Hey everyone, I was just wondering what some good ways to increase my vertical leap were. I’m about six foot and have a 31" vertical. I’ve been weight training for about two months right now and I’m already pretty strong, I just need some speed work. My best lifts are a 405 full squat, 355 deadlift, and a 215 bench press all at a 170 pound bodyweight. Thanks.
Plyometrics. Search for some of those and you’ll be good. I’ve done plyos for about almost 2 years now. There very intense so you can really only do them out of season. I swear by them for being the best thing to increasing your vert.(Mines around 38-41 inches when I’m in “gametime” mode)
Thanks Brain Monster, but I know about plyometrics already. I was just wondering if there were any lifts that would help. However, if anyone has specific plyo routines that have been proven to work then they would be much appreciated.
Those lifts are impressive with just two months of lifting under your belt. What did you do before you lifted?
nice numbers…you got the main lifts down with squats and deads…if you have someone who can teach you, start power cleaning and snatching…and variations of those combined with the squats and deads, and you can even superset some box jumps in between…
I tore the medial head of my calf in college (Im old now that was way back), and the coaches and doctors didnt think Id play again or walk right (I also previously had torn both hammies at different times and other leg injuries). They told me to hang up my cleats…and when I did come back for redshirt year they wouldnt let me in weightroom for fear of me getting hurt since i was so injury prone, just wanted me to play…I snuck in and the strength coach let me do cleans and pause squats…thats all I did that spring, cleans and pause squats, and plyos…I dropped to 215 pounds after the injury but as a small D-IAA middle linebacker I had a 38" standing vert on the vertec (no step)…and I know it was from cleans and squats…Im a believer
A few lifts that I have found that can help your vertical are speed squats done with about 50% of your max and a pair of bands attached. Jump squats,again with 50% of squat max, can be helpful. Also squatting without controlling the weight in the eccentric portion of the lift. In this exercise you let gravity drop you down to about parallel then flex as hard as you can and explode up.You have a good base of strength so most power types of exercises will help.
don’t forget the basic’s, GHR, squats, jump squats, deadlifts
[quote]earthshaker wrote:
A few lifts that I have found that can help your vertical are speed squats done with about 50% of your max and a pair of bands attached. Jump squats,again with 50% of squat max, can be helpful. Also squatting without controlling the weight in the eccentric portion of the lift. In this exercise you let gravity drop you down to about parallel then flex as hard as you can and explode up.You have a good base of strength so most power types of exercises will help.[/quote]
50% seems quite high for jump squats. most of the time for ballistic lifts 15-20% would be a range more efficacious to the goal. plus i don’t know many people that wanna be jumping and landing with that much load on their back.
GHR and single leg squats(back foot on bench) have helped me alot.
I’m all about links today …
Here are a couple of DeFranco articles on vert:
THE FABULOUS 15
?Top 15 Exercises for Higher Vertical Jumps?
http://www.defrancostraining.com/articles/archive/article_fab15.htm
Dirty Tricks for Higher Vertical Jumps
http://www.defrancostraining.com/articles/archive/articles_dirty-tricks.htm
I’ve read that the snatch has the most carry over to the vertical jump than any other exercises. Power cleans and squats are next. I feel I’ve increased my vertical just by pushing up my squat numbers. A bunch of olympic highjumpers will hit the weights hard in the offseason hitting a lot of snatches (hehehe). I always felt that plyos gave me shin splints real quick, I think this was because my coach abuses them though.
Jump squats, depth jumps (platform to platform, platform to ground), oly’s, playing in a weight vest, core, practice jumping, jumping with arms anchored to body (arm less jumps), reverse lunges, walking lunges.
just to add depth landings with extra load. focus on not going below a knee angle which you would use for vertical jumps. laters pk
[quote]Brain Monster wrote:
Plyometrics. Search for some of those and you’ll be good. I’ve done plyos for about almost 2 years now. There very intense so you can really only do them out of season. I swear by them for being the best thing to increasing your vert.(Mines around 38-41 inches when I’m in “gametime” mode)[/quote]
wat? 38 vertical jump…wat did u do to get to that???