Matthew Rains Strength & Conditioning

Elite athleticism is built upon consistent small wins

Training the in the gym won’t directly make you faster, but it helps an athletes develop more tools in their tool kit to take on building a house in which is their sport/track.

It’s been fantastic to see the hard work .ronto has been putting in is showing on the track with an outstanding season gone by.

True single leg squat loading isn’t as simple as just doubling the load for the same given weight on bilateral loading options.

Torso and unloaded leg weight distribution shifts the loading parameters, resulting in a greater exponential loading in single leg movements with the same increases in external load when comparing to bilateral movements.

These findings are in line with the work done by .natera in previous experiments utilising a smith machine single leg squat set up.

Should athletes choose high bar or low bar squats?��As with most modalities, both are useful for different goals/contexts.

We saw similarities with peak force at the same weight between both variations.

I believe this would have come about for different reasons. As mass was controlled, acceleration is the main contributing factor. High bar squats generated greater acceleration at later stages of the lift as ROM was larger, whereas low bar squats being more efficient was able to generate greater acceleration earlier indicated by shorter TPv & TPp scores.

Peak power was also similar however occurred at different loads, low bar at heavier 160kg and high bar at a lighter 140kg which may play a role in what variation we use at what loads.

In summary, like many squat variations, I believe both are useful and probably have little impact in our overall force development.

What do you think? Leave a comment below!

Big bro .physio and I had very similar athletic qualities growing up whilst playing the exact same sports and eating the same dinners every night, but when we got to our 20s - we decided to part take in completely opposite sports and thus training stressors.

The result - we both have our own unique strengths and movement strategies.

If you’re the slow athlete who blames his genetics for not being fast and springy (trust me I was one of them) - maybe give more sprint training a crack.

If you’re the weak athlete who can’t gain size, maybe it’s a just a matter of lifting and eating more.

There’s no question that genetics play a massive role in our physical make up and development. However, using it as a ceiling over your head for your capabilities is a dangerous, career altering game to play.

3 STEPS TO SET UP YOUR NEXT PRIMER SESSION

Primers can be a great way to possibly get some improvements in speed and power qualities for a competition performances within 24 hours.

Obviously, it’s not the be all and end all - you can very well perform incredibly well without these. It’s simply a nice option to cover those 1%ers, but also, giving yourself another opportunity to work on your overall power training.

If you’re hesistant about introducing a primer session and not sure where to start. I would suggest starting very small, maybe it’s just a mobility session or 1 power exercise to kick it off - assess how you feel the next day and adjust accordingly.

The sounds of the track 🔈

Here’s a quick case study looking at one of the intro speed sessions for an OzTag athlete. We worked on two key positions to develop her efficiency and speed in max velocity.

If you’re keen for a FREE GUIDE to some of my go to coaching cues for creating effective changes in a few critical technique components for both acceleration and max velocity, comment ‘CUE’ and I’ll send it over to you!