an article I wrote about pro athletes and vertical jumping/important exercises

[dontstop3]

I wrote this for my website, let me know what you think? I hope you guys find this interesting




Forget all the BS about complex training routines that have you doing four different kinds of squats, they have a time and a place, but not in vertical jump training. The two most absolutely crucial exercises in vertical jump training are the squat and power clean. You really aren’t going to find athletes who are explosive and have amazing verticals without pushing some crazy stats on their squats and power cleans.

For example, did you know that powerlifters and weight lifters have by far the highest verticals than in any other sport? Its absolutely true, and whats more is they don’t even TRAIN for vertical jumping.

There are many other elite athletes that have vertical leaps reaching 40 inches. Athletes such as sprinters, footballers and shot putters train for brute strength and power, don’t necessarily need a large vertical leap, yet have one due to their training.

If you closely study athletes with massive vertical jumps, you’ll find a common theme. They are incredibly strong (strong means at least 2x bodyweight squats and 1.5x bodyweight powercleans). These two exercises in particular stand out. I’ve put together a list of people who ridiculous vertical jumps. If you're looking to increase your vertical then these are two exercises you shouldn't neglect in the gym!

BRIAN URLACHER

When he was in high school he was hammered about his lowerbody in the weight room. His coach didn’t mind if they didn’t get all their upper body in, as long as they got in their squats and power cleans.

He stands at 6’4 and 260lbs, he runs 4.57 in the 40yard dash, and has a 38 inch vertical leap. He can power clean 410lbs, and squats 550lbs!

VERNON DAVIS

The 49ers tight end has been branded as a freak of nature. At 6’3 and 252lbs, he can run a 4.38 second 40 yard dash and has a 42 inch vertical. He’s also an obsessive weight lifter who can squat 680lbs and power clean 365lbs.

BEN JOHNSON

There are unverified rumors floating around that Ben Johnson didn’t do any plyometric training. His main focus was heavy weights and sprinting. I’ve even read that he wouldn’t run more than 100m because he wanted to be as quick and explosive, and have as many fast twitch fibres available as possible.

Ben Johnson was extremely explosive and was infamous for having one of the best starts of his era. This is directly related to him being able to squat 605lbs for 5 reps, when he only weighed 190lbs!

Now I don’t want to speculate about steroids helping him lift so much weight, but you simply can’t ignore the correlation between his strength to his speed and explosiveness.

MAURICE GREENE

Former world record holder running 9.79 seconds in the 100m can squat 505lbs at a weight of 170. This gave him a huge vertical leap and an amazing start out of the blocks.

MATT SHIRVINGTON

An Australian sprinter, very well known for his explosive starts and can easily power clean 120kg and squat 200kg. He does all of this while weighing only 80kg.

NICU VLAD

A 225lb world record holding weightlifter once recorded a 42 inch vertical leap! Recorded with absolutely no warm up and wearing very cumbersome and heavy weightlifting shoes.

MARK HENRY

WWE wrestler who was at the Olympics for weightlifting can at 6’3, easily dunk a basketball. This is incredible, considering he weighs 385lbs! Along with his world class snatches and clean and jerks, he can squat 1050 pounds and deadlift 920 pounds.

BROCK LESNAR

Former amateur and professional wrestler, UFC fighter Brock Lesnar is an astounding athlete. He once tried out for the NFL and at 6’3 and 283 lbs recorded a 4.65 40 yard dash and a 35 inch vertical. This is crazy, and its not even taking into consideration that he was recovering up from a very serious motorcycle accident a few weeks prior to the test!

He with ease, also bench presses 475 pounds and squats 695 pounds.

FRED ‘DR SQUAT’ HATFIELD

Powerlifter who at 255 pounds can squat over 1000pounds! No wonder he has recorded a vertical leap of 40 inches.

Although squats and power cleans aren’t the only 2 exercises to help increase vertical leap, you cannot ignore the underlying theme amongst all these athletes. They are all extremely strong, in relation to their bodyweight in these 2 lifts. If you're interested in vertical jumping and want to jump higher then these may be the exercises that give you the extra inches you're looking for.

If you don’t believe me feel free to look it up, its all easily verifiable.

[jdelarod]

19 years old . . . if you know so much about vertical jumping why arent you in a Div-I sport?

Looks like you just googled a bunch of names.

[federaldb59]

maybe hes a future cscs. But I agree whats your point? Having alot of strength will make you jump higher/ faster. Thats a point mostly everyone knows. And no one cares about your website. If you really wanna make a name for your program pick a person or 2 in the sports training journals and give them the book for free to test it out and get the name of your program out. Till then your just a troll.

[dontstop3]

i dont have a program, im just writing articles for my blog cos i like writing :\ i just wanted to know if you guys liked it.

[xxtwistedxx]

only skimmed it but if you want to start writing effective articles you need to cite your sources. and no google doesnt count.

[federaldb59]

whys your blog filled with advertisments for the "Jump Manual"

[Benji Snap]

haters gonna hate.

[uKazushi]

I think that's a fine article. I mean it's only in the last few months that I have really learnt about weight lifting for sports and how important the squat is.

I mean for me, as a beginner this article re-enforces that squats are good. With some examples of impressive athletes who squatted. Showing an association between squatting and a high level of athletic performance. This is a forum after all. He really does not need to cite any references if he does not want to.

The weakness I think is that beginners like myself don't really care about vertical jumps we just want to be more athletic. And advanced lifters already know that squatting is essential. It would be better as a Sports Lifting for Dumbies: Why the squat should be your most important lift type article. My two cents.

[LouV]

good article. citing your sources would help but the article was very well written.

[Philip81193]

So you're saying box squats aren't helpful to your vertical? Huh.

[Jhawk Fitness]

Can you post your references?

[BigTwoThree]

Box squats would be a form of squatting so yes I would think it would have the same effect, or vertually anyway. And I don't think he needs to post any references. I agree that squatting is probably one of the most important aspects in any routine, no matter what your goal is. Power cleans I have never taken the time to perfect so I have no idea if they help with anything. Either way

[federaldb59]

No one else notices the links to his "blog" thats filled with advertisments for a vertical jump manual. Thats why Im "Hatin" Im tired of people advertising their stuff on here.

[Jhawk Fitness]

Box squats would be a form of squatting so yes I would think it would have the same effect, or vertually anyway. And I don't think he needs to post any references. I agree that squatting is probably one of the most important aspects in any routine, no matter what your goal is. Power cleans I have never taken the time to perfect so I have no idea if they help with anything. Either way

Why exactly would you not want to post your references? It gives credence to your writing.

[xxtwistedxx]

Why exactly would you not want to post your references? It gives credence to your writing.

this...

without any sort of reference to back your statements or claims then your arguments or ideas hold nothing.

geez last time i wrote a paper without and sources or references and the teacher just gave it right back to me and docked me a grade.

[viperjax]

To be honest I'm not convinced that because some selectively chosen athletes (not all of whom you even bothered to PROVE did cleans/squats with regularity in their training schedules) used cleans/squats then cleans/squats are the way to go. That's like saying because many elite athletes who are explosive have good diets and get enough sleep that's 'the key' to being explosive.

In other words, this article fails because it is all about correlation without causation. Just because the sun goes down when the sky gets dark doesn't mean the sun goes down because the sky gets dark.

[dontstop3]

you actually believe being able to squat and powerclean heavy weight will not increase your vertical? are you being thick on purpose? im well aware of how cause and correlation work, im also not going to quote my sources for an article i spent an hour and a half writing. this isn't a dissertation

[xxtwistedxx]

yea cuz the extra 5 minutes to say where you got the info is brutal....