Men's basketball's summer offseason is underway, and the Bears are back in the weight room building a strong foundation for 2018-19. Each week, CalBears.com is checking in with Strength and Conditioning coach Jordan Jackson to find out what the Bears are working on, and who has been making the biggest gains in the weight room.
 
Previous Recaps:

• Week 1 (June 25 – July 1)
• Week 2 (July 2-8)
• Week 3 (July 9-15)

 
Men's basketball is nearly halfway through their summer offseason training, and the Bears are seeing new leaders emerge in the weight room every week. As the momentum continues to build, new tools for strength and conditioning – like a focus on nutrition – have been introduced.

More on the week from Jackson:
 

Week 4 Focus

This week we started our isometric contractions. Basically, you get to a certain joint angle you want and just stop there. The muscle tension is constant, and from that tension, we're exploding up. We're continuing to really work on our explosiveness with our plyometrics and isometric work.
 

We also started a bunch of new exercises so that we wouldn't get stagnant after the last three weeks. It was a little more teaching, but our guys can continue to get a new stimulus every few weeks. Switching to more dynamic effort stuff – everything is more dynamic and explosive. We added more jumps in, more plyometric pushups. That was the biggest thing.
 

Good Eats

We do a nutrition team talk every week, spotlighting something different every week. Our first week was hydration, and this week was carbohydrates. Elizabeth McNear talked about the importance of carbohydrates for them – their main source of fuel – in order to sustain their workouts. As a whole, the guys are really starting to focus on their nutrition, and it's paying off as we all continue to gain knowledge. They're making better choices at training table and putting better options into their bodies at night, and that's showing in the weight room or in practice the next morning.
 

Player Spotlight

 
Juhwan Harris-Dyson over the last two weeks is doing a great job. He's putting weight on. He came to me last week talking about how his chest is starting to poke out, so that's always good to hear. He's really stepped it up in the weight room.

I think his mindset is really starting to change. We're seeing him eat a lot better, which is huge for him when it comes to gaining weight. He's starting to get more sleep, which was my biggest hope for him. You grow and develop while you're resting, and Juhwan is a guy who enjoys staying up a little later. You can tell he's just a little more locked in in the weight room as a whole.