Any basketball player whether professional or in high school will tell you that jumping is one of the most important parts of the game. In this game of titans it is important to be able to out jump your opponent to get an edge over the other team. For those that are looking to improve their jumping game there are a few tips and tricks that they can use to help obtain their goals. In order to accomplish this task, you will need to use certain equipment to properly train your body whether you simply want to perfect your skills or prepare for an important game.

Exercises

Exercise is an athlete’s best friend not only because it improves their game, but it will also ward off certain injuries. While overall physical fitness is extremely important, certain exercises will help you improve your vertical game. These exercises help strengthen your muscles, which in turn will give you more power to jump to your absolute max. The secret is very simple and you need to do these exercises while standing on your toes. By doing this, you will strengthen your leg muscles faster and you will experience accelerated results. One of the best exercises to accomplish this goal is the simple toe squat. All you have to do for this exercise is to squat down on your toes and then begin to bounce. The key to doing this correctly is to not let your hips actually become horizontal and to put all the power you can into your bounce. The result will be much stronger muscles and a more powerful vertical jump.

Jump Higher Shoes

Although exercise is vital to keeping your edge in the game, what you wear on your feet is just as important. You will need to take the time to invest in jump higher shoes which are designed to keep your foot in the best position to exercise the important jumping muscles. What it is actually doing is putting more emphasis on your toes than your heels, much like the way a high-heeled shoe works. There are many brands of jump higher shoes available and it may take you a little time to be able to find the one that works best for you. It is important to not only how the shoe feels on your foot, but that it is made from the highest quality materials. These shoes should be used not only when you are exercising, but in the games as well so they need to support your feet and ankles very comfortably. This information will allow you to find the brand that works best for you.

Weight

It is no secret when you are playing sports that you need to be as close to your ideal body weight as possible. This will not only improve your jumping skills, but allow you to play the game of basketball with much less fatigue. It is important to keep a healthy lifestyle by eating right and focusing on strength building exercises. Whether you may think so or not even a few extra pounds can greatly affect your jumping game so always be sure that you are leading the healthiest lifestyle possible.

Stretching

Stretching is vital to any game or exercise as this will not only make your muscles looser and more limber but, it will also enable you to jump higher. In addition, it will also prevent the risk of injury. One of the best and easiest stretching exercises is for you to stand with your feet shoulder length apart and touch your toes. This one simple stretch will allow you to ensure that you will be able to jump higher and will prevent you from accidentally becoming injured during a practice or game.

In basketball, there are few things that are more important that the height of your jump. If you take the time to do exercises that work your calves and ankles and then purchase a quality pair of jump high shoes, and watch your weight, you will see that your vertical jumping skills will greatly improve.

Top 5 Tips on How To Jump Higher

The following is my shortlist on the 5 ways in which you can improve your vertical leap.

Tip 1: Develop strength and agility in your leg muscles. One of the best ways to do this is to use a well known guide. And this can be achieved with proper leg exercises, which can also be done at home. Just stand steadily on the floor and stand using your toes, then put it back down to the ground, and repeat the procedure. Try jumping up and down but do not push yourself to reach that high. If you still have time, try to jog around since jogging can be such a good exercise due to the proper circulation it can bring forth.

Tip 2: Wear proper basketball training shoes. Although this sounds obvious, it’s amazing as to how many people I see who still wear badly fitting, badly worn and non-basketball shoes. Shoes are known to not just assist players to perform well but can also add up to the esteem and confidence level of the player.

Tip 3: Maintain a proper nutrition regime. It’s essential that you feed your muscles with the right food in order to ensure they are fit and healthy. It’s essential therefore to have a healthy diet with lots of fruit, veg and protein to help develop and maintain muscle.

Tip 4: You should develop a peace of mind, passion and a relaxed mood for the game. This will ensure you get the maximum from your body (and mind) and you’ll start to see your jumps increase as a result.

Tip 5: Follow the help and advice of the Pro’s who have been through exactly what you are going through now. Lots of ‘How to Jump Higher‘ programs exist which provide detailed breakdowns of training routines, nutrition, and ways to help focus your energies into getting the maximum vertical leap from your body. These programs can add anywhere from 6 inches to ‘doubling’ your vertical leap.

Just imagine that once you get all the different elements working together how much higher you’ll be able to jump. And how that’ll change your own confidence and the admiration of your team mates.

