Page 1 of 4 1234 LastLast
Results 1 to 15 of 48
  1. #1
    Learning to shoot layups ghettoracer's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    ncal, scal, tokyo, taipei
    Posts
    68

    Default any age 30+ guy here significantly improved your vertical?!

    I'm 36 and will be turning 37 in November. In beginning of 2009 I was at my heaviest ever (~87 kg/190 lbs) after being a lazy ass for about 1.5 years and hardly exercised. I'm at 180 cm exactly or 5'11". Then started in Feb. 2009 I got back into basketball and yoga and started playing ball just about every day ever since... slowly but surely I shed the weights week after week in the beginning of 2010 I weighted about 72.5 kg (160 lbs). Lately I've been at 70 kg or slightly below so about 153 lbs ish and this is pretty much back to my weight in high school.

    Between 2009 and now I've only hit the weights sparsely. Less than 20 sessions total. I weight myself at the local hospital with a digital scale that can measure body fat, water weight, muscle/bone weight ... etc. All I've lost are fat. Muscle change has been less than 0.5 kg. If anything, I should have gain a little muscle (or at least it should've become denser/heavier) through the exercises.

    As far as vertical is concerned, at my best (probably around age 25) I remember I can jump and try to grab the rim and it would be at the middle of my palm. I have fairly small hands. So that's at most 5" above the rim. At my worst in early 2009 the tip of my finger was about 6" below the rim. Boy did I feel fat, clumsy and just straight NASTY when I was out of shape. Right now I'm only able to barely touch the rim. But I am happy just to be able to touch the rim again. :-) At least the lateral speed and endurance (I average ~3 hours a day 6 days a week in the past year) are back. I hold my own in scoring against anyone just fine thanks to my wide array of weapons and basketball IQ.

    Skills wise I got back all that I lost (due to poor conditioning mainly) and the shooting touch is back as well. My biggest skill improvement would be my left fade away and it has been pretty much un-stoppable in 3-3. Another one has been steals I can read the dribble better and time my hands jabs more accurately.

    Anyway, back to the subject of vertical. Since I was never a gym rat and I never trained for vertical specifically, I always thought that I should be able to dunk if I trained to improve my vertical specifically. Since I can put the middle of my palm at the right at my best, in theory if I just gained 6" vertical my entire palm should be 2-3" over the rim and I ought to be able to just "stuff" the ball in...

    So, anyone here past age 30 improved their vertical by 8" or more?
    Last edited by ghettoracer; 08-28-2010 at 04:55 AM.

  2. #2
    I hit open 5-foot jumpshots with ease
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Location
    Brooklyn
    Posts
    280

    Default Re: any age 30+ guy here significantly improved your vertical?!

    I'm not 30+, but I'm nearly your weight and height and I increased my vertical 7-9" in little over a year. Look through all the threads here concerning conditioning and vertical leaps and take Swaggin's advice.

  3. #3
    Learning to shoot layups 5foot6's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Posts
    90

    Default Re: any age 30+ guy here significantly improved your vertical?!

    theres a few guys on youtube who are in their mid-30s and still dunking hard

  4. #4
    Dunking on everybody in the park bumpyknucks's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Posts
    643

    Default Re: any age 30+ guy here significantly improved your vertical?!

    Had you spent your entire life training hard I would say theres no chance of you improving your vertical at your age, but given the fact that you havent done much, you can definitely improve. 1st thing you should do if you are serious, invest in some glucosamine (older people take it for arthritis) .....it will definitely help you feel more spry if taken correctly.

  5. #5
    ISH Jump Crew
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Location
    Behind you.
    Posts
    2,207

    Default Re: any age 30+ guy here significantly improved your vertical?!

    Saw this in a new article from Kelly Bagget yesterday..

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scauc4-v5sU

  6. #6
    Enter the Dragic Swaggin916's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Sacramento
    Posts
    4,318

    Default Re: any age 30+ guy here significantly improved your vertical?!

    ^^^ Now he just has to show himself dunking on a 10.

    34.5 inch vert for a 36 year old is fantastic. It just goes to show that you can still improve even at a more advanced age. Eventually your muscles will start to deteriorate, but they will have a helluva time if you keep working them out.

  7. #7
    Local High School Star
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Posts
    1,832

    Default Re: any age 30+ guy here significantly improved your vertical?!

    I don't know about "significantly improving" but I believe yes you can still improve and get maybe 4-5 inches higher but nothing drastic like 10 inches.

    I've seen guys 40 or 50 years old being able to dunk. Nothing is impossible though you just keep on trying.
    Last edited by tgan3; 08-27-2010 at 03:38 AM.

  8. #8
    Enter the Dragic Swaggin916's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Sacramento
    Posts
    4,318

    Default Re: any age 30+ guy here significantly improved your vertical?!

    ^^^ didn't watch the video did ya?

    36 year old gained 10.5"

    Those results probably aren't typical, but drastic improvements are possible even at that age.
    Last edited by Swaggin916; 08-27-2010 at 05:21 PM.

  9. #9
    Future D1 Dad
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Posts
    9,950

    Default Re: any age 30+ guy here significantly improved your vertical?!

    Quote Originally Posted by 5foot6
    theres a few guys on youtube who are in their mid-30s and still dunking hard
    did a 1 handed dunk today while working out my oldest son. i've lost 35 pds and have no athletic ability beyond just being tall. i probably have a 12" vertical or something horrible like that.

