The Importance of Peri-Workout Nutrition

by Julia Ladewski

Four sets of pre-exhaustion leg curls, heavy back squats, sets of 25 rep hack squats, and walking lunges with chains. That was my first leg training day in preparation for a figure show.  It was brutal!  I dreaded getting out of bed the next day because I knew it would be bad…

A short clip of some of my first leg day

You see, prior to my deciding to compete in a figure show, my training for the last 13 years was very powerlifting based. It consisted of a maximal or dynamic effort exercise which was followed by traditional assistance work of 3-4 exercises that complimented that day’s training to build my main lifts. The powerlifting training, while very taxing on the nervous system, was never overly high in volume.

I made an immediate switch to a bodybuilding approach for the figure prep.  Not just any bodybuilding program, John Meadows’ Mountain Dog training (http://www.mountaindogdiet.com/training.php).  John’s programs are extremely demanding and exhausting, yet highly effective.

The workouts left me sore for the first week (as will virtually any new training program).  With Mountain Dog training adapting to the program doesn’t really happen. The workouts change every week.  Everything is changed, the exercises, sets, reps, and the order of body parts.  Toss in eccentric sets, challenge sets, drop sets, and short rest period sets and you have a recipe to always keep the body guessing.

Left = 4 weeks into diet  Right = 8 weeks into diet

Combine the above training with a pre-contest low calorie diet and you would expect me to be constantly sore and generally in a physical tailspin.  Instead, I’m still able to train hard, still have energy to coach my athletes and speak at seminars, and I feel great. My body is recovering so optimally that I’ve been able to drop body fat and put on some significant muscle mass!

Peri-workout nutrition has been a major key to my success.  Peri-workout nutrition involves what is consumed surrounding one’s training sessions.  My regimen has been as follows:

- One hour before training:  oats, peanut butter and an AtLarge Nutrition Nitrean+ protein shake.

- Just before training: 1 scoop AtLarge Pre-Workout.

- One hour after training: lean steak and rice.

Left = 4 weeks into my diet  Right = 8 weeks into my diet

The moral of this story is I have learned just how important nutrition can be, especially the nutrition surrounding your training sessions.  In just one short week I will be going back to powerlifting training, but you can bet one thing will remain regardless of my goals, my peri-workout protocol.

Julia Ladewski, CSCS, is currently the director of Parisi Speed School in northwest Indiana working with youth and adults. Previously, she spent 8 years as a Division I strength coach at the University at Buffalo.

As an Elitefts.com sponsored athlete and Q&A staff member, Julia is an Elite level powerlifter once holding the #1 spot in the 132 pound class. After having two kids, she is back on the platform making her way to the top in the 123’s. Her best lifts to date are a 462 lbs squat, a 255 lbs bench, and a 424 lbs deadlift.

Julia continues to write about youth sports performance and female strength sports. Her writing can be found on Elitefts.com and DangerouslyHardcore.com.  She also offers training programs for powerlifting and female strength training as well as nutritional consultation.

* Warning – this ramble is all over the place.

I think those interesting in performance etc. will find this interesting.  It is simply me talking out a bit of a mind experiment on the benefit of developing the entire spectrum of strength for maximum performance.

Step Out of the Box; Hybrid Bodybuilding

by Allen Cress

Real expertise has been lacking in the bodybuilding industry for a number of years.  I think the ever increasing specter of chemistry in bodybuilding has been a big driver of this phenomenon.  It has left a huge void in the industry.  As a result the perpetuation of many ineffective and ill-advised training and dietary regimens has become the norm.  Star power overwhelms science and reason.  I can tell you 2 + 2 = 4 and no one will disagree, but Jay Cutler or Phil Heath can tell you 2 + 2 = 5 and most of the bodybuilding sycophants will believe it!  The motivation isn’t even necessarily a bad one.  Many genetically blessed pros simply don’t realize that their success is the consequence of great heredity, not their training methodology.