Parkour is an extreme sport that has taken to the hearts of many young teenagers. I myself have been training for years and consider myself to be fairly knowledgeable on conditioning and training with weights specifically for parkour. As parkour practitioners do a lot of jumping and movements involving high forces and momentum, their bodies need to be conditioned and fit to handle these forces as a lot of them are repeated often and regularly in training. Many people who train parkour misunderstand the concept of conditioning. There is movement specific conditioning and general body preparation.

Movement specific conditioning entails training for specific movements, such as a arm jump or a cat-pass. The main forces involved in an arm jump are targeted to the shoulders. There is great merit in practicing arm jumps and getting your technique correct and perfect in different environments and areas but this falls under movement specific conditioning. Too many people focus on training for arm jumps or big precision jumps on rails and such. The problem with this is, repeating an arm jump 50 times is useful for getting technique perfect but it is harmful to your shoulder joints and can cause you real issues down the track.

General body preparation entails training with weights, or alternatively your body weight to be ready for any movement and have your body able to handle the forces involved with your training. For example, you may perform 200 precision jumps over the course of a week, and you may have powerful legs in a plyometric sense: that they can use a high percentage of their maximal strength is a short period of time. Although, your lower back may suffer greatly from the landings and forces of 200 jumps significantly more than your knees. This is one example but illustrates the point of body parts lagging behind and repeated forces and actions causing problems.

In parkour training, conditioning is a key element. Many practitioners prefer a body weight approach and training specifically for their movements – although you will be very hard pressed to find exercises that target the posterior chain (legs muscles involved in jumping) that use only your body weight. Furthermore targeting your shoulders and lower back effectively without weights is viable to a point, although after your muscles have adapted to your own body weight you will not see progressive strength gains.

Some bodyweight exercises that you can use for parkour conditioning are:

• Dips
• Pushups
• Pullups
• Body weight squats
• Crunches
• Bear walks
• Handstand pushups
• Sprints

Some exercises that you can perform with weights that will greatly assist you in parkour training are:

• Squats
• Deadlifts
• Overhead presses
• Bench press
• Rows
• Weighted dips
• Weighted pullups
• Power cleans
• Olympic lifts
• Weighted lunges

The effectiveness of weight training is often discredited in parkour circles, reading any parkour forum one will find a plethora of 13-18 year olds who believe weight training will make them large and bulky (most of these people couldn’t put on mass even if they wanted to) and slow them down. It is quite the opposite, and weight training will make you faster, stronger and keep you a lot safer when training. For parkour to truly progress as a sport people need to understand that, like any other spot – basketball, volleyball, softball, tennis and football, there needs to be an element of weight training and general body preparation.

Good luck in your training and feel free to ask me any questions related to parkour.

Weight training is one of the most effective and time efficient ways to train for basketball.

Are you sick of being constantly outperformed? Are you sick of getting sore and tired halfway through the match? Are you frustrated with your performance and feel like your body is holding you back? If you answered yes; are you doing any weight training? If you ARE doing weight training then maybe its time to find a new program, and if you aren’t – then get ready for your performance to shoot through the roof.

What are the benefits of weight training?

1. You’re going to last longer on court

2. You’re going to be able to perform better

3. You’ll experience less injuries

4. You’re going to be able to jump higher

5. You’re going to look a lot better

When most people start out weight training, they do a lot of things wrong. There are a few basic guidelines to follow if you want success with weight training. Firstly, you don’t need to train every single day, 2 or 3 times per week is more than enough. Your body grows when you are resting, not when you are training. The training stresses your muscle fibers, then in reaction the next day – your body begins to build more muscle fibers. This is how you gain mass. Gaining strength is another story  – you can gain no muscle but double your strength in some lifts just by neuro-muscular efficiency. What this means is that your nerves, brain and spine get better at coordinating themselves with your muscles so that you can lift an increased amount. Think of it like a bike, you might peddle really hard but if the chain is loose and it needs oil – you’re losing power, having an efficient neuro-muscular system is like having a well lubricated, tight chain – everything is working as it should.

What you gain, depends on what you eat. A wise man once said “Train like a madman, eat like a horse, sleep like a baby”, this is very true if you want to gain mass, if you are after mass then you need to eat a lot. If you weigh 165lb at 5’10 then you typically will be eating 2500 calories a day to maintain that weight. If you want to GAIN mass, you need to double your caloric intake.

What does that mean? It means that when you are full – you’re only at the half way mark. Keep eating.

