Vertical Jump Explosion

Vertfreak101 Review, Adam Linkenauger

noreply@blogger.com (vertjump) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 05:44:00 +0000

A Review of Adam Linkenauger's Vertfreak101 v2.0

Vertfreak101 v2.0 Review Overall Rating: 10/10

Vertfreak101 v2.0 by Adam Linkenauger has quickly made a name for itself as one of the best vertical jump programs on the market today. With this newest version, Vertfreak101 has put itself in position to be among those discussed in the great "which vertical jump program is the best" debate and has recently claimed the top ranking spot on our site, beating out many worthy competitors. Designed by jumpers, for jumpers, Vertfreak101 has taken the knowledge on vertical jump training from many elite athletes and jumping programs and combined it into one great product.

Also, click here to read about our 2011 summer vertical jump competition, where myself and my coauthor will be personally trying out the Vertfreak101 and Vertical Mastery programs.

About the Author Adam Linkenauger

After his growth stopped at 5'10, Adam Linkenaugher set out on a mission to prove everyone wrong. He had ambitions of dunking a basketball and was not about to let his height stop him from succeeding. Adam looked everywhere and anywhere for information that could help him on his quest to obtain significant gains on his vertical leap. That was then. Years later Adam Linkenauger has added a lot of accomplishments to his resume, including but not limited to being a 7 time ACC High Jump Champion at Clemson University, ACC rookie of the year, Clemson high jump record holder, and 2009 Powerade Dunker of the Year. Pretty impressive to say the least!

Vertfreak101 v2.0

After purchasing Vertfreak 101 you will have to download the program from the website, as well as retrieve the username and password from your email inbox. Once the download finishes open the program and sign in using your username and password. You will then be asked to register, after which you should be on the Vertfreak101 mainpage, which will look like this:

Here is what you will receive:

When you first open the program you will be taken to a main page like the one pictured above. From there you will be able to navigate yourself through the Vertfreak101 v2.0 jumping program. Across the top of the page there are five tabs: Main, Book, Weight Lifting, Workouts, and Online. Click on "Main" will always take you back to the home page of Vertfreak101, and "Online" will take you to their website. The other three we will discuss in this Vertfreak101 v2.0 review.

The Vertfreak 101 v2.0 Book

Vertfreak 101 has an updated and improved guide to the program as well as vertical jumping in general that spans over 21 chapters. This is one of the most informative and accurate vertical jump training guides that we have read to date, and we would highly recommend to any athlete looking to gather knowledge on how to properly train their vertical jump. Some of the topics covered in the Vertfreak101 training guide are mentality, jumping technique, nutrition, static stretching, dynamic warmup, academics, and recruiting. Adam Linkenauger, on top of providing great content on many aspects of vertical jump training, has also included his insights and experiences regarding academics and recruiting for high school athletes. Having gone through the entire process on his way to becoming a champion high jumper at Clemson, Linkenauger offers his insights on the best way for young athletes to deal with the subjects of academics and being recruited by colleges.

Vertfreak101 v2.0 Weight Lifting

The next tab on the Vertfreak 101 v2.0 mainpage is labeled weight lifting, and is broken down into three seperate sections: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. First there is the beginner section, which is broken down into body weight workouts and weigthlifting workouts. You can choose which of these you wish to perform based upon current strength levels, but Adam Linkenauger recommends you do weightlifting unless you absolutely do not have any access to weights. If you choose the weightlifting portion, you will have to choose between strength or explosion based weightlifting workouts, and from there will be placed into a 12 week workout program to complete.

After the beginner portion comes the intermediate weightlifting section of the Vertfreak101 v2.0 program. This level is broken down into two sections once again, medicine ball training or weightlifting (which is once again seperated into strength or explosion based weightlifting). No matter which route you choose here, you will be given a 12 week program to complete before moving on. Last of all there is the advanced weightlifting portion of Vertfreak101 v2.0 which is the most advanced part of this vertical jump training program. There are only weightlifting workouts offered in the advanced section of Vertfreak101, as it is meant to challenge you as an athlete to the extreme. As always, you will be choosing from a strength or explosion based weightlifting experience that will last 12 weeks.

Vertfreak101 v2.0 Workouts

On top of weight training you will also be completing the Vertfreak101 v2.0 workouts to help increase vertical jump. These will be done on the same day and before your weightlifting workouts. Instead of lifting weights, you will be doing athletic movements in these workouts, such as sprints, jumps, and runs just to name just a few. Once again you will be choosing between beginner, intermediate, and advanced vertical jump workouts which will be seperated into two classes: strength and explosion based.

How to Choose Between Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced

It is absolutely crucial that you read the entire Vertfreak101 v2.0 book before jumping into any workouts, because this is where you will be guided into you decision of what type of weightlifting and workouts you are ready for. It is very important that you choose the appropiate level for your physical capabilities at the time, and not choose a level too low or high for your current athletic ability. Don't worry, it won't be long until you are moving up into higher levels and reaching new levels of athletic performance.

Our Vertfreak101 v2.0 Review

Vertfreak101 v2.0 has climbed its way into the circle of elite vertical jump programs and at this point in time we here at Vertical Jump Explosion are considering it to be the best vertical jump program available today. Some of the things we really liked about Vertfreak101 v2.0 are the training books, wide variety of options for weightlifting and workouts, and it being written by a champion high jumper. A downside is the price, which can vary depending on the version you select, but the old saying that "you get what you pay for" holds true here. If you dont mind investing in excess of $70 on a program that is sure to do wonders for both your vertical jump and athletic ability in general, don't hesitate and check out the Vertfreak101 v2.0 vertical jump program. If you are serious about increasing your vertical jump Vertfreak101 is the program we suggest you invest in, as we are continuously hearing impressive success stories from the growing number of Vertfreak athletes. Don't hesitate to check it out today and join those hundreds who have benefitted from the Vertfreak101 jump training program.

To visit the Vertfreak101 v2.0 by Adam Linkenauger's website click here!

What do you think of this review? Have any thoughts, comments, suggestions, problems, or ideas for our site? Don't hesitate to click the Contact Us tab and send us an email!

Vertical Mastery Review, Jack Woodrup

noreply@blogger.com (vertjump) — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 22:52:00 +0000

A Review of Jack Woodrup's Vertical Mastery

Vertical Mastery Review Overall Rating: 9.75

Jack Woodrup's Vertical Mastery program has become a staple for the vertical jump program scene. One of the most noteable aspects that seperates Vertical Mastery from its competition is the software application it uses to show users what they need to improve on. This allows for a very customizable and constantly changing to your needs workout that can provide impressive results. Read on to find out more about Vertical Mastery, or click here to read about our 2011 summer vertical jump competition where myself and my coauthor will personally be testing out Vertical Mastery and Vertfreak101.

