The Importance of Squats
After taking a 2 month break from playing basketball I had more the time to focus on my training. I didn’t have the intent to train just to increase my vertical more, but I really focused hard on my lifting. The other day I was walking across a basketball court on the way back to my car and decided to take a jump at the rim and MAN did I notice a big difference in my vert. I instantly knew that it was the squats I had been doing that produced such a noticeable result in my jump height.
If you are curious to know my training/diet regimen then here’s a summary of what I did:
Weight training on a 3 day split M/W/F
Monday Deadlifts/Chinups, Wednesday Chest/ Shoulders, Friday Squats/Stiff Legged Deadlifts
Every other day was a rest day
High protein diet
More carbs on workout days and minimal fat
Less carbs on rest day with more fat allowed
Slightly Above Maintenance Calories each day
I was training reverse pyramid style and each week I was either increasing my reps or increasing my weight and lowering the reps and working my way back up over the weeks. I believe keeping track of my lifts and setting personal records in my lifting is critical improving my strength and my vertical jump as a result. If you are interested in more specifics on my training style then check out where I researched my information here: leangains
In particular I believe the heavy squats is what really improved my jump height. If you aren’t familiar with squatting then I highly recommend researching proper form before you start. There are plenty of videos on YouTube to learn the correct form. Proper form is a must if you want to stay injury free. Don’t start yourself on heaviest weight you think you can do. Leave your ego out of it in the beginning and learn the proper form and increase your weight slowly each week. You will eventually be lifting heavy at your max and be able to increase your personal records each week if you do everything correctly.
I highly recommend logging your workouts each week as well. I use fitocracy for tracking my workouts and it seems to help keep me motivated and set goals for myself. However, logging your workouts on a notepad will do.
The initial publishing of this information is available at:: how to jump higher basketball
How to Jump Higher - the Importance of Squats 