(Add-on) Vertical jumping workout

[toughty]

Im looking to increase my vertical jump so i can dunk, Im six foot two and i can only grab rim, i workout everyday and run every other morning, im looking for a "jumping" routine to add to my morning run. I have at my disposal a weighted vest and ankle weights. Any advice would be great.

[TheGhostInside]

I got this from a forum of goons, I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post a link to it. I take no credit at all for this.


Intro
If you're like me, then there's a lot of information out there that you know now that would have been of tremendous help to you in the past. This happens a lot to me with athletics. One of those many things that I wish I would have known is how to run faster and jump higher. It's said that the best runners are the best jumpers and when you look at what goes into the two it's hard to disagree. In this guide I'll be talking mostly about jumping, but the same things can be applied to running for success; you just need to specify a little bit more in the end for running.

A disclaimer: I'm not THAT fast and I don't claim to be, but the info I'm about to relay to you is still true regardless of how fast I am.

The secret to jumping high
Being explosive. Pure and simple, this is the key to jumping. Being explosive, or powerful, basically means you can put out a lot of force in a very short amount of time. A great example of explosiveness is the vertical jump.

Being explosive comes from being able to produce a lot of force in a little amount of time. This can also be noted as having a good rate of force development (ROFD). A good measure of explosiveness is the vertical jump. This is an exercise that takes about a quarter of a second to complete, so it's important you gather as much force (strength) as you can for the effort.

Unfortunately, it takes a bit longer for us to reach our maximal level of strength, something like 2-3 seconds. Think about it, if you were to max out on bench press or deadlift, how long would that rep take? It certainly wouldn't be fast, that's for sure. The sad thing is we don't have that sort of time in an exercise like the vertical jump or a shot put (or any other explosive activity). So, even though someone may be able to squat 500 pounds, that does not necessarily mean that they will be able to exert 500 pounds of force on their vertical jump attempt, because they don't have enough time to reach their max level of strength, so to speak.

This is where training comes into play. You have to focus on increasing the speed in which you can reach a high level of power output. You do this with plyometric exercises and lifts. So let's say this 500 pound squatter was only able to muster 200 pounds of force in the 1/4th of a second it takes to complete a vertical jump. Through training he could recruit more force at a faster rate, so that later on he could produce 300 pounds in that 1/4th of a second, thus being more explosive.

Lucky for the guy in our example, he had a 500 pound squat. Not everyone is capable of producing such a high amount of force, however. Let's look at the opposite, a guy who CAN produce a high percentage of his maximum force very quickly, but his maximum force is low. We'll say this guy can squat 200 but in 1/4th of a second can produce 90% of that! That's a pretty impressive statistic, but when we look at that, he's only producing 180 pounds of force. The guy from our other example was able to produce less than 50% of his maximum force in the same amount of time, but overall his 200 pounds is greater than this guy's 180 pounds, so he would have a higher vertical, all other things being equal.

So how do I train to be explosive?
Through the example above it should be clear that it's important to train both aspects of the vertical jump. It's important to increase the max amount of force you can output overall, but it's also important to increase the amount of force you can produce in a short period of time. But how are each of these done?

Increasing max strength
Strength comes from moving against a resistance, most commonly weights in a gym. It's important to note that we're training our Central Nervous System (CNS) as well as our muscles during this time. Your CNS is what allows you to put all the strength into what you do; it essentially fires your muscles. By training compound lifts such as overhead press, bench press, squat, and deadlift you are training your muscles and CNS to handle heavier loads and increase work capacity. Strength is best trained in the 1-5 rep range on the aforementioned exercises. The loads must be heavy for this, though, or else you're not going to be very productive in your efforts. A great resource for figuring out what you should be doing when training for strengths can be found here:
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/attach...0&d=1160859106

Also, you can look at my other guide on building muscle for some recommended strength routines.

Increasing ROFD
Learning to access more of your strength quickly isn't as difficult as you might think. There are so many different ways to do this, but it basically comes down to moving a load (your body or a weight) as fast as you can.