Stepping outside the box

It is time to look beyond the typical bodybuilding dogma.  New and improved means of obtaining the bodybuilding goal are here.

The problem with a traditional-only approach is it fails to account for science.  Fiber recruitment, activation potential, and rate of force production are all of importance to anyone in the iron game.  Chronic single plane, single joint training such as that commonly practiced by traditional bodybuilders can disrupt neuromuscular coordination and therefore result in faulty recruitment patterns etc.  Traditional bodybuilders therefore set themselves up for long term problems (such as severe muscle imbalances, chronic arthritic joints, and narrowed ranges of motion) and lack of results if they solely follow such a regimen.

Ken “Flex” Wheeler

Functional training can be used as a hybrid approach to correcting these problems, or preventing them in the first place, but just as with traditional training much of the functional approach is misunderstood.

Train movements

The whole premise of functional training is to train movements and not muscles.  This means you should train in the “human movement model”, i.e. pushing, pulling, squatting, lunging, bending, twisting, and extending. The goal is to train multiple joints in multiple planes. This promotes a functional flow to the body via enhanced neuromuscular coordination and thus more efficient fiber recruitment which is crucial to growing larger muscles.

One concern with such training is it often lacks a target emphasis aimed at muscle hypertrophy.  In fact, most people mistakenly consider functional training to be something like standing on one foot and trying to do a one-arm press.  Proper functional training is far from that.  It involves taking traditional bodybuilding movements and making them more functional by making them multi-joint and multi-planar.  In the case a movement cannot be made multi-planar; it can at least be made to increase proprioceptive demand by removing things like stabilization by a machine.  We all know a Smith machine squat is much easier than a barbell squat.

To place the proper emphasis on hypertrophy, functional movements should not be progressed simply by adding resistance.  They should first be progressed via increased speed and range of movement when possible.   Another preferred method of progression is to add motion to a traditional bodybuilding movement.  For example, the next time you’re training delts instead of doing a dumbbell front raise, try doing alternate dumbbell raises with a contralateral side stride. This increased proprioceptive demand also increases overload to the working plane of motion without reducing training loads.

Functional training within the human movement model is only one of many ways to create a hybrid form of training for bodybuilders.  All a trainee has to do is have an open mind.

Speed

Strength training using a maximum speed of movement (yet still controlled) places a unique stress on the human body.  Most powerlifter already know this, and know the importance of training for speed.  For the uninitiated, here is a little personal experiment you can do.  Do seated dumbbell presses for two sets of 6-8 reps using a normal cadence and as much weight as you can handle.  Follow it with two more sets using 40-50% of the previous load.  For these sets, use as much controlled speed as possible and go to failure.  Notice how quickly you reach failure, what each set felt like, and the difference in oxygen debt when you are done.

Strongman Marius Pudzianowski shows what functional movements performed with speed can do for development.

Until now bodybuilding dogma has always taught that adding size is a function of lifting more weight with good form.  The problem is that there is a ceiling to that formula.  Speed training provides a greater payoff in mass over time.  It is a true expression of power, the kind of power that will build you the lean muscle mass you seek.

Bodybuilders should now wake up to a whole new world of training possibilities to procure results. Training doesn’t need to be mundane or stagnant. Paying attention to other forms of training can go a long way to helping you achieve your bodybuilding goals.

Program

Below is just one of many programs I’ve designed and have implemented with numerous bodybuilding clients. Of course at first they were skeptical and didn’t want to go away from “traditional” body part training for fear of losing size or just not growing in general, but since they trust me they gave it a shot and after about 3-4 weeks into the program they were pleasantly surprised with the results and never looked back. Give it a try and reap the benefits.

