So I am on this journey after thirty trying to increase my vertical jump. I am excited and will be documenting everything, so follow along. But for the first while, I am going to be increasing my strength, no jumping, no attempting to dunk or play basketball due to the cold weather and covid, there’s really nowhere for me to play indoors and it is too cold to play outdoors.
In my last blog post which you can find here, I talked about the obstacles I am facing and the difficulty that it might be to increase my vertical at the age of 37 years old. I have to be realistic with myself, and I am in this for the long term. The simple game plan is to get my squat up, to at least 1.5 to 2 times my body weight. Then jump like crazy on an adjustable hoop.
Many people will ask well why not add some plyos into the mix? I think I will add some plyos later on, build my strength base first. The hardcore shock plyos like depth jumps and such never really worked for me that well, but that was because I was predominantly more springy than strong all ready if that makes sense.
But I always found bounding worked really well and hurdle jumps so I cant wait to add those. I always had fun with hurdle jumps. Anyhow, I am just thinking out loud right now.
So this challenge will be one heck of a challenge, that I am actually thinking of playing some volleyball, somehow my brother plays in a community center once a week during the pandemic, obviously, I don’t want to risk anything so we will see, cases are going up over here. That would be great though to get some jumps in. I played volleyball in high school and ended up gaining 6 inches on my vertical jump from all the jumping I did during the season.
I think I am going to like this challenge after I can get past the discomfort in my knee, my left leg especially I had knee surgery when I was 25 years old, I tore my Acl, MCL, and meniscus. But I made a full recovery and was able to get most of my hops back. Now if I become inactive I am extremely weak in that leg, I even feel it while I play.
Are you really going to Squat every day?
Yes, for a couple of reasons, It will motivate me to workout. The goal is 400lbs on my back all the way down and up. Get strong because I am weak and need to get back into working out. As far as sets and reps I am doing 3 x 5 trying to increase the weight 5 lbs every day until I plateau. I will plateau I just want the weight to go up quickly.
I have read good things about squatting every day, but if I find it doesn’t work well then ill just try something different but I do think it will work very well. Many people report good results, so I am excited about it. I am going to start really slow with probably 135 lbs on my back and add 5 lbs every day, of course with a proper warm-up also of course. I will be taking at least one day a week off. How is this going to increase my vertical you ask? Getting strong for myself has always shown an increase in the vertical jump, as long as I keep up with the technique in my jumping I should be ok.
The Workouts
So I am starting off with some bodyweight stuff first, I can barely do seating one-legged squats with my own body weight without it hurting in a good way, again my left leg is weak, the operated one. But I have to start somewhere. So hopefully I can hit the weights in a couple of weeks.
I have already done a couple of workouts, three to be exact.
Very Simple workout.
Week 1
Jump Rope – I am trying to build my movement efficiency and some elasticity in my legs. I always found this has helped, I am doing wha I know works for me.
Regular Jumps – 10 Secs
Front to Back – 10 Secs
Side to Side -10 Secs
Boxer -10 Secs
Frog Jumps – 10 Secs
Left Foot -10 Secs
Right Foot – 10 Secs
Square Jumps – 10 Secs
Lunges – 10 Secs
Split Jumps -10 Secs
I complete the exercises as quickly as possible right now I am not even using a rope. I think it’s not worth it for 10 seconds as I will probably screw up and miss a jump trying to go fast. I will be adding a second every couple of days, it is all about progression. Eventually, I hope to hit 30 secs to a minute for each exercise.
Then I did some bodyweight squats, I used my staircase to do so. I sat on the second last step and did some sets.
1 x 15 half squats.
1×10 deep squats all the way down the last stair is what I used.
One-legged squats using the stair to sit like box squats, I did 2 sets of 1o.
The right leg felt good after the third day.
The left leg is struggling but I will keep at it.
Will need to get on a stretching routine and some activation exercises.
Vertical Jump Programs on the Market
I know many of you are probably reading this and thinking what the hell is he thinking, this isn’t a program and I get it. I have seen the programs on the market, and if you really want a good program, go with Kelly Baggett programs Vertical Jump bible 1 and 2, although hold they still hold strong in theory. You don’t need a bunch of complicated exercises. Kelly teaches you what works and what doesn’t without all the big scientific terms, he words it in a way that is easy to understand.
It’s too bad that most programs are just marketing, such as vert shock, I highly doubt that worked for anyone unless they were extremely strong and needed to do some plyos. The program is done every day with plyos which to me is recipe for disaster. I know I am being a hypocrite, I get it.
I really don’t care to be on a program, I know what will work for me, and if it doesn’t that’s ok, at least I am getting into shape and not sitting around doing nothing like I have been doing for the last 6 months. I want to be healthy for my kids…
I hope to keep updating every few days with stories and tidbits along the way to hopefully keep you entertained…