Waveloading

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. You can try jumping with a medicine ball.

At this time your body will recruit more motor units in the working muscles, making the work seem easier when you don’t have the weight only because you are now using more of those muscles!

Great for breaking plateaus, this trick works with any exercise. Another part of this method is what I call an “unloading jump”. What you need to do is grab a pair of 10lb dumbbells (or really 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 method is that when you load the eccentric contraction with more weight than the concentric (jump) you will be able to create more force. Just one set of 5-10 reps with this new drill will give instant as well as residual leap increases!