Becoming a 40" Jumper...

[Capy]

What would it take someone to get their jump up to 40"? Discuss Please.

[tpascual]

hardwork!!!....im telling you right now that it takes that HARDWORK, especially if your not born with it.......

[Cp bball3]

honestly.. if your not born with it you can NOT accomplish that. Im not here to shut you down or anything but its sooo hard to do if you do not have fast twitch muscle fiber genetics. Unless your born with a raw 32" vertical, its gonna be raelly hard to bring it up anymore then 8 inches to the 40 range

[Hulk06]

Yeah, jumping 40 inches is highly dependent on genetics I'm sorry to say.

[GrantZilla]

Yeah, I say...**** genetics. If you want that 40" vertical, WORK YOUR @SS OFF. Through heavy lifting and a good plyometric program (in combination with good diet and rest) you can definitely do it. If that is a goal or dream of yours don't let these people tell you differently. Come back with that 40" vertical on video and make these guys eat their genetics. You can do it man, get yourself in some strength shoes (yes, they work) and start jumping for the rim on the basketball hoop. I have personally taken my vert. from 23 to 33 inches through training and there is no one that will stop me from jumping higher. re

EDIT, I just read your weight. I have NEVER heard of anyone over 250 with a vertical at or over 38". You might think about cutting to an athletic bodyfat percentage (5-12%).

[Capy]

i was just talking in general i can jump 28" now.... shaq has a 32" standing vert and hes 330 so whatever...

this was not my goal but i just wanted to hear peoples thoughts on the matter.

[Capy]

im only at like 17% BF btw.... i will be cutting to 10 after i gain some more muscle...

[Heisman2]

Yeah, I say...**** genetics. If you want that 40" vertical, WORK YOUR @SS OFF. Through heavy lifting and a good plyometric program (in combination with good diet and rest) you can definitely do it. If that is a goal or dream of yours don't let these people tell you differently. Come back with that 40" vertical on video and make these guys eat their genetics. You can do it man, get yourself in some strength shoes (yes, they work) and start jumping for the rim on the basketball hoop. I have personally taken my vert. from 23 to 33 inches through training and there is no one that will stop me from jumping higher. re

EDIT, I just read your weight. I have NEVER heard of anyone over 250 with a vertical at or over 38". You might think about cutting to an athletic bodyfat percentage (5-12%).

Shane Hammon is 5'9" and at a bodyweight of almost 360 could jump around 40". Definitely over 38". Of course, squatting over 1,000 pounds and clean and jerking well over 500 doesn't hurt.

[Capy]

Jevon Kearse 265 lb 40"
Manny Lawson 265 lb 38"


im finding alot of people over 250 that can jump that high.... hmmmm

[watchandsee23]

Jevon Kearse'snickname is th freak. And you have to be a freak of nature to be a good DE. They are gentically superior and they ahve been training for far longer than you. They can hire the best money can buy to train them. It erally is gentics and hardwork. I know a guy who only played 3 years of high school football. When he first started he was at the mid 20's. Now a junior in college has around a 44 inch VJ.

[Capy]

lol anyway how do you tell if you have fast twitch muscles? i increased my VJ 6 inches in 2 months...

[futureNBAstar]

not true , ask kelly Bagget, he was born with a ****ty 21 inch vert , and at one point brought it up too 40 or 42 or something like that but deff in the 40's. Even through injuries and setbacks he got there. If you have a goal dont let these haters who tell themselves its impossible to bring up your vert more than 8 inches to save themselves hard work.

[mattie32]

What would it take someone to get their jump up to 40"? Discuss Please.

