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)
• Week 4 (July 16-22)

 
Now comfortably jelling in every area of their strength and health regiments, the Bears continue to put in the work in areas from individual conditioning to nutrition and weight room workouts. The total-tem effort extends beyond the student-athletes, as Cal's coaches and support staff are also setting the tone by joining in on the work.

More on the week from Jackson:
 

Week 5 Focus

We transitioned from strength-heavy workouts to speed and explosive work. We're already starting to see it pay off. Guys like Paris Austin and Darius McNeill are jumping more. Even though he's 7-3, you can see Connor Vanover jumping more. We're seeing Justice Sueing get up higher than he has in a while. A ball came off the rim and Justice came from the weak side, grabbed it with both hands for a tip dunk right over someone. You're seeing that explosiveness as the guys are jumping and dunking more.
 

We've added in more plyometrics. We've done low-level plyomterics all summer long, but this was the first week where we've spent more time on plyometric work. We start our max effort day with plyometrics and go from those jumps into max-effort strength work, really focusing on strength and speed work.

 

 

Cross Training

We took a Pilates class to switch it up. The guys really enjoyed it, and the energy in the yoga studio was really good. The staff came with us too, and we had a lot of fun. You see the guys being able to get loose in there, stretch out a little bit and get some good core work. Pilates is really a movement-based workout so everyone got a really good sweat, and we're excited to go back.
 
 

Lead By Example

 

From going to Pilates on their own time to our "Cardio Club," we have coaches who as a staff, we're working out at least 2-3 times a week. It's good that our coaching staff takes pride in their own physical fitness and taking care of their bodies because that stuff goes a long way with the players. When the coaches are also preaching fitness, health and eating right, the players are getting it from all angles and it's more beneficial for the team.

 

Player Spotlight

Paris Austin is a guy who works really hard all the time. Because of that, he can easily get overlooked as the guy who brings it every day. Paris has been in college basketball for at least a year longer than any of our other guys, and he's used to working hard. He takes pride in working hard. This week, he hit some exceptionally good numbers --- over 300 lbs. on the squat, 235 lbs. on the bench press. He had a really good week.