  10. #10
    Learning to shoot layups ghettoracer's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    ncal, scal, tokyo, taipei
    Posts
    68

    Default Re: any age 30+ guy here significantly improved your vertical?!

    I know it's "possible". I was just wondering if anybody in this forum has done it so I can get more inspired... I started hitting the weights consistently last week. Will update progress from time to time. I did squats for the first time in my life. I warmed up with 50kg 1x10, then at 80kg I did 3x10. It felt okay, certainly enough to stress my quads a bit but not quite to failure.

    This was not with full free weight/barbell but on a alignment assisted Smith machine. After I'm confident about my forms I might try for a 1 rep max later on. I think it's probably around 100kg right now. No idea how long until I can achieve 2x my body weight (140kg) but it'll be interesting to see how much higher I can jump then.

    Kelly is definitely an inspiration. His hardwork for 2-3 years paid off well. I would love to achieve some thing similar before I turn 40.
    Last edited by ghettoracer; 08-28-2010 at 04:58 AM.

  11. #11
    Enter the Dragic Swaggin916's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Sacramento
    Posts
    4,318

    Default Re: any age 30+ guy here significantly improved your vertical?!

    well one thing you don't want to do once you have got your form and base of strength down is 10 reps. That's too many reps for increasing power and explosiveness (which is what you want to work on). Get that solid base, then move off that Smith Machine, and hit the free weight squats for 3-6 reps per set.

    What else are you doing?

  12. #12
    Learning to shoot layups ghettoracer's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    ncal, scal, tokyo, taipei
    Posts
    68

    Default Re: any age 30+ guy here significantly improved your vertical?!

    I'm still experimenting. But I will be dropping the reps and increasing the weights in the future for most of my weight stuff not just limiting to my leg work outs. The last leg day in addition to:

    smith machine squats 50kg 1x10 80kg 3x10

    I also did:

    leg extensions 80 lbs 1x10 (warm up), 100lbs 1x10, 120 lbs 1x10, 130 lbs 1x10 (as u can see i'm playing with weights a bit still will get it closer to failure in the future)

    walking lunges with dumbbells 60lbs 1x12 (warm up), 80lbs 3x10

    box leg raises (no leg press machine), 60 lbs 1x10 (warm up), 80 lbs 1x10, 90lbs 1x10, 80 lbs 1x8 (my hand grip was weak, simply couldn't grip the 90 lbs on the final set)

    to finish off I do 7 sets of 80 lbs 12 reps leg extensions (FST7 program that I'm using always finish with 7 sets in the end) with 30 second recovery time between the set.

    usually I will also do some machine curls for the hamstring but skipped it last time. I'm part of the camp that believe calves don't play a huge role in jumping and I believe significantly improving quad's power is the way to go so I won't be doing much calve work. The gym also don't have any standing or seated calve raise machines. Yah I know the gym kinda sucks butt but it's close and it has just enough for my needs... :-) This is the only weight gym I've been to that does not have ANY mirror.

  13. #13
    Enter the Dragic Swaggin916's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Sacramento
    Posts
    4,318

    Default Re: any age 30+ guy here significantly improved your vertical?!

    You are right, calves won't do hardly anything to increase your vert... but leg extensions aren't going to anything to increase your vert either. Your power comes from your quads, hammys, glutes, groin, hips... it comes from everywhere but calves (Though calves do play a small part so you might want to think about doing them), but you have to be doing particular exercises. Isolation exercises are the devil pretty much... in terms of functional strength, they don't give you a whole lot. They have their place in rehab programs, but just stick with your multi-joint hip activating movements. If you want to add in extentions, hammy curls, and calve raises at the end, be my guest... They are a decent way to make sure everything is in balance, but they aren't going to get you higher vertical. Back squats, front squats, deadlifts, Cleans, Clean and Jerk, Snatch, Step Ups, Lunges, and explosive plyometrics are what your program should be all about... and when you get out on the bball court, jump your ass off. Nobody developed a good vert by sitting at the 3 point line, they got it by jumping all over the gym.

  14. #14
    Learning to shoot layups ghettoracer's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    ncal, scal, tokyo, taipei
    Posts
    68

    Default Re: any age 30+ guy here significantly improved your vertical?!

    it's leg day again...

    Mon, 08/30/2010

    squats 40kg 1x12 (warm up), 70kg 1x8, 80kg 2x8 concentrated on form and tried to explode upwards, starting point parallel to floor, tried a few reps tip toe going up

    walking lunges 30lbs 1x10 (warm up), 80lbs 2x8, 90lbs 1x8
    leg extensions 80lbs 1x10 (warm up), 130lbs 1x8, 150 lbs 2x8
    box step ups 50lbs 1x10 (warm up), 80lbs 1x8, 90lbs 2x8 (hmm, hand grip was no problem today)
    leg extension 7's 100lbs 7x12, 80lbs 1x14 (just to make sure i was really burning heheh)

  15. #15
    Enter the Dragic Swaggin916's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Sacramento
    Posts
    4,318

    Default Re: any age 30+ guy here significantly improved your vertical?!

    Lookin good man. Keep us updated. You might end up having a strength imbalance tho if you do so many extentions without doing some leg curls as well... so watch out for that. That's how you pull stuff.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •