Now I’d like to talk a little bit about setting up a strength training routine. Honestly, you could start reading everything there is to read about strength training and program design today, and 5 years from today you still might not feel totally confident about what you're doing, simply because there are SO many ways of doing things and none are really right or wrong. Methods are many but principles are few. At the end of the day all that really matters is that you're applying progressive resistance (tension) to your musculature. The body really does not know whether you're doing a Kelly Baggett, Westside, HIT, gymnastics, band, kettlebell, or any other system. It only knows tension!
Most training schemes do provide some stimulation and no routine is perfect. I like to tell people to imagine yourself out on a deserted island without any technology, tools, or anything. Strength stimulation in this situation would consist of dealing with everyday life (chasing prey, running away from predators, lifting rocks to build a hut etc.) You could take an athlete today, put him on a deserted island, and he could stimulate performance improvements without a single modern day tool to work with or any specialized strength training knowledge - his life would depend on it. Having said that, I'd like to give you some general principles or guidelines to follow as far as frequency, volume, intensity, and content of strength work:
1. Frequency for beginners: A frequency of 3 times per week with approximately 70-80% of 1 rep max has been shown to work optimally for beginners. I like to have beginners do 3 sets of 5 to 8 reps on a basic exercise like the squat 2-3 days per week. Nothing fancy, just try to add weight or reps most sessions. Most beginners can progress for months on that simple setup.
2. Frequency for more advanced athletes: For intermediate or more advanced athletes a frequency of twice a week per muscle group with a bit more volume works well. A typical set/rep scheme would be something like 4 sets of 5-8 reps at 80% or heavier of 1 rep max. Athletes engaged in lots of practice, games, or other work can even progress just fine with an exposure of once per week.
3. Load: When it comes to how much weight to use (intensity), strength responds best to loads between 70 and 100% of your 1rm. That generally means you perform anywhere from 1 to 15 reps per set. The more advanced you become, the better you tend to respond to lower reps and heavier weights.
If strength is so important shouldn’t we just do singles? You certainly can train with singles, but it’s not necessary. When engaging in strength training for the VJ we’re trying to optimally recruit and
strengthen the muscles involved in the movement. Training with extremely low reps can interfere with that recruitment, because the weight is so heavy form can break down. You might be able to lift more weight by loosening up your form a bit, but that’s obviously not smart. It’s typically easier to use correct form with slightly higher reps, and you also get the benefit of more time under tension. Therefore, most of the time I recommend sets of 5 or 8 rather than sets of 1. Always terminate a set as soon as your form starts to break down. You can stop before that point, as it’s not necessary to train to complete failure. I generally recommend stopping a couple of reps shy of failure.
4. Volume: When it comes to volume, there really aren't any strict minimal or maximal volume rules, but there are guidelines. Generally speaking, the lower the reps, the more sets you'll want to perform.
Five sets of 1 rep is a lot less volume than 5 sets of 10 reps (Five reps vs 50). If you don’t feel like counting sets one simple way to monitor volume is by the drop-off method. Work up to a hard maximal effort for a given number of reps. Let’s say you work up to 100 pounds for 5 reps on a given exercise.
Keep performing sets with the same weight until you can no longer get 5 reps. Simple but effective. This works particularly well for pure neural-related strength gains (relative strength). For neural and
muscular (a.k.a. size) related strength gains, which do require a fatigue component, you might work up to a hard effort and stop when your performance drops off by more than a couple of reps. So, using the above example of working up to a hard set of 100 pounds for 5 reps, you’d continue to perform sets until you could only perform 3 reps.
5. Type of movement: When it comes to the composition of a strength training workout, compound multi-joint movements such as squats are superior to isolation movements such as leg extensions. One exercise per major muscle group is generally sufficient. Compound movements should be performed prior to isolation movements, and faster movements should be performed prior to slower movements.
Thus, a typical VJ workout might consist of depth jumps, jump squats, heavy squats, Romanian deadlifts, and calf raises, in that order.
6. Percents: When it comes to percentages, or how much load to use relative to your 1 rep max, I generally recommend basing your loads on effort rather than percentages. In other words, if a scheme calls for you to do sets of 5, simply work with a weight that allows you to complete about 5 reps in good form and increase weight when you can.
7. Periodization: This will be covered in detail in a later chapter, but beginners should keep things simple and follow basic linear periodization. Don't make your routines too cute just select a repetition range and number of sets and try to add weight when you can. For example, say your routine calls for you to perform 3 sets of 5 reps on the squat 3 days per week. Simply work up to a fairly hard set of 5 and perform 3 sets with it. Once you get all 3 sets of 5 with a given weight increase the weight by 5-10 lbs the following workout. Continue doing that as long as you can.
People that have been training for a while tend to note slightly better gains by varying the sets and reps on a weekly basis in a step type loading approach. You slightly increase or cycle the load up and down for several weeks, then take a step back to allow recovery to take place. Once every 3 to 6 weeks you'll generally want to have an "easy" or unloading week, where you reduce the volume by about 40 to 50%. I prefer a 4-week cycle for most athletes. Specific set and rep schemes can vary immensely based on what your goals are and what you like to do.
A weekly set and rep scheme for an intermediate might look like this:
Week 1: 3x6 Week 2: 4x5 Week 3: 5x4
Week 4: 3x3 (with week 1 weight)
There are countless ways to set things up based on this principal of step type loading, or undulating periodization, but the general theme is a variance in sets and reps. I prefer to increase the weight and fluctuate the volume on a weekly basis, but there are literally hundreds of ways of approaching it. Just keep in mind regardless of what you do or how you go about doing it, when it comes to building strength you're increasing your ability to exert force.
8. Rest intervals: One mistake many beginning trainees make is they try to speed thru their workouts.
The shorter you rest between sets, the harder you “feel” like you’re working, because your muscles burn and you keep your cardiovascular system activated, but this isn’t a positive thing for vert specific gains.
When training to boost the VJ, you’re not trying to build endurance or power endurance, you’re trying to boost your maximum VJ. Thus, in essence you should treat all your exercises like a weightlifter or powerlifter would. Perform a set, rest long enough to recover back to 100%, then perform another set.
If in doubt rest a little longer than you think you should. This goes for plyometrics too. For heavy whole body exercises like squats, you might rest as long as 8-10 minutes between sets. Five minutes is typically a minimum for squats, except on warm-ups. For lighter more isolated movements, like simple plyometric drills, you might rest a minute or 2 between sets. Just make sure anytime you train that you’re resting long enough between sets that you can give a good quality effort each set.
Muscle Mass Increases For a Jumper?...
While we’re on the subject of strength training, I wanted to touch on something that can accompany that, and that is muscle mass. Look at the lower body hamstring and glute development of someone like a Lebron James or Dwayne Wade in comparison to that of a normal person. Quite a difference isn’t there? Lots of people are born with lots of muscle cells, good muscular development, and lots of strength in certain areas of their body, such as the glutes. Others are gonna have to work to add muscle in the right areas, so that they can generate more force from key muscle groups. In other words, if you naturally have a butt like a pancake and legs resembling toothpicks you’re probably gonna have a hard time generating much force by those muscle groups until you put some muscle on them, regardless of how neurally efficient you are. I’d like to give you a real world example of how muscle mass increases can help a vertical jump, but first let’s talk a little more about muscle fiber typing and its importance to the vertical jump: