Free Vertical Jump Training

Like I said before, to gain valuable inches on your vertical it is essential to target your calves. Obviously, calf raises are great for this as well as jumping rope. But the Strength Shoes truly force you to target your calves whenever you have them on. This is perfect for me because I hate to do all of my sets at the gym. My main purpose in writing this blog is to sing the praises of the Strength Shoes because they seem to be an underused resource in the basketball community. Many people have heard of the Strength Shoes but it does not seem like many people have seen the value in them and decided to buy them. So, this is how to dunk. And this is how to get there faster with the Strength Shoes.

Tags: jump higher, exercises for jumping higher, increase vertical leap, increase your vertical jump, how to jump higher

Tip #10: Strengthen the toe muscles. Flexor Hallucis Longus are the small muscles that start in the lower leg & come down to the big toe. Work this for an added inch by trying to curl in/or crunch the toes. Another drill is to push up onto the tip toes and hold that for at least 10 seconds. After as little as 6 weeks with this you can easily add an inch to the top!
Remember it is important to separate your speed/plyometric training days from your strength training. This is a fatal flaw many programs are selling you that will rob you of much deserved results!Check with our site periodically to see what’s new since I am always conducting new experiments as well as doing new research on this and many related topics!

Tags: how to jump higher, jump higher, exercises for jumping higher, increase your vertical jump, free vertical jump training

Tip #9: Springbak speedsoles. Former L.A. Laker Bill Crow is the genius behind these micro thin shoe inserts, made of patented material, that are being used by U.S.A. Olympic volleyball teams. Remember the old saying “It must be the shoes”, well it is if you have these speedsoles in them! When I first saw them I thought the claims were a farce, so I had to buy some to put them to the test. We at Bionic Plyometrics found with the inserts result in an immediate 2 inch vertical jump increase & drop in 40 yard dash times of 1/10 of a second. These springbak rubber shoe inserts are gradually becoming more popular and retail for about $25. I’ve recently decided to sell them in light of these findings! Another interesting point to mention is that on heavier atheletes (over 200lbs) actually using 2 pairs of inserts gave a 3″ increase in vertical! Now buying 2 pairs might be a little costly but how else can you “insert” that much more vertical into your game? If your already an accomplished jumper in the high 30’s imagine what can happen wen you integrate these secrets and the speedsoles to get you up close to the 40″ mark. If you’ve never experienced that well lets jus say its like taking off from a trampoline!

Tip #8: Waveloading. Here is another good instant vert. Trick you can play on the nervous system. Load your body with some weight before jumping, like say jumping with a medicineball. What happens is your body will recruit more motor units in the working muscles, allowing the work to seem much easier when you don’t have the weight because you are now using more of them! This trick works with any exercise & is great for breaking plateaus.Another variable to this method is what i call an “unloading jump”. To perform this all you need to do is grab a pair of 10lb dumbells(or any weight) hold them at waist level, quick step up to the rim to do a rim jump (counter movement jump) at the peak of crouch just before you’d take off for the rim drop the weights and blast off. The science behind this methods is that when you load the eccentric contraction with more weight than the concentric (jump) you will be able to create more force.One set of 5-10 reps with this new drill will give instant as well as residual leap increases!

Tip #7 Build fast twitch muscle fibers, speed up slow twitch fibers. If you want to make leaps and bounds first we have to stop the bleeding! By this I mean no more slow-twitch inducing exercises like aerobics. Ask yourself does the sport your involved with require power or endurance? If you’re a football player, gymnast, or sprinter (I think you get my point) you have NO need for aerobic training. When would you use it? The more you do long duration endurance training the more your muscles will learn oxygen consuming low output slow-twitch characteristics. You want muscles that are becoming more efficient at using the creatine phosphate energy system! So without sounding like I’m hating on aerobics here, you really need to focus on those high-intensity/short duration drills like sprinting. Interestingly enough sprinters have the highest % of fast-twitch muscles of all athletes. Who do you think jumps higher the sprinter or the marathoner? One final though on this subject is recent research in Nitric Oxide (NO) supplements seems to indicate that they speed up fast-twitch muscles and seem to make slow-twitch fibers act more like the fast as well. This may make this the ultimate in vertical jump supplementation possibly rivaling with Creatine Monohydrate!

Perform these exercises 3 - 5 times a week.

Warm up first. This is always a must. As stated previously, warming up consists of doing stretches, a couple minutes of jogging and of course rope jumping. Also run up and down the stairs for a while. Don’t do this too much as you might wear your legs down even before beginning the exercise!.

These exercises are slightly similar to the elevated, explosive and double jumps but remember, there should be a variety in exercises because once your muscles get used to a particular set of exercise, it stops responding and you must stimulate your muscles response using a different set. So i suggest you rotate similar exercises every 2 weeks.

1. Stand firmly. Bend slowly while keeping your back straight. Continue bending as low as you can, then slowly rise back up. Do this 20 times and increase over time.

2. Do the same as above, but crouch down more quickly to the point where your bottom almost touches the ground, then explode upwards as high as you can. The second you land, immediately crouch and launch back up again. Do this 20 times, and increase over time.

Vertical leap Exercises - A list of most exercises for increasing your vertical leap.

- Strengthen your ankles by doing ankle hops.- Walk around on your heels without letting the ball of your foot touch the floor.

- Start stretches working mostly on the hamstrings, quads, hip-flexors and glutes and calves.- Using your tip toes, stand on a spot for a couple of minutes.- Run or walk on your tip toes for 20 minutes.

