Beginner strength training for vertical

12 weeks long

week 1-4
day 1
power clean 3x4 (50% 1RM)
squats 4x6 (80% 1RM)
bulgarian split squat 3x6
deadlift 5x5 (75-80% 1RM)
weighted crunches 3x15

day 2
bench press 5x5 (75%)
dumbbell bench press 3x12
dumbbell pullovers 3x12
high pulls 3x8
triceps pulldowns 4x8

day 3
power snatch 3x4
deadlift 5x5 (75%)
barbell lunges 3x8
hamstring curls 4x8
weighted crunches 3x15

day 4
seated rows 3x8 (80%)
dumbbell rows 3x8
dumbbell shoulder press 3x8
front raises 3x8
lateral raises 3x8

week 5-8
day 1
power clean 3x4 (60% 1RM)
squats 4x6 (85% 1RM)
romanian deadlift 4x6 (80% 1RM)
glute-ham raises 3x8
weighted crunches 3x20

day 2
millitary press 3x8 (70% 1RM)
bench press 4x6 (80% 1 RM)
dumbbell bench press 3x8
barbell shrugs 3x8 (80% 1RM - full ROM)
lying triceps extension

day 3
clean&jerk 4x6 (60% 1RM)
deadlift 3x6 (70% 1RM)
bulgarian split squat 3x8
box squat 4x6 (80% 1RM)
weighted crunches 3x20

day 4
bent-over barbell rows 3x8 (70% 1RM)
seated rows 3x8
barbell shrugs 3x8 (75% 1RM - full ROM)
shoulder press 3x8
lateral raises 3x8

week 9-12
day 1
power clean 3x4 (50% 1RM)
squats 6x4 (50% 1RM)
split squats 4x4
weighted crunches 3x20

day 2
bench press 5x5 (50% 1RM)
millitary press 3x6 (50% 1RM)
barbell shrugs 3x8 (60% 1RM - full ROM)
triceps extension 3x6

day 3
power jerk 4x4
squat 3x5 (50% 1RM)
jump squat (40% 1RM)
weighted crunches 3x20

day 4
seated rows 4x6 (60% 1RM)
dumbbell rows 3x8
high pulls 3x8 (60% 1RM)

Strengthen your Core

When I say core strength, I'm not talking about just doing ab workouts. Core Strength means the different muscles that help control the spine, pelvis, lower back and abdominals. In other words, the Torso.

The benefits of core conditioning are better body control, improved balance, reduced risk of injury and increased power. It helps to transfer energy from lower body to upper body.

A few of the exercises that can be utilized are:

Hip Raises: While on your back, legs bent upward 90 degrees, raise your hips upward and lower them.

Russian Twists: While sitting with knees bent, twist your torso slowly side to side. You can hold a weight for extra resistance as needed.

Plank: While laying face down, Balance on your toes and forearms while keeping the back straight. Hold for count.

Side Plank: Like Plank, only you are on your side balanced on forearm and keeping body straight. Hold for count. Alternate sides.

Side Bends with dumbbell
Reverse Crunches
Hanging Leg Raises

Perform Core exercises 4 times a week

Increase Vertical Jump by Improving Flexibility

Flexibility is a very important aspect of vertical jumping. Without it, you're just a stiff bunch of muscles. Flexibility will increase your strength and quickness and therefore increase vertical. It allows more powerful and full contractions of muscles providing more explosiveness. More flexibility will also help to keep you from sustaining injuries.

There are different ways of stretching your muscles: static and dynamic.

Static stretch would include normal stretching exercises by holding a certain position for about 20-25 seconds. One example would be a hang stretch where you simply cross your feet, bend over as far as you can and hang like a rag doll. Another would be a basic hamstring stretch where you sit with one leg extended and touch the toes of one foot.

