Pull Workout 1:

– Warm up – Standard + SLRDLP 2×5,  SLS 2×5, Trap Raises – 3 x 8-15
– Chest Supported Rows – 3 x 8-10 (takes the low back out of the equation)
– DB High Pulls – 3 x 10-12 (targets the upper back muscles with healthy shoulder mechanics)
– DB Pullovers – 2-3 x 10-12 (direct lat work)
– BW Chin Curls – 3 x F into Overhead Triceps Extension – 3 x 10-12
– Angels and Devils – 3 x 15-20 (posterior chain corrective)

Pull Workout 2:

– Warm up – Standard + SLRDLP 2×5,  SLS 2×5, Trap Raises – 3 x 8-15
– Neck row (cable or chest supported) – 3 x 8-10
– Weighted Pullups – 3 x 6-8
– Alt. DB Gorilla Rows – 3 x 10-12 each arm
– Straight Arm Pushdowns – 2-3 x 12-15
– Barbell Curls – 3 x 6-8 into Triceps Pushdowns – 3 x 10-12
– Face Pulls – 3 x 15-20

Push Workout 1:

– Warm up (standard) + SLRDLP 3×5, banded row 40
– Bench Press – 4 x 4-6 (leave 1-2 in the tank)
– Hi-to-Low Crossover – 3 x 10-12 (post-pressing adduction)
– DB Shoulder Press – 4 x 8-10 (standing movement)
– 1.5 Side Lateral Raises – 3 x 12-15 (direct side delt activation)
– Lying Triceps Extensions 3 x 10-12 into DB Waiter Curls – 3 x 10-12
– Rotator Cuff ER – 3 x 15-20 (rotator cuff strengthening and shoulder stability / health)

Push Workout 2 :

– Warm up (standard) + SLRDLP 3×5, banded row 40
– Barbell Overhead Press – 4 x 4-6 (leave 1-2 in the tank)
– Underhand DB Bench Press – 3 x 8-10
– Abduction Rows – 3 x 10-12
– Floor Flys – 3 x 10-12
– Triceps Close Grip Bench Press – 3 x 6-8 into DB Curl of Choice – 3 x 10-12
– Pushup Plus – 3 x F

Abs
2-3 sets of 8-20

• Swipper
• Side bridge twist
• Levitation crunch
• Gymnast tuck or sliding tuck

V2

• Corkscrew
• Upper circle crunch
• Power over

V3

1. ISO Reverse Crunches x 30-60 seconds
2. Seated Ab Circles x 30-60 seconds (alternate cw and ccw directions)
REST 30 SECONDS
3. Recliner Elbow to Knee Tucks x 30-60 seconds
4. Opposite Side Tuck Planks x 30-60 seconds
REST 30 SECONDS
5. Oak Tree Stepouts x 30-60 seconds each side
6. Banded Pulldowns x 30-60 seconds
7. Plank Pushaways x 30-60 seconds

Advanced version:

1. Hanging ‘X’ Raises x 30-60 seconds
2. Hanging Leg Spirals x 30-60 seconds (alternate right and left twists)
REST 20 SECONDS
3. Tornado Chops x 30-60 seconds (alternate right and left chops)
4. Opposite Scissor V Us x 30-60 seconds
REST 20 SECONDS
5. Sledgehammer Swings x 30-60 seconds each side
6. Banded Pulldowns x 30-60 seconds
7. Plank Punchouts x 30-60 seconds

 

Single arm farmer carries

landmine hip twist

landmine anti-rotational twist

landmine single arm thrusters

 

If you don’t know what the exercises mentioned are, just google them or search on youtube.

 

STRENGTH TRAINING

More strength = ability to generate more force = higher jump.

Train within your ability. Goal weights are to be built towards. start with what you can achieve and add on more weight as you improve to get to your goal weight

• Warmup
• Deadlifts 3 sets of 5-8 reps. The goal weight should be 1.5-2 times your body weight. (Tip: A trap bar works great for deadlifts as the higher handles put your body within the range of motion you use for a jump)
• Back squats 3 sets of 5-8 reps. The goal weight should be 1.5 times your body weight. Build up to it.
• Standing Calf Raises 3 sets of 5-8 reps. The goal weight should be 1 times your body weight. Use kettle bells, trap bar or barbell for this rather than a calf raise machine, its ok for your knees to bend slightly but don’t rely on the muscles above your knee to push out your reps – concentrate on activating and working those calves.
• Farmers Carry 3 sets of 10-20 steps. The goal weight should be 0.5-1 times your body weight. Try to activate your calves to create plantar flexion throughout the steps.
• Kettlebell Swings 3 sets of 5-8 reps. The goal weight should be 20-60lbs. This is a great exercise for activating your glutes. Swing the kettlebell through your legs and lift to shoulder height.

