Improving Verticle jump

[regg]

Volleyball season is coming up again, and I need to pack on some leg strength/mass pretty quick. I have a little over a month n 1/2 to improve my verticle jump significantly. Should I be training low weight high rep or high weight low rep as I usually do? I'll be hitin' legs twice a week.. what should my excercise sheduel look like??
I need help! /forum/images/graemlins/frown.gif
-Adam

[CheeZ]

High weight/low rep but as for how often i cant help

[JE]

Regg,

Below Parallel Squat should be your best friend if you want to gain ~4 inches on your vertical jump quickly. Assuming you haven't been doing BPSs regularly already, you should see the improvement very quickly. Make sure to vary your reps and sets for Power, Strength, and Hypertrophy.

Also look into Plyometrics (there are some good articles on this under the "Workout" tab at the top of this site.

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[TheShanMan]

I saw once in M&F magazine a form of squats where you actually jump as you come up (obviously you would have to go ligher in weight). Would that be a good exercise perhaps for improving vertical jump?

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[Steel Warrior]

My verticle went WAY up when I started Tae Kwan Do again so I don't really know how the specificity Hypothesis explains that as it would be a different motor program (angle/speed/power)

[regg]

wow, thanx alot guys.. I think I will use some weight training high weight low rep, and some actual verticle jumping. But should I preform both on the same day? and if so, which one first?

[Steel Warrior]

Do a 1RM on squats and then do verticle jumps for 10 reps directly afterwards or wait 5 minutes and do them. Both forms work great.

[Alk1]

Hey I play baskewtball and I guess that the kind of vertical you need in vollyball and basketball is almost the same. What I do is that I lift weigths with my legs and i also do a lot of explosive jumping with wery little wight. But your key to a great vertical is that you got strong core muscles. This is an exercise I love to do. You start with feet together then jump as far ahead as you can then when you hit the floor jump as quick as you can again forward then same oce more and then when you land the last time jump as high as you can straight up

Good luck man!

[TheShanMan]

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No it wouldn't be. That would be incredibly destructive on your knees. /forum/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

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That was my initial reaction, IIRC. Glad I never tried them then! /forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[TheShanMan]

Just read in the article "Shock Yourself Out Of The Comfort Zone Part 3 (http://www.abcbodybuilding.com/magazine03/shockedoutofthecomfortzone3.htm)" that using the "Concentric Rest-Pause Power-rack training" method with barbell calf raises is "a great exercise for increasing your vertical leap".

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[Alk1]

But you still gotta see that strong legs is just a little part of having a good vertical. You can buy the srength to sciense vertical program wich is very good. Your calves is only abou 25% of your vertical. Your core is much more important but off course you got to be strong in all your body.

[farzin316]

you should try to mark a spot on the wall and jump as high as you can to touch it. When you make it as high as you can, mark that spot. This way you can see your progress as you go through the steps. I don't know what position you play but ball handling and your jumpshot are as important so you may wanna spend a couple of hours a day on those if you are really serious about this. I would say develop core lower body strength but you don't want to have bulky legs (rugby player type) because that won't improve your vertical jump.

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[ryancostill]

I understand the principle of specificity Yu, but dont we also have to consider the principle of overload? Arent plyometric exercises such as depth jumps very similar in specificity terms to vertical jumps but also allow for the muscle to be overloaded? where as practising just vertical jumps has nooverload so wont improvement be limited?

SShouldny both techniques be used? (plyos & sports specific vertical jumps)

[goldmill]

I agree. There is no one thing. Anyone interested in improving their vertical should concentrate on weight training, plyos, and vertical jumps(as Yu mentioned). Otherwise, you could be missing out on some serious gains.

[icehawk]

Plyos will definately get you a bigger vertical. Personally, I found plyos gave a lot better results than weight training but that's just me. Tuck jumps and single leg hops are what I usually stick to.

You can find some good exercises on the internet..

