JUMP SQUATS

Those of you who have been members of JimStoppani.com for some time now know that I recommend using explosive exercises, such as jump squats to help you build more power in your legs, which can not only increase their strength, but also help to increase muscle size.






You may also know that I typically recommend that you do these explosive exercises first in your workout.
That’s because to maximize power development you want to perform these explosive moves when the fast-twitch muscle fibers are not fatigued and they are at their strongest. If you do explosive exercises, such as jump squats, after fatiguing the target muscles with another exercise, let's say regular squats, then the fast-twitch muscle fibers will not be able to contract with the same amount of power and you not only will jump lower, but your ability to build power will be compromised.


However, a new study shows that there may still be some benefit to doing jump squats after regular squats.
New Zealand researchers had trained male athletes perform four different workouts that consisted of jump squats and heavy squats using their 3-rep max weight. In one workout they did 3 sets of 3 jump squats followed by 3 sets of heavy squats. In another workout they first did the 3 sets of heavy squats followed by the 3 sets of jump squats. For other two workouts they did either 6 sets of heavy squats without any jump squats, or 6 sets of jump squats without any heavy squats.


They discovered that when the athletes did the heavy squats first followed by the jump squats, their testosterone levels increased by about 5% more than when they did the jump squats first followed by the heavy squats. And doing both jump squats and heavy squats in any order increased testosterone levels more than when doing just heavy squats alone or just jump squats alone.



Jim's take-home point:
Doing both heavy weight for low reps and light weight for explosive reps in the same workout, regardless of the order is a technique called Complex Training. Research shows that this combination produces the best gains in muscle strength and power, and may also produce gains in muscle size. This is the main reason why I often recommend using complex training by starting your leg workouts with jump squats or chest workouts with power push-ups.
One of the keys to why complex training works may be because it appears to boost testosterone levels the highest, regardless of the order you do the exercises in. I typically prefer doing the explosive exercise first to take advantage of muscle power and as a way to warm-up the muscle before the heavier sets. However, this study suggests that you might be able to get a slightly higher boost in testotserone by doing the explosive move after the heavy exercise. So on leg days, you may want to occasionally swap the order and do squats followed by a few sets of jump