One way to increase ROFD is in the weight room. Some great lifts you can do are speed bench, speed deadlift, box squats, power cleans, and snatches (power cleans and box squats are probably what I'd recommend most).The goal is to complete each rep as fast as possible. The weights will be lighter than you would normally use for strength training, but this is to ensure that the reps are fast, similar to the vertical jump. For speed bench, deadlit, and box squats 6-8 sets of 2-3 is what's normally done. Weights should be around 50-80% of your one rep max; start lighter at first, then work your way up. Cleans and snatches are also done in low reps, usually 1-3. Give yourself enough time in between sets to fully recover. The point of this is to put as much force into each rep as you can, so going into a set tired is counterproductive. You should be fully recovered before attempting the next set. Just remember that each rep MUST be as fast/hard as you can push.

Another way to increase ROFD is through plyometrics. The word has sort of evolved over the years to become a blanket term for any explosive movement. Many years ago plyometrics referred to 2 movements in particular: depth drops (stepping off of an elevated surface and "sticking" the landing) and depth jumps (stepping off an elevated surface and then performing a vertical jump). These were used by the Russians in the early 70s to make their incredible athletes of that era. These are now referred to as true plyometrics, while everything else is blanketed under the general term of "plyos". A good list of plyos can be found here:
http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com...exercises.html

As with increasing ROFD in the weightroom, when it comes to plyos the reps must be SHORT and EXPLOSIVE! Doing 20 reps of broad jumps with 30 seconds of rest won't do much more than make you tired. It's good conditioning, yes, but for our goal of increasing power it contributes nothing. Reps can be a little higher than what's used in the weightroom since the load is lighter, but you still shouldn't go too high. This is very dependent upon the intensity of the plyometric exercise you're doing. If it's low intensity, then 10-15 reps or even more is fine. But for medium and high intensity exercises the reps should be lower. 3-8 is a good range. As for the amount of sets you should do, that can vary. If you're doing more reps, then you should lower sets. When in the 3-8 rep range try to stay between 15-25 total reps for each exercise. For the higher rep ones 2-4 sets is fine. Make sure you rest until you're fully recovered between sets.

When making your plyo routine there are a few things you should keep in mind: 1. Just as with strength training, you shouldn't train too often. Three days a week is plenty; personally I'd only do two. 2. Don't overload your routine with a bunch of high intensity exercises. That's a good way to burn out and overtrain your CNS. Your routine must be balanced with low, medium, AND high intensity exercises.

So, how do I run fast?
By doing all of the above! As well as simply running. You have to practice the event you want to get good at. There's training for acceleration, your top speed, conditioning to maintain that top speed, and conditioning to run for a longer period of time at a lower energy state (what most people simply refer to as conditioning).

To train acceleration your sprints don't have to be too long. 10-30 yards, maybe 40 max. Make sure your giving yourself full rest so you can push as hard as you can for the next time. If you're not training at your maximal effort each time, then you're not helping yourself get faster, just more "in shape".

The fastest way to increase your top speed is to get perfect form, or as close to it as you can. I can't give insight on great form, because I don't quite have it myself, so that's something you'll have to look up.


Aside from that, increasing ROFD is how you can increase your speed.

To condition yourself to maintain that top speed you can simply do longer sprints than we used when working acceleration. However long it takes you to reach top speed and 20+ yards is what you should use. For example, if it takes me 30 yards to reach top speed I would work with 50 yards (after a while I could increase this to 80 or so after I got conditioned to it).

Conditioning for sub maximal levels of speed is probably the most simple. Do a lot of running at 50-80% of your max effort with little rest.

Be flexible!
When it comes to running and jumping it pays to be flexible. A bigger range of motion (ROM) means that you can run faster and jump higher. There is such a thing as being too flexible, but most of us won't have to worry about getting to that level. It pays to stretch. Look up DeFranco's Agile 8 for a good routine.

[toughty]

Great post thank you!

[TheGhostInside]

Glad I could be of help.