You make a really good point Kane. Basically my reasoning (which I didn't mention before, so it wouldn't have made sense lol) is that I'm trying to avoid overuse. I'm wrestling a lot, which is a lot of twisting, lateral movements, high contact, etc etc, and I'm sprinting a lot as well. I think my squat form is pretty solid (my pulls are getting there) but I've had patellar tendonitis before (recently, even) and it sucks, and I want to avoid that or similar stuff because I really can't afford to lose training time.

It's not that I don't think maximal work helps. The way I thought about it was something like - if my body can only cope with a certain number of workouts a week, I have to choose which ones are most important to my goal. Obviously I'm going to keep wrestling, and I think next to that sprinting is pretty crucial if I'm going to keep losing weight. So max effort work in a state where I might not be making much of a gain anyway seemed like it was on a lower priority than usual (all spring, it was pretty much my only priority).

What do you think? I really appreciate your help, Kane, thanks a lot for taking the time.