The Most You Can Improve a Vertical? Acceleration?

Bigger Stronger Leaner
1

This isn’t 100% related to Olympic lifting, but since the power clean and power snatch variations are often used to train power in athletes I was wondering:

What is the most you can realistically improve the vertical leap of an athlete given they are not overweight and have a decent strength base (but little to no power training like olympic lifts)? There are tons of bs “add 12 inches to your vertical leap in 12 weeks” programs out there but I’ve never seen what a realistic expectation of progress is.

Also, for sprinting, what is the most you can realistically improve an athlete’s speed/acceleration on something like the 40 yard dash? Again, consider the athlete is not overweight and has a decent strength base, but hasn’t trained very much on power movements.

2

why not check out the “vert/speed training” thread… its really long with lots of info in it?

3

well there’s no set number, everyone is different, but I personally put 12" on my running vertical (27 to 39) in 2 years (not 12 weeks looool). Didn’t really care about speed but now I do. I don’t really have any measurements on speed currently, but I know I am MUCH faster than what I was naturally… naturally I am a 12.5x±13.x 100m and 5.5x+ 40 yard dash, with a sub 8’ broad jump, and 25-27 inch running vert. Pretty crappy stats.

There’s really no point in asking what you can “realistically achieve”, because honestly, there’s many methods in place to help you PR for many years to come.

My peak vert was last august (2009), then I detrained for 6 months or so and went back down to 25" RVJ… I’ve been training my ass off even harder than I had in those two years when going up to 39, so i’m back to 36-37 right now on my peak running vert… I plan on getting 45" this time, nothing will stop me. I also plan on getting a 4.5x 40 yard dash or faster, since I’ve become obsessed with speed this time around. I’m probably at 4.9x right now.

Anyway, that’s my own experience with performance training. If you push your limits, intelligently, there really is no stopping what you can achieve.

My biggest mistake in those two years, as opposed to now, was taking rest days… I perform some movement maximally, every day, usually sprinting. For example, say I am sore as hell in my hamstrings/glutes, that would make top speed sprinting out of the question, but it definitely doesn’t make 10 yard sprints (with a long decel) out of the question… it definitely doesn’t make pogos/MR tuck jumps out of the question… definitely doesn’t make upper body out of the question, or heavy sled sprints… etc Biggest thing I learned after detraining and then training entirely differently, is to stay on a high frequency approach all the time, and performing some kind of maximal effort explosive training every day. I put alot more emphasis now on overall conditioning too, I even run mile “sprints” for time sometimes the day before doing dunk sessions, it doesn’t have any negative effect on my jumping, in fact I feel bouncier as a result.

anyway just some quick thoughts off the top of my head.

don’t sell yourself short, go get it.

peace

edit: here’s a vid from yesterday, pretty happy about it… but I got alot of work to do before going over 40 and eventually 45" RVJ.

hopefully no major injuries will occur, and within 3 months or so I will be back up to 39 and possibly 40… if i don’t get injured, i see that as a definite.

4

What did you do to improve your speed and vertical jumping ability?

Olympic lifts and heavy squats? Weighted sled sprints for acceleration? Did you start out with a decent/good strength base or were you weaker than you would like to be and got up to a good strength level?

I’m curious as I’ve been under the impression that if you have a decent strength base and aren’t overweight taking 4-5/10ths of second off of your 40 yard time is about the most you can do without training like a national or international level competitor. Same thing with vertical jump, I was guessing 6-8 inches would be about the best you could reasonably accomplish.

5

[quote]wookieeassassin wrote:
What did you do to improve your speed and vertical jumping ability?
[/quote]

improve my squat/lunge, jump, stay efficient at plyometric/reactive exercises…

well i started training hard for vert at age 25 after seeing some frank yang vids, but my squat was like 1xBW above parallel heh… I’m a natural endurance athlete though, so I was in very great shape at the time of beginning my vertical jump journey, as I was boxing/doing tons of jump rope/shadow boxing/road work/circuits etc. I ended up getting to 1.7xBW going just below parallel, but I switched to half squatting and got up to 325 x 1 @ 165 or so, which is when I was spending alot of time doing high frequency squatting/lunging… I got my barbell lunge up to 225 x 1 @ 165 also… So ya, significant strength gains but nothing freaky.

