Written by Ingyu B. (KIS '21)
━━ January 21th, 2020 ━━
Before we go on to talk about the science behind the vertical jump and how to increase yours, what is a vertical jump?
A vertical jump is an explosive movement that is used to measure the highest point an athlete can reach from a single leap from a standing position. But for the purposes of this article, we’ll refer to a vertical jump as a running vertical jump—not standing—because most sports favor the running version. The vertical jump is usually an indicator of an athlete’s overall athletic capabilities. And the higher the jump, the greater the potential of success in sports that heavily depend on this movement—like volleyball and basketball.
Now that we’ve defined what a vertical jump is, how does it work? Let’s look at the physics; how high you can jump is correlated to the maximum power you can exert. The equation for power is P=W/t in which P is power (watts), W is work (joules), and t is time (seconds), but without prior physics knowledge, this equation may be difficult to understand, so we’ll reorganize it into P=Fv in which F is the force(Newtons) and v is the velocity(meters/second).
You can think of force as the amount of strength you can output; simply put, it’s how much you can lift. Velocity, on the other hand, is your speed or how fast you can exert that force. So in order to improve your vertical jump, you need to increase your strength and speed.
But before we start talking about the workouts, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of lifting form. Yes, form. You’ve probably heard it a thousand times by now, but for a good reason. Bad form can actually hurt your vertical, and it definitely makes you more prone to injuries. One mistake and it’s over. So it is crucial that you at least have some familiarity or experience with the exercises I’ll be describing.
To increase strength, you need to start hitting the gym—specifically the free weights and barbells. No more cardio machines. And instead of performing the traditional “3 sets of 10 repetitions with 1 min rest” format, you’d want to increase the number of sets(5~6), rest time(~3 min), and weight and decrease the number of repetitions(1~5). This will get you in the “mindset” of the vertical jump, focusing on explosiveness, not endurance.
To measure your strength, you’d want to focus on 3 main exercises: the back squat, deadlift, and bench press. What do these have in common? They are all compound lifts, meaning that they target several muscle groups at the same time. Supplementary exercises may include the front squat, barbell row, and military press, all working towards increasing the previously mentioned 3 exercises and thus your overall strength. But do not get attached to increasing your PRs. Remember that this is to increase your vertical, not to reach a magical lifting number.
Now speed. This is where plyometrics and Olympic lifts(the snatch and clean/jerk) come in. Olympic lifts are a mixture of both speed and strength while plyometrics focus solely on speed. For Olympic lifts, you’d want to perform them in the same style as regular lifting: high sets, high rest time, high weight, and low repetition. For plyometrics, however, a traditional 3 sets of 10 repetitions with 1~2 min rest time is ideal. And however cliché it may sound, you HAVE to give your 100% in every rep, focusing on explosiveness, if you want to get as much out of the training as possible—especially for plyometrics.
Effective plyometric exercises can include broad jumps, lateral bounds, tuck jumps, uphill sprints, etc. For this, the internet can provide essentially all the exercises you need; however, before starting any plyometric workouts, dynamically warming up and is crucial to obtaining results as it will help out with soreness—especially in hamstrings and hips—so you can always give your 100%. Then, end the workout with a combination of static stretches.
With stretching comes greater flexibility. How does this relate to increasing your vertical? Flexibility is essentially the reason why you can jump. Without flexibility, your joints won’t be able to perform the full range of motion to load up like a spring and explode. The larger this range, the more spring-like you can become and thus the higher you can jump. So stretch. A lot.
But obviously, having the physical strength, speed, or flexibility in order to jump high isn’t everything; the technique is also an important factor to consider. For instance, having an ineffectively short penultimate stride will automatically remove precious inches, slow arm swings can actually hurt your jump, and an unbalanced center of mass can lower your maximum force output.
So when you look at the vertical jump, you have to look at it as a skill, not another capability you can define with a number like a deadlift PR. And because it’s a skill, it may take several weeks—even months—until you are able to reach your goal. To support this point, a study that tested the effect of one week of lower body strength training on a group’s vertical jump concluded that there was no statistical difference between the vertical jump increase of the control(the group without any training) and the experimental(the group with training) group. Simply put, it will take a lot more than one week to improve your vertical. To be exact, improvements usually start appearing from the fourth week of training. Another study showed that individuals who trained plyometrics for 6 weeks saw a ~8.5% increase in their vertical, and individuals who trained for 12 weeks saw a ~22% increase. So on top of training for at least 4 weeks, training even longer will help as well.
But these studies showed different methods of training; one did strength while the other did plyometrics. So which one is better? Technically, they both are. Ideally, you should take at least 1~2months lifting, increasing your strength; with this, you are increasing your vertical potential, not the vertical itself. Once you are finished, you’d want to move on to plyometrics or explosive lifting. But if your sport season is relatively close, you’d want to start plyometrics right away. But let’s say you only have two months to train and you don’t know whether to do strength training or plyometrics. In this case, you’d want to spend the entire two months with only plyometrics because it’s more likely that you have untouched potential than having already reached your max potential with your current strength capabilities. And according to the first study mentioned in the previous paragraph, the strength training group actually experienced a marginal decrease in their post-training test. So for short term improvements, plyometrics is the way to go. For the long term, however, at least two months of strength training, a month of explosive lifting, and 3 months of plyometrics are ideal.
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Credits:
Allain, Rhett. “Sport Science Looks at the Vertical Leap.” Wired, Conde Nast, 8 Nov. 2011,
www.wired.com/2011/11/sport-science-looks-at-the-vertical-leap/.
Silva, Ana Filipa et al. “The Effect of Plyometric Training in Volleyball Players: A Systematic Review.”
International journal of environmental research and public health vol. 16,16 2960. 17 Aug. 2019, doi:10.3390/ijerph16162960
Son, Charles et al. “Lower Body Strength-Training Versus Proprioceptive Exercises on Vertical Jump
Capacity: A Feasibility Study.” Journal of chiropractic medicine vol. 17,1 (2018): 7-15. doi:10.1016/j.jcm.2017.10.007
Tober, Jacob. “Why Can't I Jump High? The Science Behind Vertical Leap.” Core Advantage, Core
Advantage, 3 May 2017, coreadvantage.com.au/blog/2017/the-science-of-vertical-jumping.
“Vertical Jump.” World of Sports Science, Encyclopedia.com, 24 Dec. 2019,
www.encyclopedia.com/sports/sports-fitness-recreation-and-leisure-magazines/vertical-jump.
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