Guidelines:

• Try to go from one exercise in a complex to another with minimal rest. Rest until almost completely recovered after complex is completed.
• “6’s” are to be done with an emphasis on heavy load, but just short of failure
• All Olympic lift variations, like snatches, cleans, high pulls etc.., are always done with a pause between each rep. So they are performed as ‘repeated singles’ until required reps are met.
• It’s important to take as little rest as possible between bi-plexes (30-45 sec), especially those employing “the power of 6” this will build substantial O2 debt in the big lifts promoting enhanced conditioning and metabolic effects.
• Training should be done on a 3 days on, 1 day off, 2 days on, 1 day off format
• All sets listed are working sets. (warm up sets not included)

Day 1:

1a) Squats                                                                                                           4 X’s 6

1b) One or 2 arm DB Snatch                                                                            4 X’s 6

2a) BB or DB Incline Chest Press                                                                     4 X’s 6

2b) BB or DB Bent Over Rows                                                                          4 X’s 6

3a) DB or BB Seated Shoulder Press                                                                4 X’s 6

3b) Any 2 Arm Triceps Exercise                                                                       4 X’s 8-10

4a) Any 2 Arm Biceps Exercise                                                                          4 X’s 8

4a) Any chopper Exercise below                                                                        4 X’s 12-15

Vertical Chops – MB or Weight Plate, Low to High tubing or cable Chops, or High to Low cable chops

Day 2: Isolated Complexes

Shoulder circuit:

1a) Alt. DB Side laterals  with contralateral front stride                            3 X’s 10-12 ES

1b) Bent DB Laterals                                                                                       3 X’s 12-15

1c) 2 Arm Front Swings                                                                                  3 X’s 10-15

1d) Alternating DB Overhead Press                                                              3 X’s 10-12 EA

Core blast:

2a) Full Sit Outs or Alternating Sit Ups                                                         3 X’s 8-12 each side

2b) Contralateral Hand to Toe Touch from Plank                                        3 X’s 8-12 each side

2c) Bicycle abs                                                                                                    3 X’s 20 ES or 20-30 sec

2d) SB Alternating Step offs                                                                              3 X’s 8-12 each side

Glute/Ham circuit:

3a) TRX or SB Hip Extensions                                                                            3 X’s 8-15(slow)

3b) Any  Leg curl variation                                                                                  3 X’s 8-15

3c) Glute/Ham Raise or                 **DB Sumo squats                                      3 X’s 8-15 or 20-25

3d) DB One arm /One Leg Deadlift                                                                     3 X’s 12-15 each leg

**Squeeze glutes at the top of every rep

Day 3: Chest/ Back Isolation

1a) Pulldowns, any variations                                                                             3 X’s 12-15

1b) Flat DB Fly or Machine Fly                                                                          3 X’s 12-15

2a) Any push up variation                                                                                   3 X’s 12-15

2b) Recline Pulls or Alternating DB rows                                                          3 X’s 12-15

3a) Seated Cable Rows                                                                                   3 X’s 12-15 or 10-12

3b) Cable Crossovers or Push ups between 2 MBs                                    3 X’s 12-15 or 8-15

4a) **Simultaneous DB Chest Press off SB                                                  3 X’s 10-15 EA

4b) DB Pullovers or Any Pulldown variation                                               3 X’s 10-15

**Perform these by alternating the DBs. As you press one up the other is coming down. Kind of like you are punching.

*The focus on this day is contractions and pumping the muscle full of blood

Day 4: Lower body Focus

1a) Leg Press                                                                       3 X’s 12-20

1b) Standing DB or Cable Side lateral                              3 X’s 10-12

1c) Any Bicep exercise                                                       3 X’s 10-12

2) Quad blast X’s 2-3 sets

BW Speed squats – below parallel                                X’s 25 reps

BW Alternating Lunges                                                  X’s 24 reps (12 each leg)

BW split squat jumps                                                      X’s 20 reps (10 each leg)

BW squat jumps                                                               X’s  Max

3) Step ups (one leg at a time)                                       3 X’s 10 EL

4a) Leg extensions                                                            3 X’s 15

4b) Cable Rear lateral or Face pulls                               3 X’s 10-15

4c) Any Bicep exercise                                                     3 X’s 12-15

Day 5:

1a) BB or Trap bar Deadlifts from floor (never to failure)                                4 X’s 6

