I have been a personal trainer for over 20 years, have trained numerous Olympic Gold Medalists, World Champions and World Record Holders. I am a two time Olympian and two time World Record holder ( in the javelin throw ). I was born with spina bifida, am now 46 and am still competing. I have never had any back or knee surgery. This is the only lower body weight exercise I do.

YouTube video link:

The "Bradstock" Jump Squat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPUN1C7V3B0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPUN1C7V3B0)

I have never told any of my clients to do this exercise or shown any of my athletes what I do - until now. I have found it is an amazinlgly effective exercise for building explosive power without bulking or tightening up?

I believe this exercise would be great for golfers, pitcher, batters - indeed anything that requires a maximum effort.

What do you think?

I have no idea why the word "squat" appears in the name...

It seems like an exercise that envolves way less weight and a real squat would be more useful. The drive would be much longer and the joints wouldn't be getting killed under an artificially high load.

I've seen jump squats before, but I thought they were supposed to be done with no more than 40% of 1rm. And also, what is the difference between a "Bradstock" jump squat and a conventional jump squat.

I don't see anything unsafe, noneffective, or special about the exercise. I'm not sure why it needs "Bradstock" attached to it, unless you happened to invent the jump squat itself, which doesn't seem likely. Congratulations on your accomplishments, however. :tucool:

Mike's Gym has a nice video of Natalie Woolfolk doing a similar set with 160 kg:

http://www.mikesgym.org/gallery/video/nat%20jump%20sqt.mov

This exercise doesn't have any negative impact on the joints?

I don't feel any negative impact

I have been a personal trainer for over 20 years, have trained numerous Olympic Gold Medalists, World Champions and World Record Holders. I am a two time Olympian and two time World Record holder ( in the javelin throw ). I was born with spina bifida, am now 46 and am still competing. I have never had any back or knee surgery. This is the only lower body weight exercise I do.

YouTube video link:

The "Bradstock" Jump Squat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPUN1C7V3B0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPUN1C7V3B0)

I have never told any of my clients to do this exercise or shown any of my athletes what I do - until now. I have found it is an amazinlgly effective exercise for building explosive power without bulking or tightening up?

I believe this exercise would be great for golfers, pitcher, batters - indeed anything that requires a maximum effort.

What do you think?

Jump squats are definitely effective. Just don't get too happy with the reps if you do them heavy.

This exercise doesn't have any negative impact on the joints?

Not that I can feel. It's actually more comfortable than the corresponding clean. The main thing is to use enough weight that when you jump, you don't really launch the bar off your shoulders.

I do them a bit deeper than the various videos we've seen in this thread, but I'm thinking about doing them more for just the explosive top part of the movement.

There is another version of explosive back squats - Valery Borzov (and presumably many other Russians) used to do back squats for as many reps as possible in a short time (e.g. 10 seconds).

I have no idea why the word "squat" appears in the name...

It seems like an exercise that envolves way less weight and a real squat would be more useful.

Actually I do them down to around parallel, but I'm reconsidering that.

Remember this sort of thing is not as much about force production, it's about power production.

Consider that I have done 91x135# for the back squat, but for the jump squat I get into trouble around rep 20. Why is the jump squat so much tougher? Mainly because you produce a lot more force and power in the jump squat compared to the same weight - you produce enough to get airborne, and you have a fast eccentric. So the dynamic load is a lot tougher. I have squatted 25x315#, but I don't think I've ever done more than 20x135# jump squats. Possibly this is because I do the jump squats to the same depth as back squats, but I suspect they are not that much easier at the shallower depth.

I aint doing it...

Remember this sort of thing is not as much about force production, it's about power production.

Consider that I have done 91x135# for the back squat, but for the jump squat I get into trouble around rep 20. Why is the jump squat so much tougher? Mainly because you produce a lot more force and power in the jump squat compared to the same weight - you produce enough to get airborne, and you have a fast eccentric. So the dynamic load is a lot tougher. I have squatted 25x315#, but I don't think I've ever done more than 20x135# jump squats. Possibly this is because I do the jump squats to the same depth as back squats, but I suspect they are not that much easier at the shallower depth.

I absoulutely agree...a deeper (than in the video which was like a 1/8 squat) and longer ROM would be way more productive in generating a large amount of power...

That ultra short ROM in the video looks more like a calf exercise than anything else to me...which of course I could do a half-dozen different ways without pounding my joints and cartilage into dust...

I absoulutely agree...a deeper (than in the video which was like a 1/8 squat) and longer ROM would be way more productive in generating a large amount of power...

No, the long ROM is not really that helpful in generating power, it's helpful in generating force. Power is roughly force times velocity, so a long ROM can reduce power if it allows you to reduce the velocity.

A lot of jumpers and throwers want high power because they are limited by contact time - once things start moving, there is only a short time left to add force.

But in tennis, the big head rackets have taken over because they have a longer contact time with the ball, allowing a lot more force to be added with less power requirement.

This exercise doesn't look dangerous to me at all, most I've ever done it with is 225 and as long as you land with soft knees I don't see any negative impacts on the joints.