Speed to Strength

If you look at my last month of training, you will see a lot of squats with bands and 1.25 squats. This has been to work on speed and stability in the hole of the squat. I took video of each one and I can see the progress that I have made; much more comfortable and stable in a full squat and way more power coming out.

A couple of days ago I worked up to a heavy 1 rep for back squat, a good test to see my progress. It felt the best it has ever felt. I was fast out of the hole and felt very stable. I hit a 5 lb PR and had some more left in the tank. This shows that some speed work and focus on form can lead to gains in strength.

This is a recent PR as I did squat around 350lb back in college football, but I believe this time was with better form, plus I'm in way better shape now. I was just "big" and strong back in college with not much other conditioning out of that domain. I'm working up to the strength I had in college very quickly, but with a lot more other skills added.

Here is the vid of the back squat:

The next few weeks I will be working on the same thing, then as I approach the sectionals transition to more Crossfit-style wods.