About the author Jack Woodrup

Jack Woodrup's story is similar to many others who went onto become the authors of great vertical jump programs. Standing at a couple inches under six feet tall, and at the age of 31, he became suddenly obsessed with being able to dunk a basketball. From there on, Woodrup worked hard as he uncovered much of what he knows about the vertical jump today. Less than two years later he acheived success on his mission to dunk a basketball, and his journey lead to him creating this program.

Vertical Mastery

Upon purchasing the Vertical Mastery jumping program you will be taken to a download screen where you will be asked to download your purchase. After the download is finished the program will be located in a zip file where you told it to be stored after downloading. Go there and click on the folder. Here you can begin to read the 80+ page guide that comes with the program called The Fundamentals of Vertical Jump Training, or you can install the software that you will be using to test and produce the best vertical jump training program for you specifically. Here is what The Fundamentals of Vertical Jump Training guide will look like when you open it:

Here is what you will receive:

With your purchase comes the Vertical Mastery software program, and two pdf documents (Vertical Mastery Training Guide and a How to Use the Software guide). We will start off by going over the vertical jump training guide that comes with the program, and then finish with going over their unique software program for vertical jump training.

Vertical Mastery's 4 Keys to Vertical Jump

The whole Vertical Mastery jumping program is built around the 4 key elements they have chosen as the most important to ones ability to jump higher. These are Motion Efficiency, Body Composition, Strength, and Speed. There are several pages written on each of these topics, as Jack Woodrup explains why each is vital to your success in increasing your vertical jump. Reading through this will give you an idea of the types of vertical jump training you are about to do, and why each particular part is important.

Training

We now move on to the training part of the Vertical Mastery Training Guide. This is not your actual jump program, but rather details on how your training should be conducted, specifically before and after you perform the vertical jump workouts themselves. By reading through and following the pointers offered in this part of the guide you will effectively warm up and cool down before and after each workout. Doing this properly can potentially make a huge difference in the amount of success you have with the Vertical Mastery program.

Recovery

It is well known that muscles do not get bigger or stronger while you are actually working out. Workouts are to train and break down your muscles by pushing them to the limit. It is in the recovery stage after your vertical jump workouts that your muscles will repair themselves and get stronger and more explosive. Woodrup writes many pages detailing the recovery process that has worked so well for him in the past, including but not limited to the rest, diet, hydration, and icing. Recovery is an often overlooked part of working out, by following Jack Woodrup's guide you will be able to maximize your recovery, hence maximizes your gains on your vertical jump.

The Vertical Mastery Software

This is our favorite part of the Vertical Mastery program, as it is quite unique compared to others on the market. After reading the Vertical Mastery Training Guide it is time to get to work. Open the pdf file title "How to Use the Software" and read up. This will show you how to install the software itself, as well as walk you through the testing stages. You will then proceed to do a number of physical tests designed to guage where you performance levels are at and what needs to be worked on. By plugging the results of these tests in to the software program, it will compute the results and make a vertical jump training program designed specifically for you. Then all you have to do is follow the program. When you finish, if you want to gain more inches on your vertical jump, simply retest and recompute the results for a brand new workout routine. You can do this until you are happy with your vertical jump.

Our Vertical Mastery Review

Vertical Mastery added a modern technological aspect to vertical jump training programs that has arguably for the first time allowed a jumping program to offer completely customized workouts for an athlete depending on their needs and abilities. The software included with Vertical Mastery is pretty darn cool, and it would be nice to see other programs shift towards a similar product. Things we liked about the program are the software program, the way it customizes itself to an athletes specific needs, and the maintainability of it. Some negatives were the size of the Vertical Mastery Training Guide (we felt more detail and information could have been added) and the price. Other than that you are looking at a pretty good program, which we at the present time are ranking in second place, just a hair behind Vertfreak101. We would recommend checking it out if you like the idea of using a software program that will design a totally unique program for you, rather than some programs which try to fit everyone into one or two difference vertical jump training programs. Many users have reported outstanding and continuous gains with Vertical Mastery, and we highly recommend anyone looking to boost their vertical leap check it out.
To visit Jack Woodrup's Vertical Mastery website click here!

Thanks for reading our Vertical Mastery Review, make sure to click the "Contact Us" link and send us an email with your thoughts, opinions, questions, or suggestions for the site. Any feedback, good or bad, is appreciated.

Jump Manual Review, Jacob Hiller

noreply@blogger.com (vertjump) — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 02:29:00 +0000

A Review of Jacob Hiller's Jump Manual

Jump Manual Review Overall Rating: 9.6/10

The Jump Manual by Jacob Hiller has been the highest ranked vertical jump program on our site for quite a while now, so found it appropriate to make it the first program we reranked. As we stated in a post earlier today, we here at Vertical Jump Explosion have been working tirelessly on collecting and reviewing both new and old vertical jump programs, in order to bring you the very latest in vertical jump knowledge. We will be buying and basing our reviews off of the latest copies of these vertical jump programs, as well as the opinions of both our testers and our readers. So without further waiting, here is our review of the Jump Manual.

About the author Jacob Hiller:

Jacob Hiller started out like many of us, and dedicated athlete who desired to jump higher to obtain greater success in his sport, which happened to be basketball. At six foot three, Jacob could dunk, but not as easily or emphatically as he would have liked. So what did he do? He worked tirelessly to develop a higher vertical leap by testing various new ideas and possibilities as they relate to vertical jumping. The further along his research and knowledge got, the better his ability to jump and throw down monster dunks became. It wasn't long before he was doing windmills, 360's, between the legs dunks, and just dunking with ease in general. From this obsession with gaining vertical leap, the Jump Manual was born, to help dedicated athletes like yourself experience the same levels of success that Mr. Hiller did so many years ago. Today the Jump Manual is one of the most reknowned vertical jump programs on the market and is helping athletes everywhere increase their vertical leaps like never before.

The Jump Manual:

When you purchase the Jump Manual you will be taken to a download screen and also given a username and password, do not lose this information. Download the e-book, and check it out! This is what the table of contents will look like as of October of 2010. Obviously it will not have Vertical Jump Explosion blocking your view, that is something we put over the picture to protect the privacy of Jacob Hiller's program, as well as to keep others from stealing our photographs!

Here is what you will receive:

Introduction, Warnings and Cautions, and About the Author:

The Jump Manual ebook starts off with a few short pages to let you know more about the program itself, Jacob Hiller the author, and also some warnings and cautions. The warnings and cautions chapter is simply a few paragraph going over certain important aspects of training and recovery that you need to follow in order to properly succeed in an intense vertical jump program like the Jump Manual without getting injuries or overtraining.