- Do a 100 squats. Complete by doing 10 sets of 10 repetitions.- Do however many calf raises you can. When you’re in good shape, you should do above 200.

Tip #6: Strengthen the Tibialis Anterior. Here’s one many athletes have used with great results. This muscle is located on the shin & commonly referred to as the Dorsi-Flexors. Build these & you will add inches to your jump, eliminate shin splints, and improve take-off quickness. The Dorsi-Flexors stabilize the lower leg allowing maximum take-off force. You won’t target this group using the Proprioceptor plugs. The reason this works is because each muscle group has a counter-balancing group of muscles. You can only be as strong as the opposing muscles, so hundreds of weighted calf raises will soon plateau if you don’t develop these stabilizers. One way to start working them, is try walking around on your heels without letting the ball of your foot touch. Do this until you feel a good burn. Ultimately you’re going to have to take better measures! In our complete jump higher program “bionic jumping power ” I’ll show you much better ways to develop your shins. The pros use a special devise called DARD that will allow you to build maximum strength in the shins.

Tip #5: The Overspeed Jump. You will not find this jump drill in any manuel, ebook, or training programs. If you ever get bored of doing the same old plyometrics here is a completely new exercise to add to the mix. Plyometrics seek to train the nervous system to speed up reflex action for jumps, or any explosive movements for that matter at the take off. Maximum power training, along with traditional weight training seek to add to the strength side of the equation. But what about raw muscle speed? Here’s a brand new drill for just that: What you will first need is a small jogging trampoline, if not a makeshift ramp about 6ft. in length may do. Next what you need is a target that you jump at like say a basketball hoop. Now what you are going to do is place the trampoline 1-2 strides away from the goal, run and make your last step before you plant to jump a stride off the tramp (note: your not doing actual jumps off the mini tramp). This will overspeed your run just before the actual take-off, making your legs jump quicker as well! When done correctly you will make a noticeably higher leap! This is what you will gain when you teach your muscles to move faster through the jump. We are currently experimenting with better methods and new training like this and possibly even better ones to come. Stay tuned in!

Tip #4: Inner abdominal strength. I’m not referring to the rectus-abs you get from sit-ups, you already know they’re important. I’m talking about the transverse abdominal wall, underneath them, which plays a key role in every power movement & you can make them stronger. Suck in your stomach with a deep breath, try to imagine sucking into the spine. Hold this position for 20 seconds. Repeat 4 more times, do these 3-4 times a week to reap the performance rewards and the appearance of a slimmer waist as the internal organs won’t sag!

When we first saw the Get Max Vertical program we thought “here we go, another program slapped together by some internet marketing person out to make a quick buck”. However, once we read it, we were very pleasantly surprised. Read on to find out why we quite liked this vertical jump program.

Quality of Information

The Get Max Vertical (GMV) program by Mark Ferguson really does a nice job of conveying to the reader the essentials of the vertical jump equation. Whilst the program doesn’t go into the same level of detail as the Vertical Jump Bible, it certainly provides the necessary information to give the athlete a solid understanding of what, and how they need to train.

It has a brief but sufficient sections explaining plyometrics and strength training and the role they play in vertical jump training. It also has a discussion of the various factors that need to be considered in your training such as age, training environment, body composition, jumping style etc.

All in all the information contained in Get Max Vertical, whilst not overly comprehensive, was pretty good. In fact, upon reading GMV, we wished more programs would cover the breadth of information that this does. Vertical jumping would be better for it.

Customization

GMV comes with a variety of programs designed to suit an athletes different needs. It has programs for speed development, programs for strength development, and programs for the development of a combination of these athletic attributes.

However in much the same way as VJB, the sets and reps, despite the excellent discussion earlier in the program, are prescribed without too much consideration for other factors.

None the less, there are quite a number of combinations of programs to keep the majority of athletes progressing for quite a while.

Presentation

Get Max Vertical is a downloadable PDF file. As such the presentation is what you would expect from a PDF based ebook. It does have photographs to accompany each of the exercises which makes it easier to see how to do them. Oddly, and we thought also somewhat disturbingly, the face of the person in the pictures was pixelated out which gave us the impression that he had something to hide.

Another benefit of GMV over programs such as VJB and TVP is that because it isn’t electronically protected you can print out the workout logs. This is a very handy feature, and one we wish other programs would provide.

Value For Money

This is one of the best value for money programs available. At only $23.77 it is hardly going to break the bank. However, just because it doesn’t cost that much doesn’t mean it is no good. As we have said in the paragraphs above, GMV has plenty of quality information.

If you are new to vertical jump training and don’t want to be bogged down with too much detail and aren’t prepared to spend much money, then this is definitely the program for you.

Note - Just checked the website and apparently the price is going back up to $49.95 soon. Not sure if this is anything like The Vertical Project or not, but usually (not always) these impending price hikes are meaningless. If the price does go up to $49.95 then our review would change. We would just say buy Vertical Jump Bible or Athletic Advantage.

Conclusion

For us we view Get Max Vertical as kind of like a Vertical Jump Bible Lite. It doesn’t have the level of detail, but then again, it is (currently) nearly half the price. What it does have is the basics of sound training advice, plenty of good, usable training advice, and a variety of well put together programs. All in all we really like this program for what it is.

Get Max Vertical Today!

Tags: free vertical jump training, exercises for jumping higher, increase your vertical jump, how to jump higher, increase vertical leap