1b) Flat BB or DB press                                                                                          4 X’s 6

2a) DB Clean & Press or DB Side lateral Throw                                          4 X’s 6

2b) Any One arm Row                                                                                    4 X’s 6 EA

3a)  BB or DB High Pull or Kettle bell front swing                                 3-4 X’s 6 or 12-15

3b) Any Tricep exercise                                                                            3-4 X’s 8-10

4a) Any Push up               variation                                                          3 X’s 8-15

4b) Any Tricep exercise                                                                            3 X’s 12-15

Author Allen Cress

As you may remember from our recent story about Kate (see a few blogs down) she has been dieting down to compete in her first Figure and then Physique division bodybuilding competitions.

Let me start by congratulating her on her clean sweep of every class she competed in (open medium and master’s medium) AND the overall at the GNC 2013 Toronto Championship!  Winning it all in your very first competition is a tremendous feat!  Awesome job Kate!

Beyond her awesome transformation and accomplishment I wanted to bring you Kate’s story because I think it very eloquently relates what makes AtLarge Nutrition such a different company.  Kate is a customer whom I met in person at a Westside Powerlifting Certification for CrossFit (she is also a competitive CrossFitter).  I was a part of Louie Simmons’ team for those early certs and spoke about nutrition and generally helped out.

At the risk of sounding immodest, I am an expert in the field of fitness.  I have experience in both bodybuilding and strength training.  I have written articles for major fitness publications and websites.  I have worked with elite level athletes from many different disciplines. Bottom line, I am well versed in everything from nutrition and supplementation to training.

When Kate decided to give the bodybuilding world a try she came to me for advice on both training and nutrition.  I provided it at no charge.  I know all of this sounds a bit self-aggrandizing, but there is a less ego driven reason for it.  Kate is not the only AtLarge customer I have helped for free.  Every single day I offer world class advice to customer after customer (both via email and on various message boards like my own Wannbebig.com and CrossFit.com) and even to those who are not my customers and I do so for FREE.

THAT is the AtLarge Nutrition difference.  There is NO other supplement company to which you have such free access to the owner and frankly, there is no other owner that can match the breadth and accuracy of advice I can provide on all things fitness.

I don’t simply try to sell you something; I provide you a turnkey portal for physical success.

Chris Mason

Owner

Sometimes Less is More

By Chris Mason

I wanted to take a few moments and briefly articulate my recent training progress and why I feel it has occurred.

I have been hitting personal records (PRs) left and right in the gym as of late.  I even hit an all-time bench press PR which is HUGE considering I severely tore my left triceps tendon about a year ago (doctors wanted to do surgery and told me I would not be able to get back to where I had been without it).  When you start hitting PRs every session after 25+ years of training you, or at least I, begin to consider why?

I have to pimp the brand at The Gym in Charlottesville

The long story short is I have curtailed my total training volume.  This reduction in volume was out of necessity, it was not pre-planned.  It started with my lower back, the sacral region.  I have severely injured my lower back twice since I began seriously strength training at 17.  These old injuries (one, or the other, or both) had been really acting up recently, particularly when squatting.  It got so bad I was worried I would have to stop squatting.  I tried to control it with foam rolling and other mobility work.  I upped my use of the Reverse Hyper (http://www.atlargenutrition.com/products/energy-and-recovery/westside-pro-reverse-hyper) to every training day (with one heavy day per week).  While these changes provided some relief, my training regimen overwhelmed them.

My big booty doing some Reverse Hypers

I train using the Westside template, so I typically do higher volume dynamic effort (DE) squatting (8-12 sets of two reps) on Fridays and then a maximum effort (ME) squat variation on Mondays.  The pressure of the barbell compressing my spine during squatting was the primary trigger for my pain so squatting twice per week, especially with the higher volume on DE days was just too much.