A lot of the time though, strength gains come with increased mass. You don’t often see a linear increase in strength without an increase in mass. What we are after as basketball players (or volleyball, or any sport really) is an increase in lean body mass. We want muscle but we want it to be functional to our sports. This is achieved by following a program that targets your entire body and doesn’t focus on specific muscles like your biceps or calves, you are simply training your big muscles with squats, deadlifts, rows and bench presses. Your nutrition has you eating more than you usually do, but don’t go crazy – just eat when you are hungry and eat a bit more than you normally would. You’ll find that you’re a lot more hungry when you’re weight training regardless so just listen to your body.

A strength training program I recommend to my clients is as follows

Monday

Squat 3×5

Deadlift 3×5

Weighted dips 3×5

Bench press 3×5

Wednesday

Squat 3×5

Powerclean 1×5

Overhead press 3×8

Bent-over rows 3×8

Friday

Same as Monday

The goal of this program is to target as much of your body as possible, while staying as easy and straight-forward to perform as possible. Squats on both days are important because as basketball players we want high verticals, and squats are absolutely key to having a high vertical jump. Deadlifts and rows will develop your back, and to a lesser extent, so will overhead pressing. Your upper body will be targeted by bench pressing, overhead pressing and dips. Power-cleans are also in there as they are one of the most important exercises you can possibly do as a basketball player interested in strength training. This program targets your entire body and you will see overall functional gains in your everyday life and in your chosen sports.

I recommend that when on this program you eat 5 large meals a day as make sure you are eating more than you normally are. This program is good for 12 weeks as you will more than likely be seeing good gains for that period of time. Its tailored for beginners and people who want something easy to follow. Pick yourself up some protein powder and drink it after your workouts and make sure you get enough sleep.

Every week, try and add 2.5% or 5% to each of your lifts, if you fail a lift (fail to complete the entire 3×5 or 1×5) then take 10% of the weight off and work back up to it (this is called deloading). To find out how much you should be initially lifting, just experiment. Try squatting 100lb and see how you feel after 3×5, if its easy move up to 150lb, etc. It is important to take a week or so to find out where you stand.

For a complete program with proven results and a scientific training approach, I highly recommend Vince DelMonte’s training guide. I myself have a copy and I cannot give it any higher compliment to his approach. Take one look at his website and you will not be disappointed if you are looking to gain mass.

Take a look at the foremost muscle building guide available on the internet.

Good luck If you have any questions or issues or want something clarified with this program, post a comment and I will get back to it within a day.

-Will

]]> http://increaseyourverticalhq.com/weight-training-for-basketball/feed/ 3 http://increaseyourverticalhq.com/flexibility-the-key-to-a-powerful-vertical/ http://increaseyourverticalhq.com/flexibility-the-key-to-a-powerful-vertical/#comments Sat, 19 Dec 2009 04:41:35 +0000 http://increaseyourverticalhq.com/?p=80

Often, people overlook the flexibility factor of vertical jumping. Being able to jump high is based on the elasticity of your muscles and tendons. Without having a high level of flexibility, you won’t ever really be able to jump as high as you potentially could – even with proper training to maximize your full capacity. Make sure that before you start any vertical jump training program that you take into account your flexibility and that you employ some basic stretching exercises and drills to help increase your static and dynamic flexibility.

The basic hamstring and quadricep stretches can be done easily and don’t take particularly long, they can be performed standing or sitting on the floor. There are many basketball training gadgets and accessories available to  assist you with your stretching and flexibility routine – and to make it easier. The advantages of increasing your flexibility are not limited to just increasing your vertical though – being flexible will decrease the likelihood of injuries are reduce the chance for any muscle strains or tears.

Here are some basic stretches that you can perform easily:

To do the shin stretch, first start by kneeling in the above position and slowly sitting backwards onto your heels – place your hands behind you. Remember not to force this stretch. If you begin to feel any pain – ease up on the stretch. Hold the position for 20-30 seconds to stretch your shin tendons, muscles, and quads.

The quads can be stretched in many different ways, but all of them are essentially doing the same movement. Pull the heel of your foot gently towards your bum, your quads will feel a nice stretch. If you’re doing the stretch in the standing position you may need to lean against a wall or use some prop to help you stay upright.