The 9 Essential Variables of an Explosive Vertical

In this chapter Jacob Hiller goes over the 9 essential variables of an explosive vertical according to his own research and experiences. The chapter starts out with a seven minute video with Jacob instructing, and then goes on to explain each of the nine essential variables. Jacob Hiller does a great job of breaking down the vertical jump in nine categories that accurately explain much of the science behind how high we are able to jump, as well as how we can increase that ability to in effect jump higher.

Understanding the Science of Optimal Results

This is the next chapter in the Jump Manual, and it transitions very nicely from the first. It once again starts with a video, this time four minutes in length. Then it goes into a detailed description behind the techniques and sciences used in the Jump Manual to increase your vertical leap.

The Laws of Vertical Jump Improvement

This is a short chapter that just describes nine "laws" that Jacob Hiller has come up with to maximize your vertical jumps development. Do not just skip over this chapter because it is short. In fact, memorize it! All of these vertical jump laws are extremely important to your success.

Muscle Gains Do Not Happen During Training

Another video (10 min) kicks off this chapter all about why training is only part of your success in training vertical leap. This section has all of the information you need to know about diet and nutrition as it relates to vertical jump training, and also Jacob's opinion on the use of protein, creatine, and other supplements.

Optimal Equipment for Vertical Jump Drills

This is another short chapter that simply details a couple of essential pieces of equipment that you may need in order to fully experiences the greatest effects possible from the Jump Manual.

The Jumper's Forum

In this chapter Hiller recommends using the Jumper's Forum he has set up for thousands of vertical jump trainers such as yourself to read, use, and ultimately help eachother along the way to reaching vertical jump goals. You get the password to this forum by purchasing the program, check it out, it is a fantastic resource for you to receive free help, tips, and training advice from athletes around the world just like you.

Preworkout Stretching and Warmups

This chapter greatly details all aspects of stretching and warming up before you vertical jump workouts. The Jump Manual is an advanced program for elite athletes looking to take their vertical jump to the next level. It requires great output, explosiveness, and tension to be put on the body. For these reasons, it is absolutely essential to make sure you stretch and warmup properly to avoid injury and obtain the greatest vertical gains possible.

Explanation of the Max Explosion Workout

Here it is atlast, the Jump Manual's Max Explosion Workout, the workout program itself. In this chapter the entire vertical jump program is detailed and laid out for you. All of the various exercises are explained thoroughly through both text and pictures and sometimes even an animation.

Post-workout

Another chapter that isn't very long but should absolutely not be overlooked. The post workout is a very important part of muscle growth and recovery. Jacob Hiller walks you through the process and gives you specific tips and instruction on how to get the most out of these valuable couple of hours.

Progress and Sustained Increase

Jacob urges you to stick to the program but also feel free to make changes that you see fit to help you. Everyone is different and can receive better results from different types of training and workouts. He even asks that you email him after your twelve weeks are over so that he can personally help you to continue onto your next vertical jump training cycle and further your results.

Glossary and Appendix

These last two seperate sections off some final detail and help for you. The glossary describes terms that you may not know in order for you to better understand the content of the Jump Manual. In the appendix lies a little free gem, "gain inches through better jumping form". This is a quick little sections that goes over how to jump. Many people lose multiple inches on their vertical leaps because they simply do not jump optimally.

The Jump Manual finishes off with a FAQ section. If you have any other questions they strong advise that you contact them or even check out the Jumper's forum. You will find many people willing to help you there.

Our Jump Manual Review

The Jump Manual has proven time and again to be among the elite vertical jump programs available to the public, and we along with many of our readers and testers agree. Jacob Hiller has put together a fantastic program, filled with secrets that he spent years researching and testing out himself. He offers you all of the vital information you need to successfully and substantially increase your vertical leap. One thing that we really like about the Jump Manual is that there is not too much information. Mr. Hiller does a great job of getting to the point without packing his vertical jump program full of meaningless information that won't do you any good. That being said, there is still a lot of information in his program, plenty for you to learn from and apply to your training. The Jump Manual training program does a great job of mixing together many important aspects of vertical jump and strength training in order to give athletes the edge they need in the competitive sports of their choice. If you are serious about wanting to increase your vertical jump make sure to check out the Jump Manual. . The success stories we hear over and over from users of the Jump Manual confirm what we already know, the Jump Manual really works!

Visit the Jump Manual by Jacob Hiller's website here!

Make sure to email us by click the contact us page and let us know about what you think about our Jump Manual review, as well as other thoughts, questions, or suggestions for the site!

Vertfreak101 vs. Vertical Mastery: Putting them to the test!

noreply@blogger.com (vertjump) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 07:32:00 +0000

It is official! The authors of both Vertfreak101 and Vertical Mastery, Adam Linkenauger and Jack Woodrup respectively, have agreed to work with us here at Vertical Jump Explosion on a summer vertical jump training competition, which we will begin in early May. Myself and my coauthor will be personally using these programs to increase our vertical jump as much as possible. We will be following these two vertical jump programs to perfection, including our training, diets, recovery, and sleeping habits. You will be able to follow our progress daily, including logs of our training for that day, what we ate, how we recovered, and how much sleep we got. Every aspect of our training will be recorded, including before and after videos of our jumping and dunking abilities. Use this page to navigate through the content of this competition.

You can also sign up for our email newsletter on the upper right hand side of the page in order to get frequent emails about this competition and more from us!

Here is the post we published when we initially came up with the idea:

http://www.vertjump.com/2011/04/vertfreak101-vs-vertical-mastery-summer.html

The results of the 2011 VJE vertical jump competition:

Initial Testing- these are the tests and measurements we took before the competition began
Retest #1 - (estimated mid-June 2011)
Retest #2 - (estimated mid to late July 2011)
Final Summer Retest - (whenever we finish our respective programs, sometime in August 2011)

Note: Due to differences in personal schedules, different program lengths, and more, our programs will almost certainly end at different times. We are already pretty set on continuing this vertical training past summer, so if either of us finish before the "final testing" we will just continue a new cycle of our respective program until the other finishes.

Author interviews:

Jack Woodrup, Vertical Mastery interview:

Before the competition

Adam Linkenauger, Vertfreak101 interview:

Before the competition

Vertical Jump Training Logs
Want to follow our vertical jump training and read our daily logs containing information regarding our workouts, diet, recovery, and sleeping habits? By clicking on any of the weeks below, you will be able to read all about that week.