My obsession with strength is very powerful and I could not stand the thought of my squat going down, so I eventually came up with the idea of substituting belt squats for my DE squats on Fridays.  The belt squat places the load on the hips thereby nearly eliminating spinal compression.  I additionally decided that since good morning variations bothered my back much like squats I would alternative heavy squats on Mondays with a deadlift variation as opposed to my previous rotation of a squat, good morning, and deadlift variation each ME day.

As I really wanted to reduce stress on my lower back to the degree possible while not sacrificing strength I also limited my lower body accessory work to primarily the aforementioned use of the Reverse Hyper.  The Reverse Hyper creates virtually no spinal compression and strengthens while simultaneously providing traction for the spine (making it totally unique).

Lo and behold a few weeks into this new program and my lower back was feeling MUCH better.  In fact, it got so good as to not be an issue when I did my heavy squat sessions every other Monday.  The combination of less back pain and reduced overall volume resulted in me hitting squat and deadlift PRs every session.

A similar story holds true for my bench press.  As my strength returned (after my triceps tear) I had gotten to the point where the very heavy pressing and direct triceps work had begun to aggravate the injured joint even with great care being taken.  Basically just the heavy pressing was pushing the previously injured connective tissue to a point I was uncomfortable.  I was thus forced to minimize volume by backing off significantly on my triceps accessory work.  I simultaneously introduced five board lockout work (something I had never done with regularity).  I would do it one to two times per week depending on how my left triceps was feeling.  The combination of this new movement and reduction in overall volume allowed me to continue to bench heavy and to do my speed work and it paid off with new PRs!

Conclusion

So, what is my take home message?  It isn’t that you need to do what I am doing; rather it is that if you are stagnated in your training you may benefit from an overall reduction in volume so long as the remainder of your training is sufficiently intense.  More does not always equal better when it comes to strength training.

Three Training Cues to Improve Your Deadlift

by Julia Ladewski

The bench press is the most commonly performed strength training movement in gyms across America, but the deadlift is right behind it having in recent years gained the reputation as a “must have” exercise in one’s regimen.  There is no denying it is one of the best overall strength training movements, but despite this fact, and its popularity, it is also one of the most commonly improperly performed exercises.  Proper form and technique does vary due to unique individual anatomy and physiology, but there are some training cues which can be nearly universally applied.  The balance of this article will cover three of them.

Foot placement in relation to the bar

Some people hit certain sticking points and plateaus and can’t figure out where the problem lies. The most common weak spots are right off the floor, or at lockout. While one could assume that it’s a weak muscle group, many times the problem lies with the start of the lift, and more specifically, the foot placement. Limb length and body structure will play a role, so what is right for one lifter may not be for the next.  The key is finding what is optimal for you.  Try altering your foot position such that the bar is closer or further away from you at the start and see how it affects your pull.

Point in fact, just last week a gentleman emailed me his deadlift videos for analysis and critique.  He knew something was wrong, but couldn’t figure it out. After assessing his videos I suggested moving his feet either closer to the bar or further away.  He had been lining the bar up with his shoelaces, so he tried lining it up mid-foot.  This put him in a better position and allowed him to pull the bar back and up, not straight up, resulting in an instantly better deadlift.

How you push through your feet

This cue is different for sumo vs. conventional style.  How you initiate and perform the pull relative to your weight displacement on your feet can make a big difference.  For example, with conventional pulls I often see people pushing with their weight on their toes which causes the hips to rise too quickly and often results in the bar getting out too far in front of them.  Instead, you should think about building tension and forcing the chest up prior to the actual pull.  You then push through the heels (not the toes) as you drive your shoulders back.  Your body weight will act as a counter balance to the bar which allows you to stay in a good position and thus properly involve the hips at lockout.

A common issue with sumo deadlifting is pushing the feet straight down which precludes proper use of the hips to initiate the movement.  The sumo lifter should think about pushing the feet and knees out (like you’re trying to spread the middle of the floor apart). This will keep your hips closer to the bar putting you in a stronger position off the floor.