i am a basketball all my friends are i have friends playin college witch i dont see offen anymore but i have many friends who have made it far in basketball and all of them can jump. they taught me to jump proply and higher. to get a massive jump u dont need to be born with good genitics it certanly helps but if your train and work hard you can do it i taught my friend 5 '7 to jump and now he can slam dunk an 10 foot ring. weight training ist alwayz the best answer because one of the ways to get a big jump is to teach you self it like second nature just like walkin you need to be constantly jumpin to get your muscleuse to jumpin higher and gettin them sstronger but you dnt offen run up the basketball court or high jump with ankle weights or a barbell on. the best thing for jumping is skipping nuthing beats it even if thats not good enoff for you put sum ankle weights on and do it. squats lunges skipping berpies are all great and just keep jumping as high as you can every time you have a free second jump get you muscles use to it . also just working on your muscles on your legs isnt alwayz going to do it for you you need to kown or learn how to jump proply .and streach everyday for about 30-45 minutes. i am 5'11 and on christma day i got a bball ring and i couldent hardly touch the net now i can reverse dunk two hands one hand 360 1 hand dunk. but it does take a fair bit of work but if you like what your training for its not problem

[Capy]

oh trust me i wasnt going to take anything said here to heart, i just thought it would be a good convo.

[Zac Robinson]

Speaking of Kelly Bagget, I was just reading an interview earlier today. He has some very interesting points and states something that every athlete needs to understand...you have to improve strength in order to become more explosive, to go faster, jump higher, swing faster, throw farther, etc. Strength is the foundation that has to be built in order to gain improvement in other aspects.

His actual quote is, "Strength is the backbone upon which all the other qualities of strength reside (explosive strength, reactive strength, strength endurance etc.)"

All athletes need to realize this and spend time improving strength!

Here is the link to the interview.
http://www.wannabebig.com/printartic...?articleid=228

[Capy]

awesome! anyway has anyone tried this program?

[tpascual]

some of you posts with motivation...good job

[Capy]

yeah it sure is rare on these forums... im going to be handing out more rep for the positive people and bad rep for the negetive people... it should be a new forum rule

[Heisman2]

yeah it sure is rare on these forums... im going to be handing out more rep for the positive people and bad rep for the negetive people... it should be a new forum rule

No it shouldn't.

I am with the party of people that think you need good genetics to jump 40". A legit 40" STANDING vertical, that is. Not everybody can become as powerful as the O-lifters. Off a run I can get almost 35", but my standing vertical is probably around 28". A legit 40" vertical is RARE.

[Capy]

i am believer in if you want it bad enough... you can have it...

*hands mr know it all a cookie"

[JH20]

when people talk about a 40 inch vertical. Do they mean taking no steps, one step, or a run up?

[frankieh456]

Don't listen to the haters. That's all they are. Mark Henry who was at one time the worlds strongest man not exactly sure of his stats but around 350 pounds dunked a basketball. You will have to work and believe you can do it and picture it in your mind but it is possible. You just have to set your goal and take effective action and not let anything interfere with it.

[Heisman2]

i am believer in if you want it bad enough... you can have it...

*hands mr know it all a cookie"

Fine, you want a 40" vertical? I'll tell you what to do.

Get your max ATG squat up to 3x bodyweight. After that, any more squatting strength will probably hinder you, not help you.

Then, start cycling in plyos. Eventually, you're gonna want to move into doing depth jumps, but not at first. Play lots of basketball and just practice jumping for awhile. After that stops helping you, do plyos such as bounding, broad jumps, etc. Also, do short sprints.

As for weightlifting, increasing on the O-lifts is a MUST. Find yourself a GOOD coach to teach you the lifts. Take months to master them. It will be worth it. Get your snatch and clean and jerk up to within 100 pounds of the world record of your weightclass. Also, I recommend that you do push jerks, not split jerks.

As for other weightlifting things, glute ham raises will help you. However, the two exercises I'd recommend the most are jump squats and peterson step ups. Jud Logan greatly advocates the peterson step ups, and there are numerous studies showing the benefits of jump squats.

When you progress up to doing depth drops up to 10' (some O-lifters back in the day did 20'), then you'll be more than ready to do depth jumps. That should help you as well.

Never be afraid to test your strength deficit and see what you should work on.

Also, a VERY knowledgable strength coach told me that he believes with all else being equal, he can increase somebody's vertical just by improving their balance and stability. Besides that, having good flexibility will help you greatly as well, so research PNF and active isolated stretching.

Of course, you also want a low bodyfat percentage.


And that's all the advice you can possibly need. No book or program you buy will help you any more than what I just told you, most likely. A lot of people talk about Kelly Bagget. I've never read his stuff, so I won't comment on it. However, just cause he figured out what works for him doesn't mean it'll work for everybody else. Remember that; just cause it works for him doesn't mean it'll work for you. Much, MUCH better idea to educate yourself. It isn't that hard.

