I wan’t to do plyo’s twice a week and I don’t want to lose my strength in my squat. So on Sunday I was going to do all plyo’s and Wednesday I was going to do squats as well as jump squats, with some hamstring work on this day.
I was thinking of doing a heavy set of squats like maybe just 1 set of 6 reps to keep my strength up in the squat and then do some jump squats like 3 sets of 8. I figured I should do the jump squats after the heavy set that way the jump squats will feel even lighter when I do them. I just don’t think it would be a good idea to do the jump squats before I do the heavy set. What do you think?
have done them both before and after squats, i find i like to do them after squatting, feels better for my body and they do feel lighter after solid squats.
I think this a good idea, look up Bulgarian complex training and you’ll see that they used these techniques quite often. Over a macrocyle, your progress might stall out, but I think it is definitly a great method to use for a few weeks to a couple of months.
You might even want to doing a set of heavy lifting followed by a set of jump squats (with proper rest) and repeat. There have been studies that have shown a potentiating effect between the two. I think it does depend on your qualification level (that is, more effective for intermediate athletes than elite), but I’m a pretty good athlete (collegiat volleyball player with 40" vert from an approach) and I can definitly notice a potentiation effect when I use it. The key is to keep the weight down on the jump squats. Weight is unimportant, what matters is that you are bouncing off the floor and really training that reactive quality.
We do the jumps (5, full depth) imediately after a heavy 5rm in the squat. I really like it. We do the same with close grip benches/ballistic pushups as well as chins/med. ball rearward scoops.