Vertical

[zabuza666]

Not sure where to put this thread. Was wondering if anyone knows any tips on how I can improve my jumping ability. I've just been doing squats so far, but I was wondering if there were any other workout methods people use to improve their vertical?

If this is in the wrong section can someone move for me please :)

[lukeridnour08]

Squat till you can get 1.5-2X BW.
Then do plyos.

Your standing vert will be atleast 35 inches if you can squat 2X your body weight and do a 16 week plyo routine while maintaining strength.

Getting up to a 2X BW squat can take a long time though

[zabuza666]

Squat till you can get 1.5-2X BW.
Then do plyos.

Your standing vert will be atleast 35 inches if you can squat 2X your body weight and do a 16 week plyo routine while maintaining strength.

Getting up to a 2X BW squat can take a long time though

I just want to be able to dunk iwthout too much difficulty, atm I can just touch the rim :banana: lol.

Btw what does Pylo mean? And how many squats per routine exactly? Last night I started and I did 50 squats with an extra 20kg. Not great but gotta start somewhere I guess

[Sonics4Life]

everyone's got different advice but here's some i read in a Men's Fitness article about "how to get hops like Nate Robinson":

Leg Days
do 4 sets of 20 on your squats.

do leg press and calf raises (4 sets of 12, 10, 10, 8)

do 3 sets of 10 lunges for each leg.

On a non-leg day, like when you're doing chest/back

do deadlifts super-setted with box jumps. get a deadlift bar and do about 80% of your max. do 6 reps, then immediately go to the box and jump up and off it 10 times. do 4 sets of this super-set.

[zabuza666]

everyone's got different advice but here's some i read in a Men's Fitness article about "how to get hops like Nate Robinson":

Leg Days
do 4 sets of 20 on your squats.

do leg press and calf raises (4 sets of 12, 10, 10, 8)

do 3 sets of 10 lunges for each leg.

On a non-leg day, like when you're doing chest/back

do deadlifts super-setted with box jumps. get a deadlift bar and do about 80% of your max. do 6 reps, then immediately go to the box and jump up and off it 10 times. do 4 sets of this super-set.

Right I've basically never gone to a gym in my life, so asides from squats I have no idea what any of those exercises mean. Maybe I'll just get a personal trainer.

[1rkrage]

search for air alert. that doesn't require going to the gym.

[zabuza666]

search for air alert. that doesn't require going to the gym.

just saw it, cheers for the tip- i'll look into buying it

[thejumpa]

I wouldn't do Air Alert. I have heard that it messes up your knees. My buddy did it in junior high and was dunking pretty damn easy after it though. I've heard you will pay for it in the long run so I don't know....

Squats,leg presses,box jumps....basically any leg exercise that builds up your hamstrings will help you increase your vert. Oh, and I don't know what luke is talking about but, you won't have a standing vertical of 35" if you squat 2x your body weight....no way

[Sonics4Life]

Be careful of your back on all these. Keep your spine straight and don't do too much weight, even if you feel like a wuss.

Leg Press:
http://lassiestevens.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/leg_press.jpg
Calf raises are when you have your legs straight on this same machine and just flex your ankles to move the weight.

Lunges:
http://lassiestevens.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/dumbbell_lunges.jpg

Dead Lift:
http://yourexercisewizard.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/deadlift11.jpg

http://www.southernpowerliftingclub.com/Photos/deadlift2.gif

Box jump (do a height that is challenging to you):
http://i.pgatour.com/pgatour/2007/mygame/09/06/llb/BoxJumps_exercise_2up.jpg

Hammertimes::hammertime: :hammertime: :hammertime:

[zabuza666]

Be careful of your back on all these. Keep your spine straight and don't do too much weight, even if you feel like a wuss.

Leg Press:
http://lassiestevens.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/leg_press.jpg
Calf raises are when you have your legs straight on this same machine and just flex your ankles to move the weight.

Lunges:
http://lassiestevens.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/dumbbell_lunges.jpg

Dead Lift:
http://yourexercisewizard.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/deadlift11.jpg

http://www.southernpowerliftingclub.com/Photos/deadlift2.gif

Box jump (do a height that is challenging to you):
http://i.pgatour.com/pgatour/2007/mygame/09/06/llb/BoxJumps_exercise_2up.jpg

Hammertimes::hammertime: :hammertime: :hammertime:

I'm pretty much saving all the links/images/tips :p Cheers for the help fellas.

[Sonics4Life]

i did Air Alert when i was in junior high. the problem is that it has you doing it every single day and stepping up the reps so that by the third or fourth week you are literally doing like 500 chair jumps and 1000 stair raises, and combined with daily basketball practice i developed tendinitis in my achilles and jumper's knee before i ever really saw results in my vert.

i haven't been able to dunk in years, but when i could dunk it was after i started doing leg lifts in the gym and giving myself ample recovery time. i'm a big fan of doing 1 intense leg day in the gym and then doing the deadlift/box jump supersets 1x a week during a non-leg day.

there's a lot of good websites out there with variations on training methods for jumps, so do what works for you.

