Chapter 1

Why train only one facet of your training when there are other effective training techniques available? Anything less than a completely comprehensive approach is less effective and will result in incomplete results.

The 9 Essential Variables of An Explosive Vertical 

 

There are 9 aspects involved in maximizing your vertical jump. Your improvement is dependent upon your capabilities in these 9 aspects, and therefore the flight training program is based on the improvement of each one. When each of these qualities is increased there is a synergistic effect. For example, better flexibility will allow your muscles to fully contract and create more leverage: thus your capacity for flexibility increases your strength. This means that they all work together toward one goal: explosion and upward propulsion.

In many instances your performance will only be as great as your weakest link. When one of these aspects is not right, it can adversely affect all the other aspects. Conversely, as each aspect improves they will postively affect the other aspects of your vertical jump and quickness.

The following is intended as a brief introduction to help you understand what you need to accomplish. We will go into further detail and explanation in the following chapters. Understanding these principles is your first step to understanding effective workouts.

1. STRENGTH

Your ability to jump is directly related to your ability to create force (also known as your strength). We are primarily developing your jumping muscle fibers (fast twitch fibers or Type II), as well as helping your slow twitch fibers to act more like fast twitch fibers. To date there is no way to convert slow twitch fibers to fast twitch. Strength is also factored by how many muscle fibers are activated or recruited during a muscle contraction, as well as the rate that each muscle fiber fires. In a nutshell strength is determined by:

Each of these aspects of strength will be very specifically targeted in the workout. We will learn that while we can't change the actual type of a muscle fiber, we can train a slow twich fiber to act more like a fast twich fiber.

Letter d) is specifically addressed in an advanced type of training that is misused in nearly all performance manuals (I am sure you have heard of it): plyometrics. In the following chapters you will come to a new understanding of its importance and how to master the technique.

2. QUICKNESS

You may be strong, but how fast can you generate it? Quickness is the amount of time it takes to produce or output a certain amount of strength. Strength and quickness have a complimentary relationship. The amount of strength you can create, multiplied by how fast you generate it, is equal to the amount of explosion or upward propulsion you will create. The formula is as follows:

Some people have great amounts of strength, yet they do not have the quickness to create the explosion. Other athletes are extremely quick but the effects of their quickness would be grealty multiplied by added strength. All of us need to improve both.

Correct plyometric training is the most effective way to train muscles at extremely high speeds. Most programs and demonstrations of plyometric training are done incorrectly. I have seen countless videos of plyometrics that demonstrate little to no understanding of how to draw maximum benefit from this highly effective technique.

3. NEUROLOGICAL RECRUITMENT & CONDITIONING

Your ability to jump is directly related to how your nervous system recruits muscle fibers in order to create force. We want to train your system to do the following:

Proper training will condition the neurological system to properly call upon muscles to act in ways that create explosion. When this is done systematically muscle memory is developed and we are able to easily create max explosion. Most people are currently not using all the available muscle fibers, and training focused on the neurological system is rare and often misunderstood.

I realize there is some carry over from the "Strength" and "Quickness" section but it is important to note how they are related, as well as how each of the first three components, although affected by one another, deserve specific focus.

4. FUEL

Are you providing your body with the nutrients that you need in order to

1) Build muscle and

2) Use that muscle?

It is not necessary to adopt a complicated diet.  A proper diet will allow your muscles to create proper energy stores in your muscle. Without proper fuel, there is no explosion, just as a car without gas will go nowhere. In the diet section of the manual we will talk about ways to maximize fuel, and make sure your muscles have lasting stores for peak performance.

5. STABILITY AND BALANCE

Each muscle employs stabilizer muscles that hold other joints and muscles in place to facilitate the intended action. If there is a lack of stability, other parts of the body may absorb or hinder the force generated for jumping. A lack of balance jeopardizes your ability to harness your strength and quickness. Efficient balance promotes an efficient use of strength and quickness. Better balance results in more graceful and efficient jumping ability, and stable joint structures result in a more "pure" explosion where the energy is not absorbed by unstable joint structures.

These two facets could almost have their own separate category but as they are closely related to one another I have chosen to put them together.

6. FORM

Many different muscles are used to promote upward motion, for example quads, hamstrings, calves, abdominal, arms etc. Forward momentum may also be converted into upward motion. Proper form orchestrates all muscles and momentum to create a rush of upward propulsion. To demonstrate, try to jump without using your arms or without thrusting your knee in the air.

The vertical jump is an orchestra of movement with one final goal in mind, upward propulsion. In the form section you will learn how to ensure that you are getting the most out of the potential that you already have. This is an aspect to your training that just about every other program ignores, but you will find that as you apply the form techniques you will realistically add many inches to your vertical.

7. FLEXIBILITY

The benefits of flexibility are fivefold:

Each muscle is counterbalanced by an opposing muscle group. For example, your biceps are counterbalanced by your triceps. As you flex your bicep your tricep is stretched. Proper flexibility allows opposing muscle groups to compliment each other properly. This means that your tricep will be flexible enough to allow your bicep to flex/contract without providing unwanted resistance.

Good flexibility promotes the elastic properties of your muscles.We will understand later why the elastic property of the muscle is so important.

Lastly good flexibility will help you to maintain strong ligaments, tendons, and other supporting structures. Often problems are caused by unbalanced muscles. Many a "jumper's knee" has been caused by the quadriceps and hamstrings being improperly balanced or lacking flexibility.

Research is also proposing that stronger supporting structures, a benefit of stretching, slackens inhibitions in muscle strength output. Basically, the body will allow stronger contraction if it knows that the joints and supporting structures can sustain the force. This effect is not completely understood. We will talk more about this possibility in later chapters.

8. BODY COMPOSITION

Excess weight hinders upward motion. Do not attempt to lose weight excessively fast. When you starve yourself to lose weight, your body automatically lowers its metabolism as a security measure, which means that you will be susceptible to gaining all that weight back and more.

The best way to lose weight is to have a diet centered around the food pyramid, and to be aware of the energy balance principle.The energy balance principle means that if you expend more calories than you intake you will lose weight; if you intake more calories than you expend you will gain weight; and if you intake and expend the same amount of calories, your weight will remain static. Eating well and doing the workout will result in a healthier body composition.

If you are a little overweight, think of it this way: while you are training, that extra weight will serve to increase your muscle size, and when the fat goes away your muscles will be all the stronger for having carried it. If you are extremely overweight, you may want to postpone the workout until you have reached an appropriate body composition for these workouts; consult your medical professional.

9. HEREDITARY FACTORS

Each individual inherits a certain amount of slow twitch and fast twitch muscle fiber. Slow twitch fibers cannot yet be converted to fast twitch muscle fibers. The best we can do is train our slow twitch fibers to act more like fast twitch fibers. We can train to increase the fiber size and strength of the muscles that we have been given. A woman's muscle is just as efficient as men's muscles; however, men are generally endowed with more amounts of muscle fiber than women.

Some athletes have asked about hyperplasia, which is the act of creating two fibers out of one fiber. This idea has not been proven by scientific research to be a possibility for humans. However, the good news is that our training is the same type of training that would produce those results if they are indeed possible.