Vertfreak101 Training Logs Vertical Mastery Training Logs

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Vertfreak101 vs. Vertical Mastery Summer Competition

noreply@blogger.com (vertjump) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 20:56:00 +0000

We here at Vertical Jump Explosion are very excited about our up and coming vertical jump competition that we will be completing for our readers to follow, thanks to Adam Linkenauger and Jack Woodrup's cooperation with this idea (the authors of Vertfreak101 and Vertical Mastery respectively). The plan is to start in early to mid-May, and continue the competition into September and possibly beyond, depending on the progress we make on our vertical leaps and other factors. Both myself and my coauthor will each be taking one of these programs and completing it throughout the summer, down to the smallest detail.

Here are some things you can look forward to with our summer vertical jump training competition:

full profiles of both competitors, including starting weights, body fat %, lifting stats, vertical jump (measured various ways), etc.
periodic progress videos, pictures, charts, and visualizations of our increases in our jumping ability, training stats and other important factors
daily logs of our training, you will know exactly what we did each day, how our different exercises are progressing, etc.
diet and nutrition logs: we will be eating clean diets for the entire summer, and if we slip up at any point in time you will know about it
rest/sleep/recovery: full logs of our rest, recovery, and sleeping habits.
daily commentary on various aspects of anything to do with the competition that is on our minds

The idea of this competition is not to pit Vertfreak101 against Vertical Mastery against each other and decide which one is better, as both are among the top vertical jump training programs available today. Rather, the point of our competition is to show the reader what is possible by using one of these programs, maintaining a healthy diet, and practicing good rest and recovery habits. Through our daily logs we want to help the reader understand that it is the entire process that increases your vertical jump, and if you neglect diet and rest/recovery, a good vertical jump program such as Vertfreak101 or Vertical Mastery will only get you so far. We will be giving 100% dedication to this competition for three to four months, so our results will be interesting to say the least.

We are both eager to get this project started, but due to time constraints we must wait until May. So until then we have decided that we will both be focusing on improving our body composition and slowly preparing our legs for the summer. This means that for about a month we will be focusing on losing fat at a slow and steady pace while maintaining all of our lean muscle mass. We will also be performing short leg workouts that include squats, deadlifts, stiff legged deadlifts, light plyometrics, and other basic legs exercises to gear our legs up for the summer. We don't want to jump into 100% intensity vertical jump training without being prepared, but at the same time we do not want to be worn out when we begin the competition.

Incase you are wondering, at the moment I am 6 foot 7 inches tall, probably somewhere between 10 and 14% bodyfat, and a vertical jump that I would estimate to be between 23-29 inches? just a guess though, it is pretty average compared to other athletes, above average compared to the general population. My coauthor is around six feet tall, a solid build, and probably a slightly lower bodyfat percantage than me. He can dunk at that height so his vertical jump is above average, but there is room for improvement.

A week before we start the competition we will be performing testing, which will include a whole lot of measurements that we will use to gauge our success. This will include measuring our vertical jump in multiple ways, our body weight, body fat percentage, measurements of important body parts, sprinting and agility times, and more. We will video tape some footage of us jumping and dunking, along with pictures of our bodies and us jumping. Hopefully when all is said and done we will have some pretty cool before and after pictures and videos, as well as charts/visuals based off of the data we collected such as weight, BF%, bodypart measurements, etc.

Our one promise that we absolutely guarantee to our readers is that we will be reporting you no bull shit. NONE. If we go the whole summer and don't gain an inch of vertical you will know it, and if our gains are only modest you will know it too. There will be no inflated numbers, and IF one of us does gain a large number of inches it will be more than obvious in the before and after videos. We are going to figure out a way provide clear video proof of our gains, whatever they are.

Look at this blatant photoshop from the site of a vertical jump program which we will not name (pay close attention to some of the discrepancies circled, as well as the exact copy of the picture of the athlete, the white dots are from me making the circles, ignore them):

^^^^^ WE WILL NOT BS YOU LIKE THIS ^^^^^

Make sure to check back once in a while for updates, and especially in May when this whole thing gets underway. If you have any questions about, suggestions for, or thing you would like to see added to the competition, don't hesitate to shoot me an email at (support@vertjump.com)

Vertical Jump Height

noreply@blogger.com (vertjump) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 04:26:00 +0000

Measuring Our Vertical Jump

Over the course of the last two days we have been working on taking our measurements for our summer vertical jump experiment using the programs Vertfreak101 and Vertical Mastery.

We measured four variations of the vertical jump, including the following: Standing still with no steps off of two feet, two steps allowed off of two feet, and running one legged jumps measured for both right and left foot takeoffs.

Here are my results, at the stats of 6 foot 7 inches tall and about 210 pounds, estimated 11-13% bodyfat:

Standing still, no steps, two footed vertical jump: 27 inches
Two footed vertical jump with two steps: 27 3/4 inches
Running One-Foot Vertical Jump (Right): 29 3/4 inches
Running One-Foot Vertical Jump (Left): 30 inches

Notes: My two footed vertical jumps have really caught up to my one-foot jumps from weight training this year I would assume, in the past my one-foot jump were always atleast 5-6 inches higher than my jumps off of two feet. Also, I was SHOCKED that my right foot one legged jump was within 5 inches of my left, let alone nearly the same. I rarely jump off my right and it feels awkward when I do, but the numbers don't lie.

Here are the results of my partner, with stats of 6 feet tall, 170 pounds, estimated 11-13% bodyfat:

Standing still, no steps, two footed vertical jump: 28 3/4 inches
Two footed vertical jump with two steps: 32 1/4
Running One-Foot Vertical Jump (Right): 26 1/2 inches
Running One-Foot Vertical Jump (Left): 28 inches

Notes: There is a sizable disparity in his one legged jumping ability compared to his two footed jumping ability, and his two footed with two steps vertical is significantly higher than all the others.

This is how we measured:

Using an adjustable basketball hoop we set it to a height at which it was exactly 115.5 inches from the ground to the bottom of the backboard and exactly 124 inches to the top of the rim. We took a drywall T with ruler measurements on it and taped it to the side of the backboard so that 24 inches of the ruler from the bottom part of the "T" were hanging down, essentially giving us a 24 inch ruler to measure our reach on. We set the backboard so that my coauthor who is much shorter than myself at 6'0 tall could only touch the bottom, meaning there was exactly 24 inches from the top of his reach to the bottom of the backboard. Then when we measured my reach (I am 6'7 tall) i hit the ten inch mark on the ruler, meaning I had 14 inches between the top of my reach and the backboard.

Then we taped posterboard to the backboard, so that it was exactly squared to the bottom. By using charcoal on our fingertips, jumping up and touching the white posterboard, and observing the marks, we are able to measure our vertical leap exactly. For example, if my coauthor touched 10 inches up on the posterboard, his vertical would compute to 34 inches (10 on poster board + 24 from reach to bottom of backboard. Easy as pie. 3 trial jumps were used for each of the four vertical jump tests.

