A question I get a lot is “What’s the difference between using the Jump Manual and so many of the other programs out there?”…
First off, I’m not here to bash anyone else’s program because there are a lot of good programs out there. I just want to give you some things you should look out for when picking a program to tell if it’s gonna help you get results.
There’s many different ways to increase your vertical leap…
One of them is increasing your strength.
A vertical jump program should most definitely have a weight training portion that is going to increase your strength. without strength your body feels heavy… you feel sluggish and you cant move yourself explosively.
But you can’t just target your general strength… your biceps aren’t gonna help you jump higher…
You need to be targeting the right muscle groups. In particular your calves, hamstrings, quads, glutes, core, and shoulders.
So those groups need to be strengthened to become more explosive.
Also, you need to be increasing your central nervous system explosiveness…
So this means doing plyometrics.
But, when you’re looking at plyometrics you need to be looking at exercises that aren’t done over and over and over and over like a marathon…
We’re not training ourselves to jump 5 inches a billion times… We’re training ourselves to be explosive for that one or 2 movements and then recover.
Then there’s also technique…
There needs to be some sort of technique training that teaches you how to move your body and orchestrate all these movements efficiently when jumping.
There needs to be a nutrition protocol…
You need to be eating properly in order to get energy and nutrients to your muscles to recover and build your muscles. So if theres not a nutritional portion to a training it’s lacking because recovery is where gains actually take place.
You can work as hard as you want in the gym, but if you’re not getting nutrition, rest and recovery, you’re not going to be getting the results you could be.
There also should be a mental component because how you think about your performance affects how you move physically.
Of course its not all mental… but you need to have a mental component where you’re learning how to train at a high intensity, how to motivate yourself, etc.
We identify 9 elements for training your vertical leap… And you need to be doing all 9 of those in order to be getting the most you can from your training.
Theres a lot of good programs out there that are missing things. Some of them are completely missing the strength training component. Some are completely missing form and technique training.
And even then…
Any exercises don’t do…
Any program that’s telling you to just go out and do squats… Well squats means a lot of things…
Theres olympic squats, front squats, powerlifting squats, theres tons of variations…
We use a specific squat just for increasing your vertical leap… we call them JAS squats (join angle specific) which are specific to how you jump.
So theres so many things you need to think about if you’re going to get the most out of your training time.
If you have other questions theres a lot more I could talk about that I don’t have room for here but I hope this helps you.
I know some of you guys are asking about specific programs and yes I have criticisms about other programs but Im not here to pick fights or tell you who’s better than who… Im gonna give you the information and let you take that, evaluate the programs and decide for yourself.
If you’re wanting to try the Jump Manual out, we give you a full 60 days to see if it works risk free… you can start here.
To your success,
Jacob Hiller
