A single vertical jump for maximum height is one of the most intense exercises you can do.
Why? Because it requires you to utilize your entire lower body chain in a maximal effort contraction, to produce a maximal amount of force in a split second.
The important aspects of training to work on, to increase your vertical leap include:
Squatting strength – Maximal leg strength transfers directly to a vertical jump. A strong 1 rep max = a big jump.
Squatting speed – The faster you can squat, the more power you can generate, the higher you can jump.
Squatting power – Tied in directly with speed and strength, squat heavier and squat faster and you will jump higher.
Acceleration – You want to continue accelerating out of the hole all the way through the top of your jump.
Single leg strength – To eliminate strength imbalances and to improve neuromuscular coordination, train your legs individually.
Calf strength – Your calves are used at the end of the jump, so max calf strength can mean an extra inch on your vert.
Sprint speed – Sprinting trains the Type-II Fast Twitch muscle fibers, which are what you need to attain your highest jump. Acceleration applies here as well.
Hip drive – Your hips are responsible for a significant portion of jumping power from a parallel squat position to standing.
Glute activation – Your glutes are responsible for driving you out of the hole at the bottom of a squat or jump.
At a body weight of 180 lbs, Willie Albert of Iron Will Strength and Fitness in Ottawa Ontario Canada performs 10 total rounds of barbell back squat with 445 lbs, standing military press with 135 lbs, and barbell deadlift with 425 lbs. He was attempting to complete this circuit for time and finished in 4:35.
For all you math geniuses, that would be a total of 10500 lbs of work in less than 5 minutes. He’s not lifting elite powerlifting numbers, but to complete 10 rounds of this in 4 and a half minutes is impressive to me. I bet if he were going for a 1 rm, he’d be squatting and pulling in the 600s, and would be shoulder pressing 200+.
Originally posted: 1/27/10
Updates:
2/1/10 updated routine, added Excel spreadsheet workout logs)
3/8/10 added example HIIT routines for days 2, 4, and 6.
We are integrating 3 full body training sessions with 3 HIIT routines and taking the 7th day off. Since the goal is fat loss, we are striving to add some muscle mass, maintain strength, and burn as many calories as possible.
This is accomplished by staying in a slightly higher rep range than we would normally use for strictly strength training, while using super-sets for most of our exercises. We add an optional set to the end of each workout in case you are able to finish the workout early.
Major compound exercises are rotated to prioritize a different muscle group on each of the 3 training sessions each week.
Originally posted: 1/26/10
Updates:
2/1/10 updated routine, added Excel spreadsheet workout logs)
3/8/10 added example HIIT routines for days 2, 4, and 6.
We are integrating 3 full body training sessions with 3 HIIT routines and taking the 7th day off. Since the goal is fat loss, we are striving to add some muscle mass, maintain strength, and burn as many calories as possible.
This is accomplished by staying in a slightly higher rep range than we would normally use for strictly strength training, while using super-sets for most of our exercises. We add an optional set to the end of each workout in case you are able to finish the workout early.
Major compound exercises are rotated to prioritize a different muscle group on each of the 3 training sessions each week.
It’s official! After many long years of arguing with fools, I am validated! Based on hundreds of studies and thousands of hours of research, the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) and the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) have finally taken the position that age-appropriate resistance training is not only good for kids, but recommended.
This training routine is designed for you to gain strength. That’s it.
So you have already been through two or three Werewolf Training for Muscle Gain cycles. You gained 5-10 pounds of muscle in that time and you got a little stronger. You are psyched about your progress but you’re a little bored with the program.
It is time to change up your training a little bit, but you know you can’t jump right into a strict fat loss phase, or you risk losing most of your new muscle. What to do? What to do?
I get plenty of questions in various comments throughout the website, but I also get comments and questions via the Project Swole Contact Form.
Generally I address those questions through e-mail, but often I do not have the time to reply to each and every question personally.
The category, Your Health Questions is a more proactive approach to answering your questions so that everyone can benefit from the Q & A.
Scott wrote:
“First off, I would like to say your site is great. I’ve learned a lot reading your articles.
I just had one question: when you say not to have an ‘arms day’, should I just include a few biceps and triceps exercises everyday? And how many different exercises of each should I do?”
I had published this post once before, but recently a couple people have asked for such a tool, so I’m busting it out again for all the new Project Swole readers.
There are many strength training programs that involve calculating your 1 rm or 1 repetition maximum. Some programs want you to use a % of your 1 rm, which is sometimes even harder to calculate.
Most of us do not how how to figure out this number without performing the actual rep itself. Use this easy calculator to get a basic idea of how much weight you can lift once.
Need another reason to add either HIIT or HIRT into your workout routine?