Dynamic stretch would be actually doing a slow fluid movement such as slowly climbing steep steps to improvement movements in your hips. Another would be walking on your heels. This provides better balance in your lower legs by strengthening your anterior tibialis, which is the opposing muscle to your calf. These two types of stretching, static and dynamic, should be used in combination to achieve maximum benefit.

You should not do static stretches before your strength training, use dynamic stretcing to warm up your muscles. You should also flex after your workout to benefit you even more. Your muscles are warm and loose. This is a great time to maximize your flexibility, so after strength training perform static stretch but only after, never before strength training.

Dynamic stretching routine:
1. 20x lunge walks
2. 10x split squats
3. 10x leg kicks (each leg)
4. 10x side - to - side leg swings (each leg)
5. hand walks
6. 10x reverse lunges with twist

Sprint for bigger Vertical

Why Sprinting Helps You Jump Higher

The physiological demands of sprint training are actually very similar to that required for a maximum vertical leap. The main differences are that the 100 meter race runs for around 10 seconds on a horizontal plane, and a vertical leap lasts less than 1 second over the vertical plane. Whilst they may seem like pretty big differences, if you break it down further, they are not.

Both jumping and sprinting require great muscular power generated form the whole body. Body activities are also full body activities. Both are in the anaerobic training zone in that duration of each is only for short bursts. Both require highly trained central nervous systems. Both activities are enhanced by lower body fat.

In fact, It probably wouldn't surprise too many vertical jumping athletes to know that if you examine the training protocols for a sprinter, and compared them to that of vertical jumping, you see an awful lot of similarities.

Why You Should Do Some Sprint Work

This should be obvious to anyone who has seen a sprinter jump. Most sprinters also have terrific verticals. Think about the act of sprinting for a second. It entails primarily contracting your leg muscles with maximum speed and force to propel the body forward. Vertical leaping involves contracting primarily the leg muscles to propel the body upwards.

Each running stride transfers force to the ground to kick the athlete away and forward as quickly and as explosively as possible. When you plant yourself for a maximum vertical effort you are transferring force from your legs to the ground to propel yourself upwards as quickly and explosively as possible.

Due to the way sprint training encourages you to develop your leg speed and force transfer capabilities, it is therefore an excellent activity to incorporate into your vertical leap training.

However, and not to sound too much like an infomercial, the benefits of sprint training for vertical leap gains don?t end there. Sprinting is also a terrific way to burn body fat. The less body fat you carry, the higher your power to weight ratio (fat doesn?t produce any power but definitely adds weight). In other words, the less body fat you have, the higher you can jump.

Sprinting helps develop speed, power, AND burns body fat! What more could you ask for.

How To Use Sprinting In Your Jump Program

To incorporate sprint training into your vertical leap sessions you don?t need to necessarily run 100 meters. Anywhere between 20 and 50 meters is ideal for developing your speed and power for jumping. It should take between 3-8 seconds to do one interval (One interval is one sprint. So, if you are doing 40 meter sprints, one interval is the act of sprinting for 40 meters).

The obvious and best way to perform interval sprints is to sprint over the desired distance, walk back to where you started from, turn around, and do another sprint. Repeat until desired number of intervals has been completed. You could start by doing 5 intervals and working your way up.

Always remember this rule though: The longer you sprint for, the fewer intervals you should do. Sprinting is great for improving your speed and power, but despite their similarities and mutual benefits, you are training to jump higher, not run faster

As with most forms of training there are also number of things you can do to improve the quality and intensity of your sprinting. Some of these methods include over-speed running and resisted running.