[IcyHot]

Fine, you want a 40" vertical? I'll tell you what to do.

Get your max ATG squat up to 3x bodyweight. After that, any more squatting strength will probably hinder you, not help you.

Then, start cycling in plyos. Eventually, you're gonna want to move into doing depth jumps, but not at first. Play lots of basketball and just practice jumping for awhile. After that stops helping you, do plyos such as bounding, broad jumps, etc. Also, do short sprints.

As for weightlifting, increasing on the O-lifts is a MUST. Find yourself a GOOD coach to teach you the lifts. Take months to master them. It will be worth it. Get your snatch and clean and jerk up to within 100 pounds of the world record of your weightclass. Also, I recommend that you do push jerks, not split jerks.

As for other weightlifting things, glute ham raises will help you. However, the two exercises I'd recommend the most are jump squats and peterson step ups. Jud Logan greatly advocates the peterson step ups, and there are numerous studies showing the benefits of jump squats.

When you progress up to doing depth drops up to 10' (some O-lifters back in the day did 20'), then you'll be more than ready to do depth jumps. That should help you as well.

Never be afraid to test your strength deficit and see what you should work on.

Also, a VERY knowledgable strength coach told me that he believes with all else being equal, he can increase somebody's vertical just by improving their balance and stability. Besides that, having good flexibility will help you greatly as well, so research PNF and active isolated stretching.

Of course, you also want a low bodyfat percentage.


And that's all the advice you can possibly need. No book or program you buy will help you any more than what I just told you, most likely. A lot of people talk about Kelly Bagget. I've never read his stuff, so I won't comment on it. However, just cause he figured out what works for him doesn't mean it'll work for everybody else. Remember that; just cause it works for him doesn't mean it'll work for you. Much, MUCH better idea to educate yourself. It isn't that hard.

Terrific advice.

Genentically I have a 30" vertical or so. I have mananged to get 36" through hard work. The next 4 inches will be exponentially as hard as the last (as I have found)

[Zac Robinson]

Fine, you want a 40" vertical? I'll tell you what to do.

Get your max ATG squat up to 3x bodyweight. After that, any more squatting strength will probably hinder you, not help you.

Then, start cycling in plyos. Eventually, you're gonna want to move into doing depth jumps, but not at first. Play lots of basketball and just practice jumping for awhile. After that stops helping you, do plyos such as bounding, broad jumps, etc. Also, do short sprints.

As for weightlifting, increasing on the O-lifts is a MUST. Find yourself a GOOD coach to teach you the lifts. Take months to master them. It will be worth it. Get your snatch and clean and jerk up to within 100 pounds of the world record of your weightclass. Also, I recommend that you do push jerks, not split jerks.

As for other weightlifting things, glute ham raises will help you. However, the two exercises I'd recommend the most are jump squats and peterson step ups. Jud Logan greatly advocates the peterson step ups, and there are numerous studies showing the benefits of jump squats.

When you progress up to doing depth drops up to 10' (some O-lifters back in the day did 20'), then you'll be more than ready to do depth jumps. That should help you as well.

Never be afraid to test your strength deficit and see what you should work on.

Also, a VERY knowledgable strength coach told me that he believes with all else being equal, he can increase somebody's vertical just by improving their balance and stability. Besides that, having good flexibility will help you greatly as well, so research PNF and active isolated stretching.

Of course, you also want a low bodyfat percentage.


And that's all the advice you can possibly need. No book or program you buy will help you any more than what I just told you, most likely. A lot of people talk about Kelly Bagget. I've never read his stuff, so I won't comment on it. However, just cause he figured out what works for him doesn't mean it'll work for everybody else. Remember that; just cause it works for him doesn't mean it'll work for you. Much, MUCH better idea to educate yourself. It isn't that hard.

This is actually some pretty good advice. However, I think you are kind of trying to prove your point that it is EXTREMELY difficult to attain a 40" vertical unless you are very gifted (and I totally agree with you). Therefore, I think maybe some of your above statements were a little over the top.