Deadlifting to improve your deadlift

While doing a lift week after week can improve your technique and the efficiency of the central nervous system (CNS) relative to the specific movement, you don’t need to deadlift every week to see your numbers go up.  In fact, it is not recommended.  Deadlift variations and special exercises work well to improve your relative weaknesses and still allow you to strain through a high intensity maximal effort.

Let’s drill a little further into this.  Doing the same exercise over and over does not allow the lifter to address relative weaknesses.  For example, if you’re trying to improve your sumo deadlift, but are having trouble with hip mobility and strength, more (wrong) sumo pulling isn’t going to help.  Lack of hip strength will just cause you to pull with mostly your back thus never really working the hips. Target your hip mobility and hip strength another way (and don’t forget that if you improve your conventional deadlift, your sumo will also go up).

What if you can’t seem to overcome a weak lockout with your conventional pull?  Again, simply pulling conventional from the floor over and over again will not optimally address the issue.   Using deadlift variations like heavy rack pulls, and or using accommodating resistance (bands and or chains) will directly target the problem and allow you to increase your pull.

The take home message here is that working your relative weaknesses can allow you to improve your deadlift.

Conclusion

Don’t just train hard, train SMART and you can use the deadlift to full advantage in your training.

—————–

Julia Ladewski, CSCS, is currently the director of Parisi Speed School in northwest Indiana working with youth and adults. Previously, she spent 8 years as a Division I strength coach at the University at Buffalo.

As an Elitefts.com sponsored athlete and Q&A staff member, Julia is an Elite level powerlifter once holding the #1 spot in the 132 pound class. After having two kids, she is back on the platform making her way to the top in the 123’s. Her best lifts to date are a 462 lbs squat, a 255 lbs bench, and a 424 lbs deadlift.

Julia continues to write about youth sports performance and female strength sports. Her writing can be found on Elitefts.com and DangerouslyHardcore.com.  She also offers training programs for powerlifting and female strength training as well as nutritional consultation.

I first met Kate Mitchell at a Westside Barbell Powerlifting Certification for CrossFit course a few years ago (I was part of Louie’s team – would talk nutrition and generally help out as needed).   She decided to try my company’s (AtLarge Nutrition – www.atlargenutrition.com) products and we kept in touch after the cert.  A few months back she asked if I could be of help with a bodybuilding training routine as she had decided to give figure and or physique bodybuilding competition a try.  I agreed, and have been corresponding with her once a week since then.  I decided to write this blog after I received her most recent progress pictures today.  Kate is a totally natural athlete and I cannot begin to properly articulate how impressed I am with what she has accomplished!

Below you will see both before and after pictures (before we started working together and most recent – so not totally after – she is not done yet) and I think you will agree, Kate has done a wonderful job!  While I do want to toot my own horn a bit for both devising her training routines and providing her dietary advice, the bulk of the credit goes to Kate herself.  In addition, she has also received help from Sally Chamberland of Sally’s Fitness Fortress.

And yes, she still uses AtLarge supplements and while I never make ridiculous claims about our products, I am confident they have helped Kate to reach her goals.

The first three pictures are from just before she started her transformation, and the next six are recent.  What a change!

* Click on the pics to enlarge them

January of 2013 was our biggest month ever!  Thank you to all of our customers for your support and continued patience as we grow.  Please bear with us as we continue to strive to match production to sales.  “Try” being the operative word as we simply have not been able to match stock to sales.  As we grow the promotions we do get exponentially more successful and we often fall short in our estimates of what they will produce in terms of sales.  This certainly exacerbates our inventory situation so it begs the question of why do we do them?  There are three main reasons:

1)    We know money is still tight for a lot of individuals and supplements are a luxury item.  It is our hope that you will be with us for the long haul, so if we can do something to help you when times are a bit tough we want to do so.

2)    We don’t advertise like the big boy companies out there.  We simply don’t have the budget, so sale promotions are a way of coaxing new people to give us a try.  We are confident once they do they will be back for more.