The IT band stretch is for stretching the Ilitoral band that can be combined with a hip flextor stretch as follows: Sit down on the ground and with both of your legs out infront of you – pull your shin towards your chest. Holding this position for 15 – 30 seconds, then place your foot across your leg as in the above picture. Twist your torso and place your opposite elbow on your knee that is bent. The first part of the stretch is working on your hip extensors – the second part stretches your IT band and your back. Do both legs.

The hamstring stretch is easy and simple to do, lay on your back and gently pull you knee towards your chest, keeping your leg bent and foot in the air.

The side stretch, or groin stretch is done by standing in the above position with your hands on your hips. Lean to one side and bend this knee while keeping the other leg straight – keep both your feet pointing forward and do both legs.

The ab stretch is done facing down on the floor, place your hands on the ground infront of you and prop yourself up by extending your arms. Hold the position for 15-30seconds, this stretch also works your ab muscles.

The calf stretch is done by using a curb, or a set of stairs, or some elevated platform. Put the leg you want to stretch in the rear, with the toes just on the platform – and your other leg forward. Keep the stretching leg straight and hold for 15 – 30 seconds before you switch your legs.

Be warned though — stretch AFTER, not before your strength training or plyometric routine. Stretching statically before your exercises will decrease your power and strength for the next hour or so, meaning that you aren’t able to unlock all your power. If you must stretch BEFORE working out, then I suggest dynamic stretching as this does not decrease power or strength when working out.

Good luck

-Will

Do you want to jump like Jordan? Check out this video and the dunks hes putting down. Amazing demonstration of the versatility of a powerful vertical jump.

5 Vertical Jumping Tips

1. Start a strength training program, pick a free one off the internet or this website -- something that focuses on squats and deadlifts.
2. Stretch your hip-flexors and hamstrings, one of the easiest ways to get a free inch or two on your jump is to stretch your hip-flexors, tight hips are not only an injury risk -- but they can limit your jump. Think of it like an elastic band, if its too tight then the band can’t stretch and generate much power when you let go. Loosening them up can unlock some power.
3. Put your arms into it, focus on swinging harder. Do this right now: stand up and pretend you’re going to jump up as high as you can. Don’t actually jump, just bend down at your knees and then straighten up and swing your arms as hard as you can. Did you feel the lift and power that your arms generated? There’s an easy inch or two to be gained by getting your technique and timing correct!
4. Do sprints. Sprinters are some of the most explosive athletes in the world. 100m sprinting regularly will increase the fast-twitch muscle fibers in your leg, and the more you have: the higher you jump. Stay away from long distance running or endurance training your lower body as this is highly detrimental to your vertical.
5. STICK TO IT!!! Don’t just stop after 3 weeks because you didn’t see gains. They will come. Consistency is the key. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was a 40 inch vertical jump. If you stick to the program you start you will at LEAST see a few inches gain. All programs are going to increase your vertical by at least a little bit.

-Will

I started playing basketball 5 years ago and realized that if i was gonna be able to dunk, I was going to have to learn how to jump higher. Whether you want to learn how to jump higher in volleyball so you can spike or in basketball so you can dunk, the training principles are the same. I spent years following free advice on forums and trying all kinds of strength workouts to increase my vertical. I would go to the gym and squat huge amounts of weight to realize that after tons of work and effort my vertical jump would only be 1 inch higher after months and months of training. I thought it was normal to see gains of a few inches per month, after all, if a 40 inch vertical was easy to achieve, everybody would have one. Except I really started to feel it in my knees from the heavy squats, week after week. After a good year of training, my vertical jump was a couple of inches

So I started researching on the internet for jumping programs and found The Jump Manual by Jacob Hiller. On his webpage there was a huge title that promised 10 inches to your vertical jump. I thought that there was absolutely no way that could be true and was highly skeptical because of my own experiences with vertical jump training. After I had read all of the testimonials on his website of people getting results very quickly I decided to buy his jumping program. I was so amped up by the things I had read that I started doing it the next day, and it was very different to what I’d been doing for the past year. Apparently I was going about it the wrong way. I mean i was doing some good things that were beneficial to my vertical jump, but I was also doing a lot of stuff that made me think it was working because it got me sore, when in reality it wasn’t really helping my vertical jump improve at all. You can imagine how surprised I was when I added an inch to my vertical in the first week. I was so happy and so mad at myself at the same time. Why did I waste a whole year and so many hours in the gym doing training that wasn’t efficient? You live and learn I suppose. The training for jumping higher is a lot different than the normal workout I would do in the gym and had very good plyometric exercises that I would have never known about.