The cool thing about this is that we will be able to recreate the exact circumstance with the hoop, and using the same posterboard we will be able to easily see if we have gained any inches on our vertical jump or not when we retest.

Tomorrow I will post pictures, to help you visualize this a little better, but the plan worked perfect and turned out very well. We also took videos of all of the tests that we will get up as soon as possible (had to order a special cord to hook my camcorder up to my laptop). We will post those as soon as possible as well. Along with videos of the vertical jump measurement tests, we also took some videos of us dunking at a local park today which we will also post. We tried about 10 different indoor gyms with no luck getting in, so hopefully we can get some footage of us dunking in a gym soon. I am not a fan of jumping repeatedly on cement/blacktop, it seems to be a lot harder on the legs than a basketball court.

EDIT: PICTURES POSTED IN THIS POST (VIDEO COMING ASAP)

Check back tomorrow for added pictures explaining the tests and showing the results, as well as in the next week or two for footage of us both dunking.

And within the week we will both be starting the Vertfreak101 and Vertical Mastery programs, so check back for our daily logs and progress using the programs. It should be an interesting, fun, and informative summer! Hopefully by the end we will have increase both our verticals by a sizeable amount relative to where we are at now and be doing some dunks that are way more impressive. Time will tell!

Vertical Jump Training Logs

noreply@blogger.com (vertjump) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 01:13:00 +0000

Want to follow our vertical jump training and read our daily logs containing information regarding our workouts, diet, recovery, and sleeping habits? Use this post to navigate through everything we have posted regarding our vertical jump training using the best vertical jump programs. By click on any of the weeks, you will be able to read all about that week. If you want to see where our verticals were at before we started training click here.

Vertfreak101 Training Progress Vertical Mastery Training Progress

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Week #2 Week #2

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Vertical Jump Training Update

noreply@blogger.com (vertjump) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 15:04:00 +0000

First off let me apologize for the lack of updates over the last month of so, I ended up taking an sports training internship offer at the last moment. It was a great opportunity for me and I ended up learning a lot from the experience, but unfortunately the residence I stayed in had no internet access, so I rarely was able to access email or the site. While I did continue to work on my vertical daily, I must admit that I was not able to follow the Vertfreak101 program specifically, which sort of discredits this experiment as a direct testament to the Vertfreak program. I did, however, continue to use many of the exercises and principles from Vertfreak101, so my gains can somewhat be attributed to what I have learned from the Vertfreak101 program. The number one way I worked on my vertical during the last month was to simply get on a court and practice jumping and dunking. I should also note that I dropped about five pounds of fat during this time period, and being lean has never hurt an athletes vertical.

I returned home last week, and this past Saturday was able to retest my vertical. Here were the results:

Running One Foot Left- 31.5 inches (from 30)
Running One Foot Right- Stayed the same (29.75)
Running Two Foot- 30.75 inches (from 27.75)
Standing Vertical- 28 inches (from 27)

My gains ranged from 0 to 3 inches depending on the type of vertical measured. None of the gains surprise me. I didn't spend much time training one foot jumping, and when I practiced it I always jumped off my left foot. I will probably start addressing the difference between the two this fall and try to catch my right foot jump up to my left. As you can see my explosiveness has improved, my running two foot vertical used to be barely larger than my standing still, but is now almost 3 inches higher.

I have gained three inches on my running two foot vertical, which is about an inch a month this summer. An inch a month is about what I have been gaining since January when I personally started back in to training my own vertical. I think I could have gained 2-3 more inches during this time span if complications wouldn't have kept me from working harder on my training. However, I am going to continue training my vertical and tracking my progress for everyone to see. My next goal from my training this fall is to get my stats up even more, I am enjoying being able to dunk easily, and want to improve my vertical for bigger and crazier dunks.

Here are my goals for the rest of 2011 to be achieved by January 1st, 2012:

Running One Foot L- 34
Running One Foot R- 32
Standing Vertical- 30+
Running Two Foot- 34

I will retake measurements as close to winter as I can, at which point I will not measure again until spring. Hopefully by spring my running measurements can be at 35 inches or more, and I can make the final push for 40 inches over next summer.

Vertfreak101 Week 4 Summary

noreply@blogger.com (vertjump) — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 23:00:00 +0000

I had to miss my final workout of the week due to traveling. I am going straight from finally finishing up the moving process to my new house to traveling out of state for my sisters high school graduation party. I will probably end up missing a workout or two at the start of next week as well. I am considering trying to get some workouts in at the end of next week, and just starting week 5 a week from now, instead of considering next week my week 5. This way I don't have to skip anything or cheat any workouts. I will try to find a place to do some jumping and up hill sprints while I am out of state, just to keep my legs active and fresh.

Week 4 was a good week, I continue to feel better and better about my progress. I still feel like I am improving from week to week, however the steps are small so it can be hard to tell. One thing I know for sure is that I am jumping higher than when I began Vertfreak101. Nothing crazy, 2 inches or so if I had to guess, but at the same time I am far from disappointed with that seeing as I am only a third of the way through the program. My goal for the summer was six inches, and it is looking like our retest date is going to be pushed back a week or two and line up almost exactly with the end of week 6, which would be half way through the summer. So hopefully I will have added 3 inches by then, I can't wait to retest and find out.

Sleep and diet for week 4 were not as good as I would like them to be. After I get back from the graduation party I plan to get fully back on track as far as that goes. Other than that, on to week 5 (maybe not for a week though).

Vertfreak101 Week 4: Wednesday and Thursday

noreply@blogger.com (vertjump) — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 22:51:00 +0000

Wednesday is the day where I am supposed to do a short amount of time playing a sport before I complete the recommended upper body workouts. As I have have stated before I use this time to practice jumping technique and dunking. It ends up being a pretty good workout and productive in the end in my opinion. One thing that I am really focusing on in regards to my jumping is approaching fast and lowering my ground contact time. Both of these have produced positive results, and I believe I can continue to improve on them. Vertical jumping is not a slow act, it is explosive, and from watching videos of myself jumping and dunking it is an area where I have plenty of room for growth.

Thursday is a plyometric type workout, the same as all of my Thursdays have been up to this point. The repetitions are slowly creeping up, and I am also seeing improvements in each specific exercise. For example, one exercise is basically two broad jumps back to back. I am already jumping a couple feet further than I was the first week.