ADVANCED

• Power cleans OR Clean and Jerks 3 sets of 3-5 reps. Goal weight should be 1 times your body weight. This is an explosive exercise and the goal should be explosive strength and maximal effort/muscle activation.

PLYOMETRIC TRAINING

This is the training that will improve your “springy-ness”.

Power is the ability to use the strength you have QUICKLY to generate a high leap.

Example: a standing vertical leap test. You stand in a stationary position, squat down, swing your arms through and drive through with the legs to jump high.

The “springy-ness” you will want to feel for a good vertical leap comes from Rebound-Power. It’s your ability to absorb impact and turn that in to potential energy through the elastic nature of your muscles/tendons before quickly applying your power through your fast twitch muscle fibres to create that explosive force needed to jump high.

Example: a running vertical leap test. With a run up, you must absorb the kinetic energy created from the approach, your muscles and tendons stretch as they absorb this energy, then contract as you initiate the leap to create even more power than was possible on your standing vertical leap. Note: a running vertical leap should always be higher than your standing vertical leap, if it is not you need to work on your technique and plyometrics.

To get the MAXIMUM results from your plyometric training, you must do the exercises at MAXIMAL EFFORT.  Feel free to add it in or replace one of my recommended exercises. Its important to not over-do it. A plyo workout should be at maximal effort, as such its probably not going to last much longer than 30 minutes. So pick 3-5 exercises and do them well. Try to include stationary jumps, running jumps as well as exercises that will work different muscle groups and one foot and two foot take offs.

Note: Landing gently is very important. Land with the intention of absorbing impact and not jarring your body.

Note 2: There are so many great plyometric exercises that I haven’t included in this particular routine. Examples are Depth Jumps, Seated Box Jumps, Bounding, Broad Jumps, or even Sprints and Skipping Rope. Feel free to replace exercises with the exercises you like. Or even change the workout every couple of weeks by substituting a different plyometric exercise in. Just keep the workout around 30 minutes with 3-5 exercises that you train at maximal effort.

Routine:

• Warm up first with walking lunges, frankenstein walk, leg swings, power skipping (the 5 year old running/prancing kind of skipping), body weight squats & calf raises.
• Split Jumps 2-3 sets of 10 jumps (5 each side) alternating legs as you jump. These can also be called lunge jumps. Jump as high as possible with every jump, and absorb the impact carefully ensuring the knee of your rear leg does not hit the ground.
• Backboard Touches OR Rebound Jumps 2-3 sets of 5-10 jumps. How you do this is up to you and your preferred jump. Can be stationary if you want to work on power, or with a run up off one or two feet for Rebound-Power. Your goal is to touch as high up as possible, if you can’t touch the backboard, just keep trying and jump and reach as high as possible. If stationary, you can do Rebound Jumps which is 2 Backboard Touches in a row. Jump and touch the backboard, land on the balls of your feet and try to not let your heels touch the ground, bend and explode back up for the 2nd touch. You can also do Rebound Jumps off one foot to strengthen your one foot jumps. Also also, you can do Rebound Jumps while holding a basketball and tapping it against the backboard.
• Box Jumps/Stair Jumps 2-3 sets of 5-10 jumps. Find a box, a wall, a set of stairs, something you can jump on top of and jump up it from a stationary position. Something around waist height is usually about right and you can go higher when you get better. I like using stairs as you can count how many stairs you have cleared and try to get further.
• Super Mario Jumps 2-3 sets of 5-10 jumps each leg. This is a great exercise for making you look like a crazy person at the gym or out in the park. Hard to explain so watch THIS video to understand it better. The trick here is to use your hip flexors to drive that knee up towards your chest and your opposite arm punching upwards like Mario. Use your rebound-power and quickness to make sure your foot spends as little time as possible on the ground.
• Max Effort Jumps 1 set of 5 jumps. This is the grand finale of your workout. With a run up, try to jump as high as possible off one or two feet (whatever your preference) – try to touch the backboard, the ring or anything up high. Be sure to rest up a bit after the above exercises and in between your max effort jumps so you can jump with maximal effort. 1-2 minutes between jumps helps replenish your ATP stores which are important for explosiveness. You might not get your personal best here as you just did a workout, but its good to tie it all together and do the exercise you’re training for.

