Evolutionary Athletics

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I added new material to my vertical jump book.  It includes a note on the addition of upper body work, a new warm up for the plyometric/speed phase, and a section on the addition of speed, agility, and conditioning workouts.

For more on the book click here

$27

During our years in the combine prep industry I have read people talk about a number of things related to prepping for performance and a big vertical jump PR.  Tricks stem from stretching the hip flexors prior to testing your vert, a crowding the line on your 40, the spiderman shuttle run (a now banned technique) to full on athletic preparation programs.  With all the tricks and techniques discussed one area is often neglected: a proper warm up.

Warming up for a power event essentially boils down to priming the CNS.  Getting the CNS fired up will allow for an increase in muscle fiber recruitment, including the hard to reach high threshold motor units, during the testing which will allow you to generate more force.  More force = running faster and jumping higher.  In Sky High: Improving Your Vertical Jump I discuss a warm up method called ramping.  Ramping is a way to fire up the CNS when you are going to be lifting weights.  The warm up I am going to outline here is designed to prepare you for explosive/plyometric activities.   This will prepare you to run your fastest and jump your highest.

The warm up involves the following three exercises:

Kettlebell Swing

Depth Jump

Altitude Drop- Performing an altitude drop is simply the first two images in the depth jump photograph

Warm Up

Kettlebell/Dumbbell Swings x 10

Altitude Drop x 8

Kettlebell/Dumbbell Swings x 10

Depth Jump x 8

You should rest based on how you feel and can feel free to add in a third set of swings followed by depth jumps.

In this warm up the swings are aimed at explosively activating the posterior chain so that it will carry over into jumping activities, thus why it preceded the altitude drops and depth jumps. The altitude drops get your body generating more force than you can voluntarily create which has a significant impact on the CNS stimulation and muscular contraction. Altitude drops precede depth jumps because they are similar movements and serve a preparatory function for the subsequent depth jumps. Depth jumps accomplish the same task as the altitude drops plus get you jumping which means that they will have greater carry over to the jump than altitude drops will.

Enjoy the warm up and have fun setting some new PR’s

-Alex

Circuit Training for Athletes

Circuit training has been a popular modality with athletes and fitness enthusiasts alike for a long time. Circuit training became popular because of the idea that it can improve strength and endurance simultaneously. In general circuit training involves training with loads in your 8-20rm. You would select exercises for the whole body and rotate through sets of each exercise with minimal rest. So as opposed to the straight set method where you would perform 4 sets of, say, bench press before moving on to your 6 sets of curls you would set up a whole body routie like the following:

Lunge 4×8

Bench Press 4×8

RDL 4×8

Chin Up 4×8

And it would be performed in a rotational manner where 1 set of lunges would be immediately followed by 1 set of bench presses, followed by RDL, followed by curls. You would then rest and repeat the circuit in the rotational format 3 more times.

Unfortunately, while the idea was novel, it really didn’t pan out in the real world. This is because training with submaximal loads may improve strength in a beginner but as an athlete advances they need to be exposed to loads of greater intensity to continually stimulate gains.

Circuit Training the Next Evolution

Infamous coach Charles Staley has come up with a simple way modify circuit training to compensate for it’s short comings. He calls it Convergent Phase Training (CVT). CVT provides a very simple modification to the program: focus lifts. So in this new version you would pick 1 focus lift to perform each training day and perform that lift with heavy loads in a straight set manner to stimulate strength gains. You would then follow that with a whole body circuit as outlined above. This new system would have a workout that looked something like the following:

Focus Lift

Squat 6×4

Circuit

Lunge 4×8

Bench Press 4×8

RDL 4×8

Chin Up 4×8

This would allow one to focus on improving their strength while also improving work capacity and general fitness. A truly novel approach that has the opportunity for tremendous benefits. Following I will take this CVT approach and provide some tweaks that should meet the needs of athletes. First a word on periodization.

The Second Evolution of Circuit Training

Here I will present some easy modifications to the CVT plan to meet the needs of athletes and powerlifters

GPP Circuit

Day 1

Focus Lift

Altitude Drop x 20 reps

Circuit

Shuffle Run 4×30/leg

Cross Over Push Up 4×15

DB Swing 4×30

DB Clean 4×15

Day 2

Focus Lift

Squat 3×5

Circuit

Lunge 4×8

DB Bench Press 4×8

Glute Ham Raise 4×12

Pull Up 4×10

Max Strength

Day 1

Focus Lift

Squat 5×3

Circuit

Glute Ham Raise 3×12

Push Up 3xFailure

Reverse Hyper 3×15

Pull Up 3xFailure

Day 2

Focus Lift

Bench Press 5×3

Circuit

Shoulder Press 3×8

Lunge 3×10

Bent Over Row 3×8

Dimel Deadlift 3×15

Max Power

Day 1

Focus Lift

Depth Jump 6×3

Circuit

Burpee 3×15

Cross Over Push Up 3×15

DB Snatch 3×10

DB Clean 3×10

Day 2

Focus Lift

Depth Jump 6×4

Circuit

Speed Russian Lunge 3×6/leg

Plyo Push Up 3×8

Reactive Glute Ham Raise 3×8

Drop and Catch DB Row 3×8

WSB Circuit

Monday

Focus Lift

ME Low Box Squat x2rm

Circuit

Glute Ham Raise 4×12

Chin Up 4xFail

Decline Sit Up 4×8

RDL 4×8

Wednesday

Focus

ME Bench x1rm

Circuit

DB Tricep Extension 4×10

Lunge 4×10

DB Lateral Raise

DB Row 4×6

Friday

Focus

DE Squat 10×2

Circuit

Pull Through 4×12

1 Arm Plank 4×30 sec/arm

Reverse Hyper 4×12

DB Clean 4×15

Sunday

Focus

DE Bench Press 8×3

Circuit

JM Press 4×6

Dimel Deadlift 4×15

Plate Raise 4×20

DB Row 4×6

“No measure of athleticism has received more attention or fanfare than the vertical leap, and many authors have tried to capitalize on this popularity. Plenty of people have put out manuals or books on the topic, and a few have even released high quality, applicable material, but none of the works I’ve seen approach Alex’s.

In “Improving Your Vertical Jump” Alex breaks down the vertical jump into its constituent parts, and with both insight and experience, lays out a comprehensive training plan to take performance to the next level. Focusing on proper muscle activation along with improving relative strength, the plan can’t be described as anything except solid, and would work for beginners and veterans alike. I would recommend this text to anyone looking to improve their leaping ability and athleticism in general.”

-Roger Nelsen Jr., Owner Singularity Sports Training

“I purchased the other day and it’s really nice. Looks like a very solid program (as well as his other one) and addresses a lot of deficiencies an athlete would deal with.

I really like the GPP style phases you have. I’m definitely stealing them and running my hs volleyball team through those types of workouts during the season.

If you followed the GPP then ran Alex’s article where you squat 3x/week THEN went into the rest of the program, I think you would throw some serious hops onto a high school kid.

Anyways, it’s $17 bucks and gives some nice insight into a smart coaches way of organizing training. I would have to say this ranks up there with KBs Bible. If you have any strength base at all this would be the way to go (and you can’t beat the price).

Good work!!!”

John

I have added a new Vertical Jump Training Manual to my products.  It costs a mere $17 but this IS temporary (until I reach 100 sales) then the price increases to $37.  So hurry up and get your copy today!

Alex