3)    We have a LOT of long-time customers, we feel like we owe it to them to hook them up with great deals as frequently as it makes financial sense to do so.  With that said, we will sometimes go months without a promotion, and that is because we are reinvesting a significant portion of our profits into things like new product development and the like.  Bottom line, if it makes business sense we will do a sale, and for reasons one and two above, we will sometimes even do one when it doesn’t make sense.

Now, an important note about inventory concerns and timing of orders you place.  When we have a product on pre-order all orders are processed on a first-in first-out basis.  Those who place their orders first will be the first to receive them when production is complete.  As production runs are scheduled nearly two months in advance (we have to order ingredients from suppliers and allow as best as possible for delays on that end), and sales volume can and does continue to unexpectedly spike during pre-order periods, we will sometimes literally sell-out again within days of the production date as just happened with our latest Nitrean+ Dutch chocolate run.  The run was over two months of inventory based on recent sales rates, yet we sold out of it within two weeks!  The take away is that if you want your product as soon as possible please order as soon as possible (whether or not it is on pre-order) and give yourself a time buffer.

Again, thank you, thank you, and thank you for your business and patience with us as we continue to grow.

Chris Mason

Owner

AtLarge Nutrition, LLC

Building Your Jumping Ability

by Chris Mason

This article is for those amongst you who wish to build your jumping ability.  At the risk of stating the obvious, the ability to jump is important for most athletic sporting endeavors.  I will present to you the underlying concepts of how to build jumping ability (simultaneously dispelling some very common myths), and a basic routine which can be used effectively by all but the most advanced of athletes.

Powerlifter extraordinaire Laura Sweatt has hops!

What Physical Trait(s) Need to be Improved to Enhance Jumping Ability?

The ability to jump high involves two basic physical traits.  One is absolute strength of the involved musculature and thus its peak force production capacity.  The other is how quickly the athlete can generate force.  Speed, or rate of force development (RFD), is the more important of the two capacities once the athlete develops a reasonable amount of absolute strength.  For instance, if athlete A can squat 400 lbs for one repetition (rep) and athlete B can squat the same, but has the ability to generate more force in the .15-.18s it takes for takeoff (this range is just a rough one which can change depending on the type of jump), then athlete B will jump higher all other factors being equal.

Gretchen Kittelberger Box Jumping at the CrossFit Games

Strength training increases peak force production ability.  For untrained and insufficiently powerful athletes strength training aimed at increasing absolute strength can improve their jumping ability.  It does so because as they increase their absolute peak force production capacity, so do they increase peak force production in the very short timeframe during jumping takeoff.  This method of addressing jumping ability is one of diminishing returns, however, as the percentage of peak force one can produce in the very short timeframes of jump takeoffs does not keep pace with the increase in absolute force production.  In other words, if an athlete has a 200 lbs maximum squat and can generate 50% of that (100 lbs) in .15s, increasing their maximum squat to 300 lbs will likely not result in the ability to produce 150 lbs of force during takeoff.  The new number will be something less, perhaps 120 lbs, or 40%.

*Please note the above figures are for illustrative purposes only.

Once absolute strength relative to being a significant contributor to jumping is tapped-out, or if the athlete can only produce a low percentage of their maximum squat force during the takeoff phase, then RFD becomes the key to increasing one’s jump.  Ideally, BOTH capacities (strength and RFD) should be developed simultaneously.

RFD for jumping is trained with low load, fast movements.  These can include squats performed with 10-20% of one’s maximum as well as plyometric exercise.   Of course, the S.A.I.D. principle (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand) dictates that jumping itself and sport specific jumping will work as well.  I am not a huge fan of plyometric exercises due to the forces involved, but they are most definitively effective.  If they are to be incorporated they should be used sparingly, and only used with athletes who have a strength training background, are more advanced, and under the watchful eye of a coach who specializes in their proper and effective use.  The training suggestions below will not include true plyometrics.

I would like to point out a bit of misinformation that has hit the fitness world.  I have seen many trainers advocate dynamic effort (DE) strength training exercises as a means of improving explosive power for athletes.  While said training CAN help, it will do so not because of RFD, but rather due to its contribution to the athlete’s absolute strength.  The misinformation thus being DE work will translate into increased RFD to unloaded movements like jumping.  By the way, the same logic is used to justify the incorporation of the Olympic lifts.

