Hi I’ve bulked for the last 6 months from 140 to 160 pounds averaging around 3500 calories a day. I’m 5 foot 11. My main goal is to become generally more athletic and so I’ve focussed on the big lifts with good gains.
My squat max has gone from 90kg for 1 rep to 120 for 4 , bench from 60kg for 2 to 80kg for 1 and deadlift from 140kg for 1 to 170kg for 1(proper grind and probably a bit dangerous).
My question relates to where I go from here, as like I say my main goal is to become more athletic in terms of speed and power. I’ve been trying to get to a double bodyweight squat to achieve this, but the the caloric surplus i’ve been in has meant that i’ve gained some fat- I’d say i’m 11-12% now having been below 10 when starting.
So I’m wondering what peoples opinions are on whether I should keep bulking and gain strength faster or try to get stronger while maintaining my weight given that my main goal is to get faster/jump higher. How feasible would it be to get a 150kg squat at the same weight of 72-73kg by August? This is my goal as that’s when the football (soccer) season starts which is my primary focus.
Part of the reason I think it may be best to maintain my weight is that speed and jumping gains may come more easily with a lower weight and I’m still a long way off where I’d ideally be in terms of speed and vertical. I recently did 30 metres hand timed in 4.3ish and vertical jump 65cm-standing reach 227 and hit 292. Ideally I would like to get down to 4.1 ish for 30 metres and to a 30 inch vertical. Unfortunately I don’t know what i was when I started the bulk but I know for sure that my vertical has increased by probably a few inches. My first few steps do feel more powerful when accelerating too but I’m not sure if I’ve improved my top speed.
Here’s my current lower body routine:
Monday: rest/football training
Tuesday: sprinting/jumping workout( something like 4x30m and 10-15 broad and vertical jumps)+football training
Wednesday: legs in gym: 1-3 rep squats and deadlifts/rdl. Usually some incline intervals on treadmill at the end
Thursday: rest
Friday: football training
Saturday: football match
Sunday: legs in gym: squats (usually higher volume) and deadlifts/rdl.
Squats have been my main focus and my question is essentially whether the greater squat gains if I continue bulking will be worth it in terms of the general athleticism gain from the squat strength increase-if not from peoples experience how hard is it to gain squat strength without gaining weight? Any squat form help would also be appreciated. I’ll post the video in first comment