Vertfreak101 Week 4: Monday

noreply@blogger.com (vertjump) — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 22:44:00 +0000

Previous nights sleep: 7 hours
Wake time: Noon
Morning weight: 208.6
Workout: Uphill Sprints today, I made it through the whole workout. Extremely tiring, so I decided to take about an hours rest between this and my weightlifting for the day.
Weightlifting: Today pretty much a normal weightlifting day today, I missed a 215 squat, but added weight to pretty much all of my other lifts.
Eating/Nutrition: Could be better, I am still working on moving to my new house so I had to resort to easy meals rather than the healthiest and most productive meals.
Recovery: Becoming more and more flexible, which is a good sign. Sleeping okay, I am going to bed pretty late but still getting enough hours of sleep.
Asleep time: 2 AM
Today's grade: A

Jump Higher By Moving Faster

noreply@blogger.com (vertjump) — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 02:33:00 +0000

The Effect of Speed on Vertical Jump

One of the very first observations I made the first time I watched recorded video of myself jumping and dunking was how I looked slow. I never felt slow, it just felt like I was jumping/dunking, but the video did not lie. Being slow is not a friend of a jumper, which is why working on increasing speed of approach and minimizing ground contact time has become one of my main focuses in my own vertical jump training routine. Think of your favorite NBA dunker, an Olympic high jumper, or anyone with an impressive vertical jump. They all approach their jumps quickly, plant (one foot or two, doesn't matter), and get up FAST with minimal ground contact time. The ability to approach jumps quickly while still under control and minimizing ground contact time after the final plant will play a huge role in how high any person can jump from a running start. In this article we will go over the importance of speed of approach and minimal ground contact time, and how they relate to jumping higher.

Speed of Approach

The reason most (not all) people can jump higher from a running start than standing in place is that some of the energy from you horizontal motion can be effectively transferred into your jump and give you an extra boost, as opposed to no horizontal energy transferred when jumping from a still position. Your ability, therefore, to effectively transfer horizontal motion to vertical motion will play a significant role in how high your can jump. However, don't expect to just go out and magically jump higher with a faster approach. For one, most of us would not be able to jump as high as possible from a flat out sprint without slowing down. It takes a significant amount of balance, coordination, and core strength to pull off such a feat, which will will need to train and improve in order to achieve.

Part of your ability to translate speed into vertical will come from practicing approaching your jumps at a higher speed, part will come from training your body to be able to handle these faster approach speeds, and part will come from minimizing ground contact time as discussed below. For starters, we highly recommend two courses of action. Always be developing your core strength through a large variety of core exercises. Work all aspects of your core, as it is a very important part of your ability to jump. Secondly, when practicing jumping (which EVERYONE striving to increase vertical should do) always, always, always be trying to approach as fast as possible while under control. You will know the speed which is perfect and when you are moving too fast, because you will not jump as high if the speed is too fast. The idea is to slowly training your body to be able to move and handle faster and faster speeds of approach. Over time, the gains will show.

Tip: Go to Youtube and check out some of the NBA's best leapers, as well as some Olympic high jumpers. Study their form, watch their approach style. Everyone is different and has slightly different technique, but you will at least get an idea of where you need to be. Also trying video taping yourself if you can. See where you are at and what you need to do to improve your jumping technique.

Minimizing Ground Contact Time

The ability to get up as fast as possible, or minimize ground contact time, after the final plant of the feet before jumping is arguably the main determining factor of how much horizontal speed you will be able to translate into upward force. Even if you can run full speed into your approach, plant your foot (or feet), with your body completely under control, if you have a large ground contact time between your plant and your jump, much of that horizontal force will be lost and unable to transfer into your vertical jump. This is another aspect that athletes must both practice and train regularly to make significant and optimal improvements. When you practice jumping, think about transitioning as fast as possible from you plant to being in the air. Focus on being faster and faster with every repetition. Condition yourself to spend as little time as possible on the ground, and the gains will surely follow.

Conclusion

Approaching at maximum controlled speed and minimizing ground contact time are two ways you can increase your vertical a couple of inches quickly. It takes practice to get used to, and hard training to perfect, but the results will have you jumping higher than ever before. Have someone take video of you jumping, are you moving fast? do you get off of the ground quickly? is there room for improvement? Of course there is room for improvement, very few of us are born naturally gifted vertical leapers. We will follow this article with a list of specific exercises that can increase your ability to control higher speeds of approach and also get into the air quickly by minimizing ground contact time. Until then, get out there and practice jumping with higher approach speeds and less ground contact time!

Vertical Mastery Week 3 Summary

noreply@blogger.com (vertjump) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 19:35:00 +0000

I just finished my third week of Vertical Mastery and things are going great. My dunking workout this week was definitely the best so far which is a good indication that I’ve already improved my vertical! I’m really excited to see how well I’m able to jump with some more rest.

The other workouts this week went pretty good, too. I keep going up in weights in almost all of the weighted exercises, so I think my legs are definitely getting stronger. In the past, my leg strength has always gone up really fast (compared to any upper body muscle group, anyways). I wouldn’t be surprised if my max squat has gone up 30 pounds since beginning the program. Within the past couple years, my max squat was probably 100 pounds heavier than it is now, so it’s not like I’m adding tons of brand new muscle. It’s more like I’m working my way back to my old strength.

My diet was much better this week than last. I didn’t have a single cheat meal and I hit pretty close to my target calorie count each day. I felt more energetic in my workouts which I think is a result of better nutrition. I’d like to keep this up in the weeks to come!

Overall I still think the program is going great. I’ll keep you updated on week 4.

Vertical Mastery Week 3: Friday

noreply@blogger.com (vertjump) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 19:35:00 +0000

Yesterday was my last workout for the 3^rd week of Vertical Mastery. Here’s what I thought:

Previous nights sleep: 8.5 hours

Wake time: 8:00 am

Morning weight: 167 lbs

Workout: Various squats and deadlifts

Weightlifting: chest/bis/tris

Eating/Nutrition: Another clean day!

Recovery: Plenty of rest and stretching

Asleep time: 11 pm

Notes/Observations: Went up in weight in almost all the lifts. I’m already feeling stronger and I don’t feel like I’m losing any explosiveness even at heavier weights.

Today's grade: 9/10

Vertical Mastery Week 3: Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (vertjump) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 19:34:00 +0000

Yesterday was my second workout for the 3^rd week of Vertical Mastery. Here’s what I thought:

Previous nights sleep: 9 hours

Wake time: 9:00 am

Morning weight: 166 lbs

Workout: Jumping movement efficiency and dunking practice

Weightlifting: none

Eating/Nutrition: Another clean day, I ate pretty close to my target for total calories and stayed away from everything I should be avoiding.

Recovery: Good, no stretching

Asleep time: 11:00 pm

Notes/Observations: I was jumping really good today. There is no doubt that I am getting up higher than when we started.

