Olympic Lifting And Vertical Jump Training

Trainers and athletes love to get into shoving matches about who’s sport is the hot rod of the bunch!  We all love to believe that our sport or discipline represents the pinnacle of athletic achievement.  Power lifters love being the strongest, Olympic lifters boast in their explosiveness, cross fitters in their diversity, etc etc etc… I’m just as bad! I believe the vertical jump involves every athletic achievement rolled into one, strength, explosiveness, skill, plyometrics ability… grace even!  But let’s get real again… Some wise fella once said, “Many roads lead to Rome.”  This is true, although not so true as to excuse us from just doing whatever we want! Another wise cat once pointed out that if we don’t know where we want to go, than it doesn’t matter which direction we take.

The combination of wisdom here is this.

1. Know where you want to go, AKA the athletic abilities and skills you want to acquire. 2. If you know exactly what you want to accomplish, there are several ways to do it (not all ways will accomplish it, but it is true that some exercises accomplish more or less the same thing). 3. If two methods are created equal, meaning they truly do lead to the same result, why squabble over which one is better.

How does this relate to Olympic lifting and how to jump higher?

People are always debating about whether Olympic lifts are the best way to achieve explosiveness.  If we look at the details, instead of just speaking in generals this is a simple question to answer.

1. Can Olympic lifting produce explosive athletes, especially in the vertical jump?  Yes. 2. Are there alternatives to Olympic lifting that derive the same benefit as Olympic lifting? Yes.

Conclusion

Olympic lifting, and effective alternatives can reach the goal of explosiveness. Both can be proven.  Plenty of Olympic lifters have amazing vertical leaps.  But plenty of 40 inch standing vertical have been created without ever doing one Olympic lift.  Joe Defranco, who does not use Olympic lifts has players performing in the NFL combine 40 + in standing vertical.  The first time I reached a 40 inch vertical it was without doing Olympic lifts. The only rebuttal here would be to claim that if the non Olympic lifters used only lifts, they would have achieved better results.  However, we could also say that if Olympic lifters would have used the “alternatives” they would have gotten better results.

Miles Austin trained by Joe Defranco, who does not use Olympic lifts in his combine preparation.  Austing peformed a 43” standing vert.

Let’s dig deeper on why Only lifts, OR “alternatives” are equally as effective.

  First, I don’t like calling them “alternatives” so let’s establish another classification for both. Lifts that are ballistic, require a high rate of force development, and result in high velocities which result in explosive athletic attributes.

Ballistic lifts are lifts that have no deceleration at the end of the lift, and typically accomplish this by throwing or releasing the weight, or jumping into the air in full triple extension (ankle, knees, and hips). Rate of force development is how quickly you can recruit muscle fibers during a movement, to create force and velocity. High velocity is the attribute that creates a high vertical.  Given the ending velocity of a “body” the height of a jump can be exactly calculated.  It’s physics, if you’re interested in the exact formula let me know in the comments.

Furthermore, in an evolving training world, use of “progressive resistance” and “compensatory acceleration” are furthering our ability to create explosive muscle qualities throughout the range of motion in any desired movement.

Progressive resistance is a lifting technique that involves increasing or maintaining the weight of a lift through the range of motion.  Gravity makes the weight lighter as it moves through space and inertia keeps it in motion, so the force required to move it is less, which causes the body to exert less force.  This is accomplished by using chains and elastic bands to increase tension through the lift. Compensatory acceleration is the additional acceleration required to exert the same amount of force against a weight that is now being moved by inertia.  For example the force required to move your body upwards, is less than the force required to keep it moving at the same speed, so you must increase the velocity you are pushing it to maintain levels of force.

Let’s not forget specificity. If the exercise is going to increase your vertical jump it better increase the hip power and the muscles considered the prime movers of the action; hamstrings, glutes, quads, calves, core, lower back, shoulders… Olympic lifts, jump squats, weighted box jumps (ask me), medicine ball throws, and a host of other creative exercises accomplish the above criteria. So what should we call them?  I’d love a new name, seriously…  For now we should just call them effective! Maybe we can call them “B.E.A.R. for now…

Ballistic – Explosive – Accelerating – Resistance

Given, other qualities like starting strength, plyometric ability, and others we can add to increase the specificity of any B.E.A.R. exercise but you get this is a great base.  The name is just for fun anyways!

If your exercises are accomplishing the above criteria, congratulations– you are going to get results.

This feller has been doing B.E.A.R. exercises eh?

Any B.E.A.R. is good for vertical jump, just consider your training economy.

  Some argue that Olympic lifts are very hard to do, and teach so they are less valuable than other B.E.A.R. exercises. Personally I haven’t found that to be true.  If you have a decent coach you can probably do Olympic lifts effectively (not perfectly) after your first day. Every lift or exercise worth doing has an infinitesimal  degree of enhancements you can make to it.  The bench press is easy enough to learn, but if you talk to a power lifter about your bench, you will think you never even knew how to properly bench.  That’s because power lifters spend a life time perfecting this lift! We are not power lifters, which means the bench press, squat, and deadlift are not our sports! We are not Olympic lifters, which means that cleans, jerks, and snatches are not out sports! Once again, the important thing about any lift, is it’s effectiveness at increasing our desired athletic ability. Olympic lifts don’t have some magic about them that make them more affective, they just adhere to correct training principles, and thus yield the appropriate fruits! I like Olympic lifts, I use them as part of my routines.  If I have an athlete that doesn’t want to use them, can’t seem to get it etc, there are other B.E.A.R. exercises to use. So it’s no sweat!

The lesson here is… don’t get arbitrarily attached to any exercises.  Evaluate their effectiveness according to their training methods.  People ARE getting results with olympic lifts, and with other B.E.A.R. exercises. Period.  If you can use them, and like to use them, do so.  If you can’t do them, don’t want to learn or whatever, use another B.E.A.R.

Personally I use them, and my athletes usually use them, but they are not magical.