*** DON'T DO LEG EXTENSIONS ON A MACHINE *** these are terrible for your knees:
http://www.greatweightlifting.com/Legs/images/LegExtensions/LegExtensions1.jpg

Leg curls on the same machine are OK though:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_hWgIQr-DKLE/Rh7a6FxncCI/AAAAAAAAAFk/jLAIy5w_7mA/s400/leg_curl.jpg

[zabuza666]

i did Air Alert when i was in junior high. the problem is that it has you doing it every single day and stepping up the reps so that by the third or fourth week you are literally doing like 500 chair jumps and 1000 stair raises, and combined with daily basketball practice i developed tendinitis in my achilles and jumper's knee before i ever really saw results in my vert.

i haven't been able to dunk in years, but when i could dunk it was after i started doing leg lifts in the gym and giving myself ample recovery time. i'm a big fan of doing 1 intense leg day in the gym and then doing the deadlift/box jump supersets 1x a week during a non-leg day.

there's a lot of good websites out there with variations on training methods for jumps, so do what works for you.

*** DON'T DO LEG EXTENSIONS ON A MACHINE *** these are terrible for your knees:
http://www.greatweightlifting.com/Legs/images/LegExtensions/LegExtensions1.jpg

Leg curls on the same machine are OK though:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_hWgIQr-DKLE/Rh7a6FxncCI/AAAAAAAAAFk/jLAIy5w_7mA/s400/leg_curl.jpg

I wanna avoid the gym if I can, so if I get a weight set I should be able to do all of these and also work on my other body areas when i'm done (gonna do whole body but starting with legs)

[BrentISballin]

I wanna avoid the gym if I can, so if I get a weight set I should be able to do all of these and also work on my other body areas when i'm done (gonna do whole body but starting with legs)

Why do you want to avoid the gym???

[andgar923]

I couldn't go to a gym when I was young, so I had to basically go at it at home.

This is what I did:

Suicide (at least that's what I always called them)...... you can do this while watching tv.

What is it?

Pretend as if you're sitting down, but you're sitting in an invisible chair. You can lean against a wall or in the middle of the room, but you can do this during every commercial break for its entirety.

Simple ol' calve raises.

You don't need weights, just stand up and do calve raises. Again for the entire duration of commercial breaks.

You do this every night, every commercial break.

You can walk around the house on your tip toes the entire time, this also strengthens your calves and tendons.

You can work on them while sitting down, slowly do the calve raise motion and put pressure on your calve while doing that (keyword is 'slowly'). But don't too much pressure or you'll get a cramp.

YOu can also work on your chin muscles.

Why is that important if you don't play soccer?

Well, it was for me since I have a bunch of little cousins that used to kick me there.... little f*ckers I'ma get you too!

YOu can do this sitting down, just sit down normally and slowly lift your toes up.

You also need a strong foundation like your abs and upper body. Those exercises are self explanatory.

But that's not all.... I'll break things down coming up.

[andgar923]

Getting your legs strong is one part, you still have to be able to jump high and quick. But you don't want to jump high and quick for the sake of jumping high and quick you wanna do so for the sake of being a better basketball player.

And that's something people don't take into account, so they don't really work on exercises that'll help this.

What you wanna do is simulate natural basketball motions in order to better maximize your jumping ability. This is what I used to do:

For about a month, I'd go outside get close to the stairs (I wasn't close to a hoop in my area growing up and the top of the apt upstairs was 10 feet) and jump up as high as you can repeatedly for about half an hour.

Your goal is to try and get your legs and body used to jumping that height with your body stretched out as much as possible. You may look silly and it may sound silly but there's a method to this madness.

You don't run, just jump up as high as you can and try to touch the 10 mark (or as close as you can). Do that over and over everyday for about a month (or as often as you can).

Next month.....

Get a basketball and do the same, but this time in a shooting motion.

This simulates a jump shot, and it will get you to jump high on your jumper. There's alot of people that can jump high, but they don't do so on their jumper, at least not as high as they could.

Doing this will get your body used to the action, again.... its muscle memory that you want.

So just jump up with the ball as high as you can next to a rim and simulate a jumpshot without actually shooting it. Do this over and over and over for another month. I guarantee that you'll reach a higher peak on your jumper.

But that's not it.....

Now take a dribble and do the jumpshooting exercise. Do this over and over and over.

This simulates hitting a jump shot off the dribble, again.... this is a different type of muscle memory.

After 3-4 months you'll be jumping higher than ever before, but your jumper will be released at the very peak of your max vert. Which is very important, releasing your jumper at your "max vert" is something that most (pros included) can't do too often.

Do all of this at the same time as the home exercises I recommended earlier and I guarantee you'll definetely increase your vert. How much depends on your efforts.

I'm a 5'7 short armed Mexican that could get my wrist at least 3 inches over the rim. Too bad my hands were too small or I would've been dunking with relative ease. I could dunk a volleyball easily tho, without much effort.

My jumper (when it dropped.... I was a streak scorer) was hard to guard becuase my release point was at the height of my max vert (well almost max, it tends to drop a bit during game play, but still higher than almost everybody's).