Click here to see The Jump Manual workout page

7 Tips and tricks on how you can Increase Your Vertical Successfully!

If are determined on learning how to increase your vertical leap or have already set out to do so, then here are a few easy, but highly important tips and suggestions that, hopefully, you’ll find helpful.

Track down an Effective Training Program – If you’re genuinely serious about learning how to increase your vertical, then the absolute first, and the single most important thing you can do is find a proven training system.  A good vertical jump training program can really does make all the difference.  There are many increase your vertical programs available on the internet.  It is important to find one that takes into account all the aspects involved in jumping, one that offers thorough video instruction and demonstration, that explains and outlines the techniques, one that is affordable and comes with a money back guarantee. I have a copy of Jacob Hiller’s The Jump Manual and I believe that this is definitely the best vertical jump program on the internet, I highly recommend it.

Exercise and Weight Training – Being in shape and staying fit is extremely important for a vertical jumper and for sports in general.  It’s clear that if your aim is to increase vertical jump, then having powerful legs is pretty much half of the game. Although, that is true, it’s not enough.  Many other muscles in your body play a role in jumping, such as your core and arms, so it is really crucial that your whole body is in good physical condition. If not for your increasing your vertical jump, for your health and safety. Imagine jumping 40 inches into the air 10,000 times over a year. If your bones aren’t able to handle it or your muscles aren’t all similarly as strong as each other… you might be in for some trouble down the line.

Be Persistant with Yourself – Learning how to jump higher is a process.  Don’t think that you’re going to increase your vertical jump overnight.   The pace at which you can learn how to jump higher really depends on your level of commitment, determination, effort and learning method.  Don’t let your frustrations, minor obstacles, or obstructions discourage you from continuing to work on increasing your vertical. It takes a long time to achieve anything worthwhile, sticking to it is what seperates the best from the very best.

Practice Makes Perfect – It is a proven fact, the more time you spending practicing, the better you will be at something. So,  practice and more practice.   Also, make sure you find an appropriate and fitting area to practice, its important to psychologically train your mind to know that when you are in your “training area” its “training time”. This will help you maximize your training. Additionally be sure to follow the exercises outlined in your training system properly, to ensure that you have the most chance of the exercises being effective to increase your vertical.

Keep Motivated and Stick with It – Keep motivated and stay determined, stick with the program until the end. If you give up too soon and don’t see finish what you started, then you’ll never know what you could have accomplished.

Rewards – As with trying to learn new things, along the way we become frustrated when we don’t see results or are faced with setbacks.  Don’t be discouraged.  It is very important to reward yourself for the small successes and accomplishments along the way.  Each accomplishment or milestone, no matter how little, it’s very important and will bring you steps closer to your overall goal.

Rest and Recovery – Getting lots of sleep and appropriate amounts of rest is highly important.  It is extremely difficult to work out and train if you feel tired and worn out.  Be sure to allow your muscles adequate time to recover between work outs. This is also a safety issue, your muscles will grow on the days that you aren’t working out. Having days off is important as it allows your central nervous system to recover and will help you to increase your vertical.

Keeping these tips and suggestions in your mind as you set out to learn how to increase your vertical can increase your chances of being successful.

-Will

Need the best training to leap higher? Firstly, you might have to take a look at your own conditioning – your upper and lower body muscle strength. Gaining some strength in your abdominal muscles can really help you to jump higher. In other words you need to get in shape.

And starting place is to try and manage your body weight and increase your strength using various exercises. For exampe, squats, leg squats and other total body workouts like the spider-man pushups, the side plank can develop your overall strength. Overall strength is very important in the safety aspect too – jumping 40 inches into the air is great, but landing and having the force ripple up your body isn’t so nice if your bones and muscles cant take the thousands of vertical leaps your may be doing.

After this, contiune it up with weight training by getting into dead-lifts, bench press, squats and if you like, leg specific exercises.

Though, you may be thinking, how come I need to work on my upper body strength – why not! Not only will you look better you’ll be more importantly proportioned – Full body exericse is fantastic for the entire core. Strong abdominal muscles means a stronger body overall. Just look at the NBA players, their bodies are totally proportioned,  and they’re very physically strong – they can really DUNK.

Need more proof? Look at the Aussie Rules Footballers – now this is real football – the players again are physically built, lightening quick and have huge vertical jumps to grab a ‘mark’ or ‘tap’ the ball to their team mates.