Sprinting, like vertical jumping, is an awesome expression of athletic power. Adding high quality intervals to your vertical jump training sessions will see you develop terrific muscular power in ways in which you might otherwise have missed out on. If you are playing a sport that requires both running and jumping, then sprint training is a brilliant choice for improving both these activities.
source: verticaljumping.com


Sprinting schedule

Day1: 6x100m incline hill sprints or resistance sprints
Day2: 6x60m sprints
Day3: 8x40m sprints

vertical jump calculator

This is a nifty little vertical jump calculator designed by Colin "CoolColJ" Chung that I've found quite accurate and reliable. Play around with your bodyweight, squat, and vertical jump numbers to see where you're at.

vertical jump calculator

12 Week Plyometric Program for Basketball & Volleyball

Week 1-2 Sets Foot contacts

Ankle jumps (Stiff leg, fast ankle action, on balls of feet) 3 12

Vertical jumps (Go for repeated, fast rebounds under rim) 3 10

Front obstacle jumps (jump multiple cones or hurdles) 3 10

Lateral obstacle jumps (jumps sideways over multiple cones or hurdles) 3 10

Split squats 3 6

Week 3-4

Ankle jumps (Increase air time) 4 10

Vertical jumps (Increase airtime and speed between jumps) 3 8

Front obstacle jumps (Increase distance between obstacles) 4 8

Lateral obstacle jumps (Increase distance between obstacles) 3 8

Split squats 4 6

Week 5-6

Power skipping (Exaggerated skipping with powerful leg thrusts - distance) 3 12

Repeated tuck jumps (Jump and tuck knees high and feet under butt- height) 3 8

Multiple long jumps (For distance and height) 3 8

Lateral obstacle jumps (Increase distance between obstacles) 4 8

Week 7-8

Power skipping (Increase distance covered per skip) 4 10

Repeated tuck jumps (Increase height – lots of air time) 4 6

Multiple long jumps (Increase distance and height) 4 6

Diagonal obstacle jumps (Zigzag jumps over low bench/row of cones) 4 6

Week 9-10

Alternate Leg bounding (Exaggerated running –go for distance between steps) 4 8

Single leg hops (Repeated hops on one leg for distance) 4 6

Squat jumps (Increase height of jump) 3 6

Fronto bstacle jumps and sprints (add a 15-20 yrd. sprint after jumps) 3 6

Diagonal obstacle jumps and sprints (add a 15-20 yrd. sprint after jumps) 3 6

Week 10-12

Alternate Leg bounding (Increase distance between steps) 3 8

Single leg hops (Increase total distance) 3 6

Squat jumps (Increase height of jump) 3 6

Lateral obstacle jumps and sprints (add a 15-20 yrd. sprint after jumps) 2 8

Front obstacle jumps and sprints (Increase intensity of jumps and sprints) 2 8

Diagonal obstacle jumps and sprints (Increase intensity of jumps and sprints) 2 8

Plyometrics - develop elastic strength and explosiveness

Plyometrics is a type of exercise training designed to produce fast, powerful movements, and improve the functions of the nervous system, generally for the purpose of improving performance in sports. Plyometric movements, in which a muscle is loaded and then contracted in rapid sequence, use the strength, elasticity and innervation of muscle and surrounding tissues to jump higher, run faster, throw farther, or hit harder, depending on the desired training goal. Plyometrics is used to increase the speed or force of muscular contractions, often with the goal of increasing the height of a jump.

Choose the method to fit the sport

The golden rule of any conditioning program is specificity. This means that the movement you perform in training should match, as closely as possible, the movements encountered during competition. If you are rugby player, practicing for the line out or a volleyball player interested in increasing vertical jump height, then drop jumping or box jumping may be the right exercise. However if you are a javelin thrower aiming for a more explosive launch, then upper body plyometrics is far more appropriate.

Plyometrics Safety Tips

• Plyometric exercises should be done when you're able to squat 1.5 or more your BW
  
• Plyometrics are recommended only for well-conditioned athletes
• You should have high levels of leg strength prior to performing plyometrics
• Warm up thoroughly before starting plyometrics
• Start slowly with small jumps and gradually build up
• Land softly (see above) to absorb shock
• Allow plenty of rest between plyometric workouts
• Stop immediately if you feel any pain in your joints
• Pay attention to injury
• Use footwear with plenty of cushioning
• Perform plyometrics on soft or cushioned surfaces only