, there is going to be a neural carry-over anyway.(As good?)
So what is the focus?
Is it max possible strength development
or exercises that have the best neural carry-over?
Of course they will be inter-related to a degree, but not on a perfect
parallel.
LOL, there are not too many female sprinters who ran 10.73!
hint: C… A…
She leg presses 4.5 x her body weight, but i don’t know how much do other sprinters for it, as it seems that this exercise isn’t used much. I just know that Evelyn Ashford used it during her long career.
You can develop neural side with a various amount of ways and max strength has a lot to do with neural function, so max strength training effects both, so in effect it is strengthening the prime movers as well. The focus isnt on either. Your goal with weights is general in the development of general neural adaptations and the specfic carryover is the strengthening of the specific muscles. So with max strength training and really any thing that you apply max force to you get both. With higher weight you get more of a strength carryover, with RFD exercises more of a neural adaptation, so mixing them together would be best, then you cover the entire spectrum.
The point being that squats are just another tool in the toolbox (albeit a powerful one) that when used appropriately can contribute to faster sprinting.
I always come back to the force-velocity graph. Squats work the opposite end that sprinting does, so to some degree is the least specific. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage. It is a disadvantage because of the specificity issue, but it is an advantage with resepct to varying the training stimulus, especially given the fact that all training methodolgies will provide diminishing returns if used for too long. In addition, improvements in one part of the graph have the potential to carry over to the rest of the graph.
How important is the squat as an exercise to supplement short distance speed work?
I’m faced with the prospect of not having access to a gym for some time - while I could still work on leg strength using pistol squats (with dumbells) and some isometrics - squats, deadlifts and cleans are out of the question. Considering that I am a rugby player and the first 20m is vital, how much would it cost me by not using any of the big compound lifts?
How fast was Kevin Levrone the 250 pound bodybuilder?
What was his actuall time atr 60m in that race against Dwain Chambers?
I know, kevin sucked compared to a good sprinter, but Kevin only does hack squats and leg press and umpteen leg curls all for high reps.
Anyway, Christine Aron and Evelyn Ashford seemed to do o.k with the leg press as mentioned in earlier posts.
The way I see it;
Leg press + Hyper or reverse hyper + xtra hard ab work
equals the benefit of squatting. Or atleast for people with long legs.
I did some heavy pistol squats today holding 105lb of weight (55lb sack in the crook of my elbows plus two 25lb dumbells). It worked great. I assume it is good for proprioceptive qualities too due to the fact that I couldn’t actually see my feet.
Heavy squats are tried and proven, but I’m convinced that in my circumstances this is the best alternative for limit strength.
I don’t understand, why would it not recruit the posterior chain as well? (full hip extension is still taking place). The erector spinae don’t get hit as hard though.
It might have something to do with my long legs but when I’ve done single leg squats, my knee goes further forward than when I do double leg squats. Also, unless u add weight to single leg squats then they’re not building much strength anyway. However, when somebody adds weight to the single squats such as dumbell or weights vest there are all sorts of problems. If they do them on the ground they won’t go down far enough unless there other foot touches ground or unless it sticks well out infront so it becomes even more quad dominant than a front squats as the torso compensates.
If they do the exercise standing on a chair holing weights then it becomes more of a balancing & stabilization strenght act than anything else as they try to not let the dumbells hit the chair or their other leg hit the chair.
Only way to consistantly avoid hitting the chair is to stick your free leg way out in front, but then you have to hold the dumbells slightly forward and your torso does not push back as you begin to rise, thereby nullifying your best possible posterior strength gain. Your torso would rock forwards before pushing back if you was holding a decent weight.
IN a nutshell; Single leg squats don’t build a great deal of posteriot chain strength.
But… If u like them and if they felt “great”, then there must be something about them that works for your particular leverage. Therefore I would hesitate to suggest not doing them for u. I deffinately think they should be combined with romanian deadlifts or good mornings or something though for more ham developement. Also, do you really feel it in the butt when u do them?
I’ve got rather long legs compared to my torso also but I’m not familiar with the problems you mentioned (knee drifting forward, etc). I just execute the lift like a regular squat - put your weight on your heel. I shot some video footage of exercises for a soccer player last year and in fact if you look at the footage of single leg squats from the side, the angles don’t look all that different from a regular back squat.
When I do single leg squats I either hold a large weight in the crooks of my elbows (while holding dumbells in my hands) or altenatively the weight over my shoulder while clutching a weight with my other hand. I haven’t had a problem with the dumbell touching the ground, simply not an issue here as I use a lot of 2.5kg plates rather than the larger radius 5kg plates. I use a total of about 105lb which is roughly my 6RM.
The main problem I see with this exercise is the stability part. I am a very balanced person and I can do exercises like this with no problems. But when I start to add heavy weight with single leg squats I sometimes have problems lowering slowly in the eccentric portion of the lift without losing my balance and having to touch my other foot with the ground. On the concentric though, I have no problems.
It is not the best lower body exercise but given limited resources, it is the best alternative.
Actually one of the problems I have is that my right foot, very slightly sticks out to the side, and my right hip is not at the perfect angle (need a chiropractor).
It’s only with my right leg that I find single leg squats a bit akward but my left leg deals with them fine. I should have mentioned this before. A classic case of what is right for one is not neccesarily right for the other.