Training for vertical jumping and strength training go hand in hand – look into developing your overall strength, try getting into power building sports, track sprinting, hill sprints and stair sprinting – this will build more fast twitching muscles into your legs. Thus it will add power. Sprinters are known to be some of the most explosive and powerful athletes by bodyweight proportion in the world. To assist your training to jump higher, consider Plyometrics like depth jumps, rim jumps, jump squats and lateral hops to increase your vertical jump!

-Will

Forget all the BS about complex training routines that have you doing four different kinds of squats, they have a time and a place, but not in vertical jump training. The two most absolutely crucial exercises in vertical jump training are the squat and power clean. You really aren’t going to find athletes who are explosive and have amazing verticals without pushing some crazy stats on their squats and power cleans.

For example, did you know that powerlifters and weight lifters have by far the highest verticals than in any other sport? Its absolutely true, and whats more is they don’t even TRAIN for vertical jumping.

There are many other elite athletes that have vertical leaps reaching 40 inches. Athletes such as sprinters, footballers and shot putters train for brute strength and power, don’t necessarily need a large vertical leap, yet have one due to their training.

If you closely study athletes with massive vertical jumps, you’ll find a common theme. They are incredibly strong (strong means at least 2x bodyweight squats and 1.5x bodyweight powercleans). These two exercises in particular stand out. I’ve put together a list of people who ridiculous vertical jumps.

BRIAN URLACHER

When he was in high school he was hammered about his lowerbody in the weight room. His coach didn’t mind if they didn’t get all their upper body in, as long as they got in their squats and power cleans.

He stands at 6’4 and 260lbs, he runs 4.57 in the 40yard dash, and has a 38 inch vertical leap. He can power clean 410lbs, and squats 550lbs!

VERNON DAVIS

The 49ers tight end has been branded as a freak of nature. At 6’3 and 252lbs, he can run a 4.38 second 40 yard dash and has a 42 inch vertical. He’s also an obsessive weight lifter who can squat 680lbs and power clean 365lbs.

BEN JOHNSON

There are unverified rumors floating around that Ben Johnson didn’t do any plyometric training. His main focus was heavy weights and sprinting. I’ve even read that he wouldn’t run more than 100m because he wanted to be as quick and explosive, and have as many fast twitch fibres available as possible.

Ben Johnson was extremely explosive and was infamous for having one of the best starts of his era. This is directly related to him being able to squat 605lbs for 5 reps, when he only weighed 190lbs!

Now I don’t want to speculate about steroids helping him lift so much weight, but you simply can’t ignore the correlation between his strength to his speed and explosiveness.

MAURICE GREENE

Former world record holder running 9.79 seconds in the 100m can squat 505lbs at a weight of 170. This gave him a huge vertical leap and an amazing start out of the blocks.

MATT SHIRVINGTON

An Australian sprinter, very well known for his explosive starts and can easily power clean 120kg and squat 200kg. He does all of this while weighing only 80kg.

NICU VLAD

A 225lb world record holding weightlifter once recorded a 42 inch vertical leap! Recorded with absolutely no warm up and wearing very cumbersome and heavy weightlifting shoes.

MARK HENRY

WWE wrestler who was at the Olympics for weightlifting can at 6’3, easily dunk a basketball. This is incredible, considering he weighs 385lbs! Along with his world class snatches and clean and jerks, he can squat 1050 pounds and deadlift 920 pounds.

BROCK LESNAR

Former amateur and professional wrestler, UFC fighter Brock Lesnar is an astounding athlete. He once tried out for the NFL and at 6’3 and 283 lbs recorded a 4.65 40 yard dash and a 35 inch vertical. This is crazy, and its not even taking into consideration that he was recovering up from a very serious motorcycle accident a few weeks prior to the test!

He with ease, also bench presses 475 pounds and squats 695 pounds.

FRED ‘DR SQUAT’ HATFIELD

Powerlifter who at 255 pounds can squat over 1000pounds! No wonder he has recorded a vertical leap of 40 inches.

Although squats and power cleans aren’t the only 2 exercises to help increase vertical leap, you cannot ignore the underlying theme amongst all these athletes. They are all extremely strong, in relation to their bodyweight in these 2 lifts.

If you don’t believe me feel free to look it up, its all easily verifiable.

And if you are looking to increase your muscle mass and add on size, check out Vince DelMonte’s muscle building guide. This by far outshines the other programs out there on the internet. This is the premier guide to adding mass and gaining strength. Have a look.

-Will