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[Heisman]

The best thing you can do with your vertical, if you have already practiced jumping a lot, is olympic lifting. The reason people see results with Air Alert III (a terrible program) is because they have never done a lot of jumping before and there body is responding to the fact that they are actually jumping. You are teaching yourself to jump with Air Alert III, that's why it works for some people. If you have never practiced jumping before, then that should be something you start doing regularly. If you find something high, jump up and try to touch it. Remember, try to make your legs move fast, don't try to push off the ground hard.

If you have practiced jumping, then you should do olympic lifting. You need to train your CNS to be able to recruit more fibers to be employed with each jump. Olympic lifting is the best way to train the CNS, in my opinion (not a fact, just my opinion). You don't need to go all out and find a coach to teach you the full lifts. I would just focus on hang cleans and powersnatches. If you focus on those two lifts, especially powersnatches, your vertical should go up.

You also have to start doing all your reps on squats and other leg movements explosively, if you can safely do so. That doesn't mean you need to use 60% of your max and do speed reps; you just need to do the concentric part of the rep as fast as possible. I would also start training more like a powerlifter and do sets of 3-4 reps on all squats and deadlifts. If you maintain a good diet you will still look fine.

By doing all this, I've put 5 inches on my vertical in the last 5 months. I hope this helps.

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[ryancostill]

interesting reply a couple of posts back Yu. I wasnt trying to make a connection between speficity and overload principles. I was suggesting both had to be considered for optimal gains etc (and jumping plyos were a good way of implementing both). But your post was interesting. I will have to read venom's article again, it been awhile!

[Kasaz]

Well I didnt lift at all in high school. So I'm tending to go more along the lines of specifics training. I could dunk w/ 2 hands @ 5'10. I just played a lot of sports and did plyometrics type stuff. So to me it seemed the more I Jumped the better I got.

[Roxx]

'Yu' could you be a little more specific with your reply about olympic lifting

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[Roxx]

tnx

[MaineStag]

I spoke with a PT a while back about increasing vert jump for my daughter (basketball). He is making her a prog consisting of plyometrics and geared toward injury prevention. Specifically ACL injury in women...where they are 8 times more likely to tear ACL than men.

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[DrEvil]

I remember having an article that i found on kazaa i believe it was called "air" something... i wish i could remember the name!!!

But it was an exercise program to improve vertical jump...

[ryancostill]

theres a well known program called "air alert" is that what you are thinking? Dont know anything about myself, dunno if its any good or not.

[MaineStag]

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Specifically ACL injury in women...where they are 8 times more likely to tear ACL than men.

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Yes, women/teenage girls are much more likely to have an ACL tear. This is where plyometrics will be helpful, as it helps the athlete control muscle activation. I also reccomend getting her on a hamstrings routine to stave off a muscular imbalance.

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Would the muscular imbalance be do to more quad than hamstring? Thanks for your input!

[pacodaeagle]

Do a search on Air Alert II or III and you can find a vertical jumping program for free. It's supposed to add 5 inches or more to your standing vertical.

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[MaineStag]

Got it...Thanks!

[Alk1]

[ QUOTE ]
theres a well known program called "air alert" is that what you are thinking? Dont know anything about myself, dunno if its any good or not.

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It's not a good program at all. The reps are to high. But if you are going to do it I would recomen to do program Air Alert2.

But search the web there are tons of good vertical programs.
I'm doing one that is called Strength trough science that is a good one.

[zaeban]

i think aware jump is the most effective. it really works, i must have gained 8-9 inches at least. it's really exciting when you can see big improvements. thanks man

the website is:

www.aware-jump.com (http://www.aware-jump.com)

[harson]

the best one out there, as i've said it it's aware jump. it's so effective, it works and if you wanna just improve your vertical leap thats where i'd go. i'm not really into jumping but my friends are and they say it works amazingly, so i guess it's a good deal fo 17 bucks.

the webste is:www.aware-jump.com