Vertical Jump Program

Long awaited and much anticipated, Kelly Baggett and I have almost finished up our article on vertical jump training in perfect time to get you prepared for summer basketball and volleyball season. We had to shelve the project for a while as we both tended to our things in our lives. This is the exact program I will be using with my college basketball players after their 4 week introductory phase transitioning them back in the gym.

With that said, we should submit the article by the end of next week, but wanted to offer the training program to those who have expressed interest and wanted to get a jump wink on the process.

The program is designed for the typical T-Mag reader as far as we can tell. You’ve been lifting for a while and have a solid strength base. Three groups this is not for: 1)weak (can’t even squat body weight) lifters or athletes - you need a few special phases to build your strength levels first and 2)the very strong (powerlifter type) who already squat 3x bodyweight and carry a lot of extra mass
and 3) those whose bf% is too high (>15%) - bring down your body comp first (at least below 20%).

Exercise descriptions and the theory will be explained in the article.

Before you start, please take a week to determine your max vertical jump (jumping like normal) and your max vertical jump (holding the bottom position for 4 seconds). We’ll talk about what all this stuff means in the article, so be like Nike and “just do it.”

Those that want to get a jump start, please PM me with your email and I will send you the program layed out in a spreadsheet so that you can get started.

Awesome stuff. I’m not interested in the training article (already have my training in place), but I think this is great. I’m glad to see many members of the forum contributing in even more ways. Great work!

I have much respect for both of you! Good job!

I’m similar to Nate in that I probably won’t use it myself but want to give you and Kelly props for the article. Knowing you 2 I am sure it will be thorough and I look forward to reading it.

Wow, I was under the undestanding that your vertical jump was genetic and that you couldn’t train to improve it. I thought I couldn’t jump high due to due where my calf muscle insertions are.

I can’t wait for this article, I’d lvoe to improve my jump for things like volleyball and basketball.

You’re kidding, right Jeff?

Uh oh, was I grossly misinformed?

I swear I read that somewhere about the calf insertion thing.

facepalm

I read somewhere that someone said that…

Common sense just tells us that this is trainable.

Jason…I’m not sure if my PM was sent through, but I’d appreciate it if you could send me a layout of the program in advance. Thanks.

Thanks for all the good feedback I’ve received so far via email.

Jeff - vertical jump is partially affected by genetics, but it is incredibly trainable and can improve by over 12-16 inches in some people with the right program. 6-10 inches should be attainable if this program is completed start to finish.

Basketball13 - I need an email address bro. The program is in spreadsheet format right now and I can’t easily copy and paste it and I want it all to come through in article format rather than in bits and pieces over the forum.

hey is there any way you can make it a word file? i dont have works and none of my other programs can read a .xlr file.

also, i was wondering if you guys have ever made, or are considering making, a “decrease your 40 time” workout program. i noticed that someone resqusted one in a previous issue of t-mag and i hadnt heard a reply.

thanks

This program looks great. I have a few questions though. What type of diet do you think would be best for this? Also could some HIIT be added, something like Christian T. was talking about in his running man article.

Diet - I highly recommend Massive Eating principles and would recommend that you eat at maintenance or above due to the demands of the program.

As for activity in addition to the two weekly leg workouts.

I recommend:

  1. an upper body maintenance workout
  2. 2-3 conditioning sessions maximally - something akin to CT’s Running Man article is great and these should be performed as far apart from the leg workouts as possible.

Depending on needs, put the quad or hip dominant workout at the beginning of your training week.

M - Quad
T - Upper Body
W - HIIT
R - Hip
F - Off
Sat - HIIT
Sun - Off

Something like this would work well.

Mas - you can read it with the MS Excel 97 Viewer

Link below

http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/2000/xlviewer.aspx

Jason, thanks a lot for forwarding the program! That is absolutely GREAT stuff!!!

You’ve obviously spent some serious time on the program and the layout. I’ve learned some stuff just from reading through it.

Thanks for all the positive feedback so far! Please let me know how things work for you and keep your eyes open for the final version.

Also, feel free to post any questions on this thread so that others who may have the same questions can see the answers here.

Jason

Can you describe these back extension jumps?
do you actually use your calves and leave the ground?

Back Extension Jumps -

This is one of Kelly’s creations. Not bending your knees, you bend over at
the waist and then quickly extend your back and plantarflex your ankles (do
a calf raise but don’t bend knees) and try to jump. You’ll likely only get 1-2 inches.

Hi Jason, Could you explain the split squats? Thanks.

Kevin -

Here’s a link that explains it. Ian King calls it a one leg squat with heel elevated. Others call it a Bulgarian Split Squat. No matter what you call, it is a great exercise. Follow this link. It’s the 2nd exercise I think.