Full or Half Squat on Single Leg Jumps??

Ive got BtGB book (which im loving by the way) and for my leg workout im doing single leg squat jumps, however i do not know how deep I have to squat, because on the photos demonstrating this exercise in the book, his gymnasts do appear to be doing a full squat in any of them. at the moment i am squating fully, however to then jump/explode up from all the way down there, its pretty tough!!

also, should i treat these as a plyometric exercise or should i lower down slowely and then explode up?

thanks for your time

Hayden

its pretty tough!!

:wink:

You can do both, but when doing SLS (full), you have to try to start the jump from the bottom, not just add a calf jump at the end of the SLS (it's hard i know ) and I would recommend for the full SLS to go down slowly for your knee health, as if you fail at doing the movement right at high speed you can get injured. But you can also do half SLS in more quickly movement.

In coach DVDs the jumping SLS are done in a controlled manner and full (the DVDs are great for those little things on some exercises that you don't realize how to do them since you try, and also to see proper form).

When I do single leg squats, I can't go down all the way without my heel coming off of the floor. (I think my feet just don't flex very far.)

In order to remedy this, I have to hold weight out in front of me (e.g. 35 lbs) with my arms so that I can lean my body back and keep the heel on the ground. That wears out my arms pretty quickly though.

Does anybody else have the same problem?

DrAlexisOlson said:

Does anybody else have the same problem?

I have this same problem, lol. I ALWAYS have to hold weights in front of me. I understand what you mean by the arms tiring, its a real pain. I just hold something heavy enough in a bent arm position that doesnt tire my arms out too much.

Hayden.M. said:

DrAlexisOlson wrote:

Does anybody else have the same problem?

I have this same problem, lol. I ALWAYS have to hold weights in front of me. I understand what you mean by the arms tiring, its a real pain. I just hold something heavy enough in a bent arm position that doesnt tire my arms out too much.

I also had this same problem, but I solved it by bending at the hips before the knees. Coach does mention it in his book, but I read over it.

hope that helps

Hayden.M. said:

DrAlexisOlson said:

Does anybody else have the same problem?

I have this same problem, lol. I ALWAYS have to hold weights in front of me. I understand what you mean by the arms tiring, its a real pain. I just hold something heavy enough in a bent arm position that doesnt tire my arms out too much.

Same here. I'm top-heavy, I have long femurs, and my ankle flexibility is only decent, not super dooper enough for me to do this without a counterweight. It doesn't tire me out though, but then again I'm pretty strong. Don't feel bad, there's nothing wrong with using a counterweight! It's a good idea to do a lot of calf stretching and bottom squat stretching to build up the ankle strength and flexibility, this has helped me a lot. I still use counterweights, but I am way more stable.