Today's grade: 9/10

Vertical Mastery Week 3: Monday

noreply@blogger.com (vertjump) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 19:33:00 +0000

Yesterday was my first workout for the 3^rd week of Vertical Mastery. Here’s what I thought:

Previous nights sleep: 8 hours

Wake time: 9:30 am

Morning weight: 167 lbs

Workout: Lots of one legged jumps, no weighted jumps

Weightlifting: Back/shoulders

Eating/Nutrition: I ate clean all day which means plenty of lean meats and good fats while keeping an eye on carbs. Nothing sugary or processed, all delicious and healthy food!

Recovery: I got plenty of rest post-workout and stretched out a little bit too.

Asleep time: 11:30 pm

Notes/Observations: I had good intensity in my workout today. Played a little pickup basketball in the morning but I don’t think it affected my workout.

Today's grade: 9/10

Vertical Mastery Week 2 Summary

noreply@blogger.com (vertjump) — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 18:49:00 +0000

I just finished my second week of Vertical Mastery and I keep liking this program more and more. The workout schedule gives me intense workouts but plenty of time to rest and recover. There is a good balance between one legged and two legged exercises, and plyometric and weight training workouts.

The workouts were harder this week, probably because I trained a little harder. I try to focus on being as explosive as possible in all the exercises. On most of the weight training exercises, I had to go a little heavier than what the program suggested. This is probably because my max squat has already gone up from before training since it used to be much higher than it is now. I definitely don’t want to compromise speed for weight, though.

I’m not too happy about my diet this week. I wasn’t nearly as strict as I should have been which will hurt me if I don’t fix it. I really think that eating properly not only aids in muscle recovery and development, but also that lowering my %bf will play a role in jumping higher. From the beginning, I knew this would be the toughest aspect for me so hopefully I can work harder on this.

Overall I think the program is going really well and I’m really excited to test my gains in a couple weeks.

Vertical Mastery Week 2: Friday

noreply@blogger.com (vertjump) — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 18:49:00 +0000

Yesterday was my last workout for the 2^nd week of Vertical Mastery. Here’s what I thought:

Previous nights sleep: 8.5 hours

Wake time: 8:00 am

Morning weight: 168 lbs

Workout: Various squats and deadlifts

Weightlifting: none

Eating/Nutrition: Ate clean all day until having a couple slices of pizza for dinner.

Recovery: Plenty of rest and stretching

Asleep time: 11 pm

Notes/Observations: Another tough weightlifting day but I really enjoyed it. I’m already going a little heavier than I went last week which is a good sign. Nutrition is still the hardest part for me.

Today's grade: 7/10

Vertical Mastery Week 2: Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (vertjump) — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 18:48:00 +0000

Yesterday was my second workout for the 2^nd week of Vertical Mastery. Here’s what I thought:

Previous nights sleep: 8 hours

Wake time: 8:30 am

Morning weight: 166 lbs

Workout: Jumping movement efficiency/dunking practice.

Weightlifting: Chest/bis/tris

Eating/Nutrition: For the most part, I ate pretty good today. I splurged on a little ice cream at night, though. Definitely need to cut that stuff out.

Recovery: Plenty of rest but skipped out on stretching since I had to go to work.

Asleep time: 11 pm

Notes/Observations: The workout went really well, I feel like I’m jumping about as high as I ever have. I need to work on the other stuff like nutrition and stretching since that will definitely play a big role in the long run.

Today's grade: 6/10

Vertical Mastery: Week 2, Monday

noreply@blogger.com (vertjump) — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 18:47:00 +0000

Yesterday was my first workout for the 2^nd week of Vertical Mastery. Here’s what I thought:

Previous nights sleep: 8.5 hours

Wake time: 9:30 am

Morning weight: 167 lbs

Workout: Lots of one legged jumps, no weighted jumps

Weightlifting: Back/shoulders

Eating/Nutrition: I ate pretty clean today. Eggs and toast in the morning, chicken and brown rice for lunch, steak and veggies for dinner with some snacks in between. I’ve been trying to stay away from quick frozen meals but sometimes that’s all I have time for.

Recovery: I got plenty of rest post-workout and stretched out a little bit too.

Asleep time: 11:30 pm

Notes/Observations: I picked up the intensity today since I’m getting used to the exercises. I try to focus on being as explosive as possible during the workouts.

Today's grade: 9/10

Vertfreak101 Week 3 Summary

noreply@blogger.com (vertjump) — Tue, 31 May 2011 18:51:00 +0000

The end of this week was a little difficult, but I think I made it through the best I could. I had to move out of my old house over the weekend, and this affected my workouts and diet. I wasn't able to perform the Vertfreak101 planned workout and weight lifting sessions perfectly, but I adjusted them as I saw fit, and made do of the time and equipment I had at hand. My diet was also not near as good as it was the first two weeks the last couple of days, mostly because I was moving the entire day and needed to eat quick and simple meals. This will only be temporary, and as soon as I am back to my new house I will go back to business as usual. Despite some of the setbacks, there were two awesome things that happened this week that I am excited about in regards to my vertical jump training. First off, for the first time in my life I hit an ATG squat greater than my body weight, meaning I am stronger than ever. Secondly, in my first dunking session on a true basketball court since before we started this vertical jump training experiment, I was dunking incredibly better than ever before in my life. If you have watched the video of us record our vertical jumps and doing some dunks on pavement, I was dunking MUCH better than that, and those hoops were about 2 inches low. I think that there are four main factors that can be attributed to this:

My body is getting used to performing at an maximum effort and intensity, essentially conditioned to perform at its best. It is possible that my body was already able to jump a couple of inches higher than what I tested at, but because I hadn't been training and working on it I was not able to perform at my personal best level. This could be one of the reasons that I have already noticed gains.
Another reason for my gains is that I have been practicing jumping and especially jumping technique. I have been using Vertfreak101's jumping technique program "Freak Technique", as well as reading up as much as possible about jumping technique, and watching tons of videos of various types of athletes jumping on Youtube. From there I just practice what I see and try to improve myself.
Jumping on a court is different that jumping on blacktop. Although I have no proof, I swear by the fact that I can jump 2-3 inches higher off of a nice basketball court that off of blacktop. That is all. Maybe some of you have noticed this too? If I had to guess I would attribute it to having something to do with it being a harder surface, but I am unsure.
True vertical jump gains. There is no doubt I have made some gains in vertical leap, but I am also not foolish enough to call them all "pure" gains. My guess is that it is a mixture of actual gains and the three above factors. I know I have made some gains, seeing as my max squat is up about 20 pounds since we started. The real question is how significant are the gains?

