I read somewhere that squats should make u run faster. I play futsal recreationally once a week usually on friday. I have done a typical leg day hypertrophy workout (10-12 reps) and also 5x5 squat before this. Every time i do squats i feel like my mobility is horrible. My acceleration feels slower and i feel my leg muscle got exhaust real fast. During the week if i dont do leg workout, my performance towards futsal is a lot better. If i do squats its usually on sunday or monday. Maybe leg recover play a role too perhaps?
I eliminated weighted squats because they were affecting my athletic performance. They made me tight and stiff, especially upper hamstrings right below my glutes. I was worried I would lose strength at first but I ran and jumped so much better I eventually didn’t care.
The other thing I worried about was injury, but I still do body weight squats and lunges and I’m going on 4 years now of not programming weighted squats(after squatting 2-3 times a week for 7 years). Once in a while I’ll squat to see if I’m losing strength. I almost think I am stronger. Granted my PB squat was 335x5, at 165 lbs, so I’m nowhere near elite, but I can still work up to 315 for reps whenever I want. I figure all the force production and ab work from sprinting and jumping is keeping me where I was.
I do my squats over easy with a side of bacon. How do you do yours?
In response to your second question, I never squatted until college where I ran track (60m, 100m, long jump). So squatting was never my main focus. We always did weights after practice and never maxed out so 335x5 was as high as I ever went since they usually stopped adding weight to squats for sprinters once you hit 2 times your bodyweight on the bar. I’ve never cared to try for more since my goal was and is to sprint faster and jump further. I’ve improved every season so there is no reason for me to try and squat heavier. Plus much of the research I’ve done tells me squatting has very minimal impact on athletic performance at a high level. If you are interested check out Transfer of Training in Sport by Anatoliy Bondarchuk. It’s fascinating/eye opening stuff.
It’s not everyones goal to squat as much a personally possible. This is a perfectly good weight to cap at for an athlete. From an athletic point of view I would prefer to be able to rep out 225 for strong explosive reps than to take a minute grinding out a couple 405’s.
Ahhhh, my bad. I thought you were referring to something like American football when you said athletic performance. As far as I know, most high level football players, even those in more ‘atheletic’ positions such as them wide receivers do tend to put quite a fair bit of emphasis in their gym work.
I play futsal or soccer on Friday night’s and my last leg workout of the week is Wednesday. I’ll go heavy on Sunday or Monday and something lighter and more dynamic on Wednesday.
I’m old but need about 30 minutes to get my legs warmed up on Friday from being stiff from working out.