ADVANCED

• Do the above routine while wearing a weighted vest at 10% of your body weight, if doing 3 sets of an exercise, remove the weighted vest for the last set feelsgoodman.jpg

Keep in mind you will be heavier and landing softly and absorbing impact is VERY important.

INJURIES & OVER-TRAINING

Don’t do too much. Training every day is not sustainable, you will end up with an overuse injury like jumpers knee or a worse injury like ligament/meniscal damage in your knee. These will require treatment and prolonged REST – I have been here, I went way too hard and was getting great gains on my leap before getting jumpers knee and all my gains were lost while dealing with it and recovering.

Long training sessions and more and more exercises don’t mean more gains. Vertical leap is an explosive, high intensity movement. Your workouts should be the same at roughly 30 minutes long. Train for too long and you’ll be working slow twitch muscles instead of fast twitch or increase the risk of poor technique, fatigue and injury.

3 training sessions a week is enough. Decide what your training needs and do a 2:1 ratio of Strength:Plyometrics or Plyometrics:Strength (e.g. 2 x strength training sessions, 1 x plyometric training session per week). A good way to decide on this is with a comparison of your standing vertical leap and running vertical leap. If your standing vertical leap sucks in comparison to your running vertical leap – do more strength training. If your running vertical leap sucks or is too similar to your standing vertical leap – do more ploy training. Keep in mind your running vertical leap SHOULD be higher than your standing vertical leap.

On your Off-Training days you can work on core strength, upper body strength and/or playing basketball.

RECOVERY

If you want your body to do its best, you’ve got to treat it nicely too. My favourite recovery techniques are foam rolling my legs and back after training sessions followed by a swim in a cool pool (I live in a hot climate). Other recovery techniques are hot/cold showers, general stretching, massage therapy or physical therapy such as physio/chiro/etc. I can’t tell you what your body needs exactly, but do something that counts towards recovery.

THE ENTIRE EASY TO READ WORKOUT

STRENGTH TRAINING

Train within your ability. Goal weights are to be built towards. start with what you can achieve and add on more weight as you improve to get to your goal weight

• Warmup
• Deadlifts 3 sets of 5-8 reps. The goal weight should be 1.5-2 times your body weight.
• Back squats 3 sets of 5-8 reps. The goal weight should be 1.5 times your body weight.
• Standing Calf Raises 3 sets of 5-8 reps. The goal weight should be 1 times your body weight.
• Farmers Carry 3 sets of 10-20 steps. The goal weight should be 0.5-1 times your body weight.
• Kettlebell Swings 3 sets of 5-8 reps. The goal weight should be 20-60lbs.

ADVANCED

• Power cleans OR Clean and Jerks 3 sets of 3-5 reps. The goal weight should be 1 times your body weight.

PLYOMETRIC TRAINING

• Warm up first with walking lunges, frankenstein walk, leg swings, skipping (the 5 year old running/prancing kind of skipping), body weight squats & calf raises.
• Split Jumps 2-3 sets of 10 jumps (5 each side) alternating legs as you jump.
• Backboard Touches OR Rebound Jumps 2-3 sets of 5-10 jumps.
• Box Jumps/Stair Jumps 2-3 sets of 5-10 jumps.
• Super Mario Jumps 2-3 sets of 5-10 jumps each leg.
• Max Effort Jumps 1 set of 5 jumps.

ADVANCED

• Do the above routine while wearing a weighted vest at 10% of your body weight.

STRENGTH AND PLYOMETRIC TRAINING ARE TO BE COMPLETED ON SEPARATE DAYS

DO 2 x STRENGTH TRAINING and 1 x PLYOMETRIC TRAINING PER WEEK (TOTAL 3 SESSIONS)

OR

DO 1 x STRENGTH TRAINING and 2 X PLYOMETRIC TRAINING PER WEEK (TOTAL 3 SESSIONS)

WORK ON CORE AND UPPER BODY STRENGTH OR SHOOT SOME HOOPS ON THE OTHER DAYS

Alternative jump improvement program

Plyo vid

Grass Plyo Workout – Video for reference if needed

• Squat jumps – 4×30 sec
• Single Leg Bounds – 3×10 reps(each leg)
• Broad Jumps – 3×10 reps
• Alternating Single Leg Bounds – 3×14 reps
• Lunge Jumps – 4×30 sec

Effective Rep (100) Workouts