A 3x's squat would probably be just as hard or harder to attain then the 40" vertical for most people. Most would probably be served just as well by having a 2x's bodyweight squat, or even slightly below that, at least in my opinion.

Peterson step ups get my two thumbs up, I've talked about them on here before with luke warm response, they are great for strengthening the VMO, which will help the knee track properly. I do them consistently and they have helped me greatly. Bagget talks about squatting below parallel to further activate the VMO.

I don't think that 10' depth drops is necessary, I haven't read any research on it, but would love to if you have some. As far as depth jumps, they should be incorporated after a cycle of lead up plyos (like you mentioned above), and according to Bompa the optimal height is between 30" and 43".

Olympic lifts will obviously help greatly, but I doubt that getting your 1RM for them within 100 lbs of the world record is an absolute. That would be another unbelievabley difficult task, that would take years and years of training.

Regarding testing your strength deficit, you hit the nail on the head when it comes to jumping, the jump lasts around .2 seconds (according to Bagget), so you obviously need to create a lot of force really fast. In his book (I just purchased the ebook today to see what it was all about, I don't have a real desire to improve my vertical) he discusses how to determine whether you need to improve in general strength, or reactive strength through plyos. Of course the plyos (and speed-strength) will be the key to improving explosive strength.

Like I stated above, you gave a bunch of good advice, but it isn't all the advice you could need, it is an outline as to how hard increasing to a 40" vertical would be, and you list some important information and exercises, but it is just a start.

I haven't read a lot of stuff on improving vertical, but had read some of Bagget's articles and he takes an approach that is based on solid principles, not all that gimmicky crap, so I do have respect for his work. It obviously worked for him, but as he explains it was based on years of research and following certain principles, so in that respect it should work for most everybody at least in varying degrees. He also has a variety of tests for each athlete to take which will lead them to his/her most effective program. I'm kind of sounding like a salesman here, I'm not by any means (I doubt I will ever even do the program), but I would suggest reading some of his articles.

Although I don't exactly agree with the context in your above response, I applaud you completely for stating "Much, much better idea to educate yourself." If only everyone would do that, once I put it on myself to go out and find excellent resources in regard to strength/sports training, my knowledge has increased 10 fold easily. And you are right, it isn't that hard, but finding the right resources sometimes is!

[Heisman2]

Great post bro. Let me just say that in case anything I say comes out sounding negative towards you at all, since I have a tendency to do that, and I don't have any actual problem with anything you posted.

This is actually some pretty good advice. However, I think you are kind of trying to prove your point that it is EXTREMELY difficult to attain a 40" vertical unless you are very gifted (and I totally agree with you). Therefore, I think maybe some of your above statements were a little over the top.

Yep, you got it, lol. Part of that post was to give good advice and part was to show how hard I believe it is, and I'm still of the opinion that you need some help genetically to get a 40" standing vertical.

A 3x's squat would probably be just as hard or harder to attain then the 40" vertical for most people. Most would probably be served just as well by having a 2x's bodyweight squat, or even slightly below that, at least in my opinion.

Maybe a 3x bodyweight squat is a bit high, but 2.5x bodyweight isn't, IMO. In my case, I weigh 170, and would need to squat 425, which I'm not too far from (I've done 360 a couple of months ago and 330 for 2 sets of 5 reps a couple of days ago, and I'm 18 and have been training for a couple of years). I didn't post my stats to brag, just to show that I think it's much easier to build up a squat that high than to get a 40" vertical. And 2x bodyweight probably would be high, but I feel that the extra leg strength will help carry over to O-lifts and stuff like that, which will help you jump higher, even though the extra squat strength itself won't help you jump higher directly.

Peterson step ups get my two thumbs up, I've talked about them on here before with luke warm response, they are great for strengthening the VMO, which will help the knee track properly. I do them consistently and they have helped me greatly. Bagget talks about squatting below parallel to further activate the VMO.

I don't have anything to say to this.

I don't think that 10' depth drops is necessary, I haven't read any research on it, but would love to if you have some. As far as depth jumps, they should be incorporated after a cycle of lead up plyos (like you mentioned above), and according to Bompa the optimal height is between 30" and 43".

