Starting strength and vertical jump training

Starting strength is your ability to begin a movement with high levels of strength, and thus high levels of velocity.
Understand that the greater strength you have during a movement, the greater speed you will overcome the resistance of your own body weight and gravity, which results in a higher vertical jump.
A vertical jump is executed in a bout 1/4 of a second.  This short period of time limits the amount of strength you are able to “recruit” during the movement.  This means simply that you are only able to use a small percentage of your potential strength during a vertical jump movement.  I call this “explosive strength.”

Limit strength is the total amount of strength you have available to you.  You can only recruit a percentage of your limit strength during a vertical jump (explosive strength).  So we arrive at tip #1 for increasing starting strength:

Increase your limit strength, and explosive strength.

The greater your limit strength the larger a percentage of that strength will be.  For example if you can squat 200 pounds and are able to use 50% of your strength in the short period of time that a vertical jump takes place, the you are able to use 100 pounds of strength.  However, if you increased your limit strength to 400 and are still only able to use 50% than you are able to use 200 pounds of strength.
When you train your muscle you strengthen muscle fibers through a certain range of motion.  To improve your starting strength you want to make sure your strength levels at the exact joint angle of the beginning of the movement are improved.

Increase strength at the joint angle where a movement begins.

Record your vertical jump.  Pause the video at the beginning portion of your movement and remark the angles of the ankle, knee, and calf.  It is important that you strengthen the muscles at these particular joint angles.  Maximal or supra-maximal isometric holds at these joint angles in compliment with full range of motion resistance training will ensure that this joint angle is properly strengthened.

Perform the vertical jump from the starting position with no starting counter movement.

Practice the movement by placing your body in the starting joint angles, pausing (to eliminate plyometric aid), and exploding at maximum effort.

• Upon landing bring your butt to the ground and then move back into the starting angles and pause.  We don’t want to train the CNS (central nervous system) to pause at the starting movement, so we go down further, and come back into the movement.
• Perform this movement daily to “grease the groove” which allows synaptic facilitation to take place and the movement to be performed using a greater percentage of your limit strength.
• During the same training session perform counter-movement jumps to avoid retraining the plyometric stretch reflex.

Contrast training from starting position to increase muscle recruitment patterns.

This is very similar to the above, however you will first perform the movement with dumbells (10 – 20% of 1RM) followed by the same movement without the dumbbells.

• WHY? – Additional accommodating resistance during the jump signals to your body to recruit more muscle fiber, then when you eliminate the additional resistance you gradually retrain your CNS to recruit more muscle fiber and consequently move with greater velocity.

A note on vertical jump program design:

Starting strength may interfere with the plyometric stretch reflex.  This is why we want to go all the way down after each repetition, combine counter movement jumps, and follow a starting strength phase with a  plyometric phase.

CONCLUSION:

While this list is by no means exhaustive, and there are other ballistic training techniques to improve your starting strength, the few techniques above will allow you to recruit more muscle strength, at the proper joint angles, and with improved movement efficiency.  The added power and velocity at the beginning of the movement will result in a greater ending velocity and height for your vertical jump.

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Another Top 5 Vertical Jump Exercises.

The calf muscle can best be isolated for use of jumping on any equipment that allow you to stand, and place a load on your back like a squat machine.  You can also do this standing on a step with on or two legs and holding a weight.  If you are doing this with one leg, hold the weight in the same side as the calf being worked so the “over correction” is towards the instep of your foot.  Sitting calf machines do not target the gastrocnemius (calf muscle most heavily activated during jumping), as well as standing exercises.  You may work on a sitting machine after you have worked the muscle in a standing position.

Load enough weight so that you can do no more than 8 reps. 

 WARNING: This is very heavy. If you have not squatted before I highly recommend doing 15 reps for your first workout to avoid injury. If you do not know how much weight you need err on the light side for a warm up set and judge how much weight you need to add. Allow the weight to rest mostly on the front part of your foot. Smoothly and slowly lower the weight (you should never feel that the weight is falling, it should always be under control.) When your heels are as far down as they can go EXPLODE back to a starting position with the intensity of a jump. Repeat this 7 more times. If you are able to do more than 8 you need to adjust the weight DO NOT DO MORE REPS. Make the necessary adjustments.. but do not do extra reps. Give yourself 2 minutes or more to completely recover so you can do it with just as much intensity. Stretch you muscles during the interim. Repeat for another set. On the forth set add more weight than normal and ask a spotter to help you. If you are using a leg press machine you can push your own legs to spot yourself. Repeat this exercise with the heavier weight and the same intensity.

On you 4^th set lower the weight considerably and do 8 slow and steady reps. Do not allow the weight to either fall or get thrown up as before. Feel the weight pushing down during the entire contraction. The 5^th set you will want a partner, or move very quickly. During this set we are going to completely fatigue the muscles so we can strain every last fiber of the muscle. Do the first 8 reps as before… if you can do more go to complete failure. As soon as you are finished take off a little weight off each side and do 8 more set or to complete failure as before. As soon as you finish take off more weight from both sides and go to failure… then have your spotter help your force out 3-4 more reps.

By now you should feel unstable walking because your legs are so exhausted. Remember the muscle burn you feel during this will be different from the HIGH repetition exercises that are less effective for training explosion. It may feel counter-intuitive… and it is.  Good luck with the rest of your vertical jump training.

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