To further elucidate, the loads used in both DE squats and Olympic lifts are too high to significantly impact the RFD required for improving one’s jump.  What they CAN do is aid with RFD for slower, maximum lift attempts.  So, either DE squats or Olympic lifts (or both) can be successfully incorporated into a program designed to increase the explosive power associated with jumping and many athletic endeavors, but only as they serve to enhance absolute strength and force production capacity.

I hope the above point really hits home.  The VAST majority of trainers and “gurus” don’t truly understand the physiological ramifications of the training they advocate.  That doesn’t mean their methods won’t work, it simply means they are likely not optimal and or while they work, the reasons you are provided for why are inaccurate.  As the wonderful Paul Harvey used to say, “And that’s the rest of the story.”

Training to Increase Jumping Ability

As noted above, the ideal training program for developing the explosive power for jumping simultaneously builds both absolute strength (at least to the point a further increase will not help jumping ability) and RFD specific to the timeframe involved in the takeoff for a jump.   If you are going to strength train you should use the best methodology available.  That, in my opinion, is the Westside Barbell method (www.westside-barbell.com).  Westside combined with unloaded, or VERY light resistance RFD exercises provides a virtually idea combination of absolute strength training and jumping specific RFD exercise.

Luke Edwards (L) and Josh Conley (R) of Westside

A full description of the Westside system is beyond the scope of this article.  I highly recommend you go to their website and read the free articles as well as purchase the books written by Mr. Simmons on the subject.  You will never make a better fitness investment.

Below is a basic Westside template:

Monday: Maximum Effort (ME) lower body day

Wednesday: ME upper body day

Friday: DE lower body day

Sunday: DE upper body day

The basic Westside template involves using a bench press and squat variation (which can include good mornings and various deadlifts) as the main exercise for each upper and lower body ME day followed by accessory or special exercises.  DE days are essentially the same (with the exception that a box speed squat is nearly always used as the lower body main exercise).  My recommendation is to follow the main exercises on both ME and DE days with the below RFD exercises, and then to do the accessory or special exercises.

RFD Exercises:

- Half or full squats with 10-20% of 1RM for 5 sets of 5 reps performed as quickly and explosively as possible (NOT jumping squats – your feet should not leave the ground)

- Box jumps unloaded for 5 sets of 5 reps – height should be moderate with the focus on as fast of a launch as is possible

So a sample one week template would be the following:

Monday (ME lower body):

Box squat with chains

Half squats with 10-20% of 1RM for 5 sets of 5 reps (each rep as fast as possible)

Special or accessory exercises

Wednesday (ME upper body):

Floor press

Box jumps – 5 sets of 5 reps (moderate height with each jump as explosive as possible – step down after jump)

Special or accessory exercises

Friday (DE lower body):

Box speed Squats

Full squats with 10-20% of 1RM for 5 sets of 5 reps (each rep as fast as possible)

Special or accessory exercises

Sunday (DE upper body):

Speed bench press

Box jumps – 5 sets of 5 reps (moderate height with each jump as explosive as possible – step down after jump)

Special or accessory exercises

Note that a proper understanding of Westside is needed for this program to work optimally.  Please read Louie Simmons’ books and be sure you have a sound command of the methods before employing them.  Once you do, the relatively simple template above can be followed and virtually everyone but the most advanced jumpers will see a significant benefit.

This program is meant to be used during the off-season phase for most athletes.  The additional volume of sport specific conditioning and drills as well as game play dictate a different program be used for pre and in-season work.

Conclusion

The most important thing I want you to take away from this article is an understanding of how absolute strength and movement specific RFD relate to jumping ability.  If you understand these basic underlying concepts you know more than the vast majority of coaches and trainers out there, and you have the tools you need to formulate the best regimen for you and or athletes you work with.