I am as excited as ever about the vertical jump training I am doing now. I am starting to truly believe that I can achieve my goal of six inches by the end of summer. Our first retest is going to be in the middle of June, so that should give both of us a better idea of where we are at. I am hoping to beat my old marks by 2 inches, and anything better than that is simply icing on the cake. We will know soon though. I am beginning to feel like my dreams of a 40+ inch vertical are not unrealistic. Unrealistic to achieve by the end of this summer, almost certainly. In a years time, however, I think I can do it. I feel like I still have a ton of potential. I still can't squat that much compared to most people, and my jumping form is still suspect. Both of those being improved will make a huge difference for my vertical. I don't think my explosiveness is that good either, but it is harder to judge that strength and form. Only time will tell where I end up, and everything at this point is speculation until I put in the effort and hours in the gym in order to see the desired results.

Vertfreak101 Week 3: Thursday

noreply@blogger.com (vertjump) — Tue, 31 May 2011 18:13:00 +0000

Previous nights sleep: 6 hours

Wake time: 10:30 A.M.

Morning weight: 209

Full squat max (ATG): 210! Today for the first time in my life I squatted my full bodyweight ATG. This was a huge accomplishment for me, and I am looking forward to hitting even high numbers in the near future.

Workout: I am moving out of my old house this weekend, and therefore didn't have access to all of the equipment I do at my new home. I went to my old gym but had to modify my workout slightly. I got a great workout in, and even though I didn't follow the Vertfreak plan to the tee, I will still benefit from working out instead of just missing workout sessions.

Weightlifting: As I said early, I hit a full ATG squat of 210 today, which was my first bodyweight squat ever. Besides squating I didn't do many weights, mostly plyometric type exercises.

Eating/Nutrition: I mentioned I am moving this weekend, and my nutrition isn't as good as it has been. I have been working all day to get all of my stuff out of the old house and clean it, so I had to resorts to some quick meals such as Subway. However, I will be getting back into a good nutritional rythm as soon as I head back to my new house.

Recovery: I have been getting in one or two daily stretching sessions, and am starting to enjoy them. I didn't get a full eight hours of sleep last night, I was out kind of late and woke up early in order to get on the road and start moving.

Asleep time: 1 A.M.

Notes/Observations: Today I got onto a basketball court for the first time since starting Vertfreak101. I have undoubtedly gained inches on my vertical since our first testing period. I am dunking insanely easy compared to my mediocre dunks (especially dunks with two hands) before we started. It is to the point where dunking is easy, and I am starting to dink around with jumping from further away from the rim and even throwing in some "tricks" like reverse dunks, 180's, attempted (and utterly failed) between the legs, cocking the ball behind my head, etc.

Today's grade: B+

Vertfreak 101 Week 3: Monday

noreply@blogger.com (vertjump) — Tue, 31 May 2011 18:00:00 +0000

Previous nights sleep: 9 hours

Wake time: 10 A.M.
Morning weight: 208.7
Full squat max (ATG): Today I hit my 200 lb ATG squat, which I had failed the previous two weeks. This is pretty cool because, the first week especially, I wasn't even close to getting it. It just proves that what I am doing is working and that I am getting stronger.
Workout: Ten uphill sprints. Ah yes, sprints again! Today I tried switching this up a little, I ran a new hill for the first five sprints and the old one for the last five. The new hill is quite a bit steeper than the other one, so I thought it would be good to mix it up a little bit.

Weightlifting: The same workout from the last two monday's except for different repititions and slightly increased weights. This keeps it challenging and keeps my body working to catch up to increased performance, which is presumably where the gains will come from.

Eating/Nutrition: Still good in the nutrition department, I am eating tons of fruits and lean meats. I could probably use some extra vegetables in the diet, an area I am looking to improve on soon. I am still trying to figure out which types of vegies I do and do not like, as well as my favorite ways to prepare them.

Recovery: Got a nice long stretching session in on this day, my flexibility is already noticably improved.

Asleep time: 8 hours

Today's grade: A

Vertfreak101 Week 2 Summary

noreply@blogger.com (vertjump) — Mon, 23 May 2011 20:51:00 +0000

And so ends week 2 of my workouts using Vertfreak101. It has been an interesting week, as I felt like my workouts and exercises were significantly improved when comparing them to week one. On Wednesday I even was allowed to do some practice jumping and dunking as part of my workout, and my dunks seemed better than ever. I am starting to think that I will be able to reach my goal of gaining six inches, but I don't want to get my hopes up too soon. We will really see where I am at when we do our first retest in early to mid-June. My flexibility has been steadily improving this week as I have made a conscious effort to put time aside to stretch every evening before I go to bed. Recovery and sleep are still doing well. I am getting my full eight hours of sleep every night and hitting the correct number of calories I am shooting for through eating clean and healthy foods. Overall this vertical jump training experiment has been a success so far, and I am looking forward to continuing it as summer goes on.

On a side note, this weekend I purchased a new pair of workout shoes. I had an old pair of Adidas shoes that reached the end of their usability. They were full of holes and the heels were detaching from the sole of the shoe. So I went to the mall on Sunday and tried on a bunch of different shoes. I needed a pair that I could run in, lift weights in, and jump in. I wanted to find a shoe that fit me well, had solid sole close to the ground (as opposed to a squishy texture), had good arch support for the shape of my foot, and was light in weight. After trying on a lot of different pairs of shoes, I ended up getting a pair of NIKE FREE TR2
shoes. They are cross-training shoes, and perfectly matched everything I was looking for. I am pretty excited to workout in them next week and see how they work.

This week I will be posting two new articles, and one of them will be on choosing a proper pair of shoes to workout in. The other will be about a list of foods that are good to eat while training and trying to eat a clean and healthy diet.

Other than that I don't feel that there is much to bring up, so I guess it is on to week 3 of Vertfreak101.

Vertfreak101 Week 2: Friday

noreply@blogger.com (vertjump) — Mon, 23 May 2011 20:24:00 +0000

Previous nights sleep: 8 hours

Wake time: 11 A.M.

Morning weight: 208.6

Workout: Ten uphill sprints. These are always challenging when giving max effort, but I can see where they will be extrememly useful. It always takes all I have to dig down and give maximum effort on the last couple of sprints.

Weightlifting: Legs work today. ATG squats, power cleans, and hang cleans were just a few of the things on the agenda today. My power clean and hang clean form is getting better, this is the first time that I have ever tried either of these exercises.

Eating/Nutrition: My nutrition remained good today, a majority of my calories came from lean meats and good carbs, such as fruits and vegetables.

Recovery: I am getting into the habit of stretching every night before bed, and I can already tell that I am getting more flexible. Hopefully this will show positively for me in my vertical jump gains.

Asleep time: 2 A.M.

Notes/Observations: This was the last workout of week 2 for Vertfreak101. It was a similar format to week one, but increased weights and repititions. I already feel stronger and more explosive, and it is showing in my workouts. My balance and flexibility have also improved through some of the more challenging exercises, and this will no doubt help me as well.

Today's grade: A-