Vertical Leap questions

[1Day@aTime]

Hello everyone,

Let me briefly explain my situation and hopefully someone here has some advice. I am roughly 5'11" and weigh 260ish. I am easily 50+ lbs overweight, but do have alot of muscle because I work a tedious manual labor job. Anyways, I am wanting to slim up and get myself into a very athletic basketball playing condition.

I currently have roughly a 19" vertical leap, and am seeking some advice on how to increase that. I have started to change my diet and do some cardio to help me lose the extra weight, so that will help some definitely. I would like to get it over 30" and possibly near 40" in the long run.

Here is what I am currently doing. I had to start out very slow because, although i am strong, i am fat and VERY unconditioned. I have been doing this for roughly 10 days, every other day.

I have been running laps with ankleweights, slowly increasing.
Calf raises. 2 sets of 50 (i plan on working it up to 10 sets of 50)

I plan on adding in the near future:

squats
Lunges w/weights
and some jump rope for conditioning and leg training.

I am looking to keep my program doable at the basketball gym or at my home with a few free weights I have. So please keep that in mind.

I have heard people say good and bad things about plyometrics so I am curious if anyone here has experience with that as well. and if so, what has been most/least effective.

I have a long ways to go, but I'm taking it one day at a time.

Ryan

 

[Squaggleboggin]

Firstly, while it's a good idea to train the calves, doing 10 sets of 50 won't help very much for a single vertical leap IMO. I would start doing some jump squats. Start off with just your body and then slowly add weight in whichever form you choose. Also make sure you know how to jump properly - learning the correct technique, no matter how elementary this may sound, can help a lot. Losing bodyweight will probably also help you immensely - less weight to move means that you can move a farther distance. Check out the dieting section for help there - weight loss is all about diet.

As far as basketball goes, keep doing some form of running if you're trying to get your cardiovascular system up to par, but I suspect you'll be much faster and have much more endurance if you just lose some BF.

 

[kenwood]

are you white? is so white boys can't jump...lol j/k...u get my pm?

 

[1Day@aTime]

I got your PM, kenwood. It was EXACTLY the kind of info I was looking for. Very nice!!

I'll keep updating this thread as I SLOWLY improve. haha.

Thanks again!

Ryan

 

[GFR]

Best thing you can do to improve it is drop those 50lbs you were talking about.....

 

[camarosuper6]

Best thing you can do is

1) Stregthen your legs
2) Practice Jumping


thats basically it

 

[P-funk]

best thing you can do before any of that is...learn how to properly jump. Movement effeciency will aid you in improving your vertical before anything