A university study has concluded that a combination of cross training and strength training produces the same strength adaptations as strength training alone, while also eliciting the wonderful benefits of cardiovascular conditioning.
how long should I workout? Answer: HIIT: 20 mins, Weightlifting & Endurance Cardio: 45 mins
how many sets should I do? Answer: That answer is going to require a dedicated post, so I’ll get to that shortly.
how many reps should I do? Answer: read on and find out…
There are 3 main kinds of repetitions (reps) when it comes to weightlifting; certain rep and set schemes are used depending on your goals. Let’s examine scheme #1:
This is an excellent sport specific exercise that can be used alongside plyometrics to help you increase your vertical jump.
Jump squats will also help you power through a plateau in your regular squat development by conditioning your quads and hips to power through the lockout at the top of the movement.
Jump squats are an excellent sport specific exercise that can be used to increase power for:
Olympic weight lifters
Olympic athletes that either throw (javelin, shot put) or jump (long jump, pole vault)
Basketball players who need to jump high
Football players who block or tackle
Add jump squats to your regular workout, your HIIT routine, your HIRT routine, or your sport specific training.
Here is an exercise from the Diesel Crew that you’ve probably never heard of. They call it the Diesel Row. Give it a try.
This movement is a combination of a pull-up and inverted row. The goal is to build strength through a greater ROM of the shoulders thereby increasing their integrity and strength.
Douglas Robb at HealthHabits posted the other day about the Occlusion/Kaatsu training method, which is popular in Japan. While not necessarily useful to me, I found it a very interesting read.
Kaatsu training looks like it can increase muscle hypertrophy significantly more than regular resistance training over an extremely short period of time. In fact the results of the studies show that 2 weeks of Kaatsu training increases muscle mass to a higher degree than 5 weeks of regular resistance training.
We all need to take a second to examine the most frequently injured area of the shoulders: the rotator cuff. The muscles that make up the rotator cuff are small and can be strained easily.
The four small muscles that make up the rotator cuff:
Each of these smaller muscles can easily be strained, pulled, or even sometimes overtrained. So important are each of the muscles of the rotator cuff, that once one muscle is damaged the whole cuff is thrown into disarray, often requiring rehab.
I saw X-Men Origins: Wolverine last weekend and it was great. Many a-hole fanboys will hate on this movie because it doesn’t stay 100% true to the comic book origin of Wolverine or Deadpool, but those guys should just go see Star Trek or something, because Wolverine was just awesome.
Standing at 6’3, Hugh Jackman is looking pretty large and jacked these days and I was curious about what he did to prep for the Wolverine role. Here is what I could find out about Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine Workout.
This article is written by Kat Sanders, who regularly blogs on the topic of online surgical technician school at her blog iScrub. She welcomes your comments and questions at her email address: [email protected].
There was a time when women were referred to as the weaker sex, but not anymore. While the feminists are doing all they can to prove that anything a man can do, a woman can do better, the women who are endowed with common sense are going ahead and putting their money where their mouth is by doing what’s good for them – training with weights and building their muscle mass even as they go in for regular cardio workouts.
Strength training is no longer a man’s world, and women are building muscles for reasons that vary from good health to looking good. And if you’re a woman who’s reading this and shaking your head that you’re never going to be seen with weights around you, read on to see why you must work on increasing your muscle mass:
At one point someone asked me a question about squatting with bad knees. I knew a little bit about it, but I wanted to get more professional opinions before I wrote a full response.
Much of this information was comprised from articles written by Dr. Fred Hatfield (aka Dr. Squat) and from the training certification guide from the ISSA.
Squats are both difficult to defend and difficult to disparage. There are pros and cons to both sides. Let’s examine the facts.
I found this one surfing around on YouTube watching Olympic lifting clips. It’s a pretty good demonstration of how to execute a proper power clean.
Don’t get me wrong, power cleans take a bit of practice to get the form right, but once you get it you will want to clean every day.
Power cleans help us with force development. By using Olympic exercises like this, you will train your central nervous system (CNS) to develop maximal force while recruiting all the muscles in the body to work as a single unit. Good stuff.
In a recent training log, I mention Zercher squats as an alternative to barbell squats, and you might have asked, “What is a Zercher squat?”
So, What is a Zercher Squat?
The Zercher squat was developed by Ed Zercher, a well-known powerlifter and strongman from St. Louis who competed back in the ’30s. Rumor has it that Zercher’s home gym lacked a squat rack, so he would load a barbell on the floor, squat in front of it, hold it in the crook of his arms and lift the weight with his legs and lower back.
Hello everyone. I have been busy lately working my 2 jobs plus side projects plus weight training and kickboxing. Today my truck broke down and is in the garage, and my kid is in the hospital. I’m also sick with a nasty cold, didn’t even get out of bed on Sunday. All these things equal: I haven’t had time to write a decent post, so I’m just going to post this video demonstrating some Olympic lifts.
Olympic Lifting
Here we see this dude busting out a power snatch and a couple clean and jerks. These are great exercises for overall strength and conditioning, but not necessarily for specific strength or for bodybuilding purposes. If you are looking to be a powerlifter or a bodybuilder, chances are Olympic lifting is not for you, at least not on a consistent basis.