[quote]
I’m curious as I’ve been under the impression that if you have a decent strength base and aren’t overweight taking 4-5/10ths of second off of your 40 yard time is about the most you can do without training like a national or international level competitor. Same thing with vertical jump, I was guessing 6-8 inches would be about the best you could reasonably accomplish.[/quote]

you’re thinking too general… everyone is different… you want to take more than 5 tenths off your 40 ? can you natural GHR holding a 50 lb Dumbell, down and up, proper form? ok well if not, then there’s still room to knock more time off your 40/100m etc… point being, wherever you are at, there’s still room for improvement… so if 4-5 tenths was some kind of limit, that limit can still be broken, though it may take a long time… who really knows what is possible to be honest, there are plenty of protocols out there that are left untouched… how many people do you know who downhill sprint on 3-6 degree slopes, properly progress into shock routines, get insane on natural ghr’s, make use of different types of programming (high frequency routines), 2 lb. of spinach a day, playing with bodyweight levels (significant temporary dehydration), and crap like that… not many…

there are many roads we can take to keep progressing beyond what is considered “the limit”.

placing limits on yourself from the start is probably a very bad idea, similar to people who only dream of benching 2 plates :smiley:

peace

6

What I’m asking is what could be achieved on a reasonable program, like advanced strength training and throwing in some 20 meter weighted sled sprints. I am a full-time student and also work so I can’t dedicate all my time to training. More than 3 days a week training would probably be difficult for me to do.

Yeah, lots of things can be accomplished with years of training and dedication, but I’m probably not going to be training hardcore to increase my speed for 10 years. What do you think is realistic speed/acceleration improvement for 6 months of strength training? 1 year? 2 years?

I don’t know how often I’ll get to train like I want to when I get out of school (a couple years or so) since my job will probably take at least 50 hours a week, so I’d like to try and meet some pretty good goals before that. If I could meet them I could at least find enough time to maintain my speed and strength since it doesn’t take as much work to maintain as it does to improve.

The other thing is that I don’t really know all that much about training for athleticism. About all I know is how to do proper form on the big barbell lifts and how to train at the beginner and intermediate levels of strength training. Power, speed, etc. I don’t really know all that much about other than exercises people do for it. Like I wouldn’t have a clue what to do on volume with depth jumps, parachute sprints, jumps, etc.

7

Christ dude, this guy has typed out like 1000 words to answer your question and you’ve asked the same thing three times now.

8

[quote]jtrinsey wrote:
Christ dude, this guy has typed out like 1000 words to answer your question and you’ve asked the same thing three times now.[/quote]

seriously… you actually got a real response (even though you completely ignored the search function)

You got a legit response. I pointed you towards the Vert/Speed thread (completely all about your topic) So go read those or STFU/GTFO

9

[quote]wookieeassassin wrote:
What I’m asking is what could be achieved on a reasonable program, like advanced strength training and throwing in some 20 meter weighted sled sprints. I am a full-time student and also work so I can’t dedicate all my time to training. More than 3 days a week training would probably be difficult for me to do.

Yeah, lots of things can be accomplished with years of training and dedication, but I’m probably not going to be training hardcore to increase my speed for 10 years. What do you think is realistic speed/acceleration improvement for 6 months of strength training? 1 year? 2 years?

I don’t know how often I’ll get to train like I want to when I get out of school (a couple years or so) since my job will probably take at least 50 hours a week, so I’d like to try and meet some pretty good goals before that. If I could meet them I could at least find enough time to maintain my speed and strength since it doesn’t take as much work to maintain as it does to improve.

The other thing is that I don’t really know all that much about training for athleticism. About all I know is how to do proper form on the big barbell lifts and how to train at the beginner and intermediate levels of strength training. Power, speed, etc. I don’t really know all that much about other than exercises people do for it. Like I wouldn’t have a clue what to do on volume with depth jumps, parachute sprints, jumps, etc.[/quote]

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just sprint jump and lift.

peace