I'm currently reading Supertraining and Siff mentions that depth drops up to 3.2 meters (which is roughly 10') had positive effects, although many athletes were hesitant to do them from that high. I was being a bit facetious (probably not the right word, but I'm a math/science guy) with saying that, but Siff did say something positive about them, and I'll trust Siff, lol. That said, I definitely don't think anybody needs to do them from that high, and I personally don't see myself doing them from any higher than 7' (and I've jumped fences that were 7', so I know I can work up to doing those safely).
As for the optimal height, I've read that you want to do them so that your rebound jump is as high as your normal standing vertical, and I've read stuff that agrees your 30"-43" range.

Also, on an aside, I need to purchase Bompa's book.

Olympic lifts will obviously help greatly, but I doubt that getting your 1RM for them within 100 lbs of the world record is an absolute. That would be another unbelievabley difficult task, that would take years and years of training.

Yes, getting one's lifts that high is very difficult, no doubt, but I don't see how it could hurt to work on it. Maybe within 150 pounds of the world records is more sensical. And yes, it would take years and years of training (unless you're a certain 18 year old junior...), but I don't think anybody not genetically gifted can get to a 40" vertical without training for a long time.

Regarding testing your strength deficit, you hit the nail on the head when it comes to jumping, the jump lasts around .2 seconds (according to Bagget), so you obviously need to create a lot of force really fast. In his book (I just purchased the ebook today to see what it was all about, I don't have a real desire to improve my vertical) he discusses how to determine whether you need to improve in general strength, or reactive strength through plyos. Of course the plyos (and speed-strength) will be the key to improving explosive strength.

Siff also talks about testing it, and although his method seems a bit unsafe, if it works, it works. Just need a few COMPETENT spotters. For those who don't want to test it, I'd imagine that if you just look at all of your numbers, you could possibly eyeball what you need to work on. Or, you can focus on something, and if it doesn't help, then focus on a different physical trait.

Like I stated above, you gave a bunch of good advice, but it isn't all the advice you could need, it is an outline as to how hard increasing to a 40" vertical would be, and you list some important information and exercises, but it is just a start.

Oh, definitely, lol. The one thing I never do on the internet is post any actual specific plans because everybody is genetically different, but more importantly, eveybody has different prior training experiences.

I haven't read a lot of stuff on improving vertical, but had read some of Bagget's articles and he takes an approach that is based on solid principles, not all that gimmicky crap, so I do have respect for his work. It obviously worked for him, but as he explains it was based on years of research and following certain principles, so in that respect it should work for most everybody at least in varying degrees. He also has a variety of tests for each athlete to take which will lead them to his/her most effective program. I'm kind of sounding like a salesman here, I'm not by any means (I doubt I will ever even do the program), but I would suggest reading some of his articles.

I like the concept of having a bunch of tests to see what to focus on. Also, another thing I like is to do a bunch of tests yourself (like max squat, vertical, standing long jump, 30m sprint, medicine ball throw, etc) and see how much you improve after training. When something doesn't improve as much as other things, you can gear your training to bring up that weakness.

Although I don't exactly agree with the context in your above response, I applaud you completely for stating "Much, much better idea to educate yourself." If only everyone would do that, once I put it on myself to go out and find excellent resources in regard to strength/sports training, my knowledge has increased 10 fold easily. And you are right, it isn't that hard, but finding the right resources sometimes is!

Yep, which is why it is a good idea to find search for book threads and find some books that people like a lot. For a clueless person, I'd recommend reading a bunch of articles from different websites (like bodybuilding.com, fortifiediron.com, t-nation.com, charliefrancis.com, elitefts.com, dragondoor.com, etc) and just get an idea of what works.

[ajn]

"Speaking of Kelly Bagget, I was just reading an interview earlier today. He has some very interesting points and states something that every athlete needs to understand...you have to improve strength in order to become more explosive, to go faster, jump higher, swing faster, throw farther, etc. Strength is the foundation that has to be built in order to gain improvement in other aspects.

His actual quote is, "Strength is the backbone upon which all the other qualities of strength reside (explosive strength, reactive strength, strength endurance etc.)"

All athletes need to realize this and spend time improving strength!

Here is the link to the interview.
http://www.wannabebig.com/printartic...?articleid=228"

Okay, so if you have to be strong to jump high, explain why Michael Jordan, Kobe, etc aren't huge.

Look at MJ's legs in this pic. He wasn't exactly swole but he had ridiculous hangtime back then:
http://espn-att.starwave.com/i/sport...e/s_jordan.jpg

Not necessarily directed at you, but that goes back to my point that genetics determine your body's potential and how far you can go. For example, the human body cannot run 100m in under 9 seconds. It doesn't matter how badly you "want it" it just can't be done.

I know I can't have a vert over 50 inches even though I want one. In 8th grade it was 28 and I've slowly worked my way up to 33', and I probably have 40+ potential, but 50+ is not happening.

Bottom line is, everybody's potential is different, and your potential is determined by certain components you are born with.

[Heisman2]

"Speaking of Kelly Bagget, I was just reading an interview earlier today. He has some very interesting points and states something that every athlete needs to understand...you have to improve strength in order to become more explosive, to go faster, jump higher, swing faster, throw farther, etc. Strength is the foundation that has to be built in order to gain improvement in other aspects.

His actual quote is, "Strength is the backbone upon which all the other qualities of strength reside (explosive strength, reactive strength, strength endurance etc.)"

All athletes need to realize this and spend time improving strength!

Here is the link to the interview.
http://www.wannabebig.com/printartic...?articleid=228"

Okay, so if you have to be strong to jump high, explain why Michael Jordan, Kobe, etc aren't huge.

Look at MJ's legs in this pic. He wasn't exactly swole but he had ridiculous hangtime back then:
http://espn-att.starwave.com/i/sport...e/s_jordan.jpg

Not necessarily directed at you, but that goes back to my point that genetics determine your body's potential and how far you can go. For example, the human body cannot run 100m in under 9 seconds. It doesn't matter how badly you "want it" it just can't be done.

I know I can't have a vert over 50 inches even though I want one. In 8th grade it was 28 and I've slowly worked my way up to 33', and I probably have 40+ potential, but 50+ is not happening.

Bottom line is, everybody's potential is different, and your potential is determined by certain components you are born with.

If you have good genetics, you don't need strength.

[Capy]

Heisman2, thanks a lot... awesome post... it seems you have to push people to get information out of them so im sorry if i got you mad at all... but thanks a lot for the post now we have this as a refference as we see the countless Vertical Jumping posts...

[Zac Robinson]

"Speaking of Kelly Bagget, I was just reading an interview earlier today. He has some very interesting points and states something that every athlete needs to understand...you have to improve strength in order to become more explosive, to go faster, jump higher, swing faster, throw farther, etc. Strength is the foundation that has to be built in order to gain improvement in other aspects.

His actual quote is, "Strength is the backbone upon which all the other qualities of strength reside (explosive strength, reactive strength, strength endurance etc.)"

All athletes need to realize this and spend time improving strength!

Here is the link to the interview.
http://www.wannabebig.com/printartic...?articleid=228"

Okay, so if you have to be strong to jump high, explain why Michael Jordan, Kobe, etc aren't huge.

Look at MJ's legs in this pic. He wasn't exactly swole but he had ridiculous hangtime back then:
http://espn-att.starwave.com/i/sport...e/s_jordan.jpg

Not necessarily directed at you, but that goes back to my point that genetics determine your body's potential and how far you can go. For example, the human body cannot run 100m in under 9 seconds. It doesn't matter how badly you "want it" it just can't be done.

I know I can't have a vert over 50 inches even though I want one. In 8th grade it was 28 and I've slowly worked my way up to 33', and I probably have 40+ potential, but 50+ is not happening.

Bottom line is, everybody's potential is different, and your potential is determined by certain components you are born with.

Yip, better genetics would mean you don't require gaining all of that strength, but I also read (in the same article maybe) that Bryant squats over 400. Of course genetics play a big role in your vertical, as well as most other aspects of sports, but just because you aren't predispositioned to do something doesn't mean you can't train to get better at it. And if you train right and really hard, maybe you might reach your goal, if not, oh well you gave it a shot and still improved a lot in the process.