Train What You Can Train: The Truth About Jumping Higher And Running Faster

With so many aspects to train to become the most well-rounded athlete possible, how do you choose where to allocate time? The athlete and coach may choose to design a program to increase the athlete’s gross abilities, including jumping, speed, agility, or to adjust a myriad of more sport-specific movements.

However, it routinely appears that increasing vertical jump is one of the hottest, if not the most discussed, topics of interest to athletes and performance enhancers. Of course, many of the best athletes in most sports possess extraordinary athleticism, including the ability to jump. However, upon closer examination from an engineering and physiology standpoint, one’s vertical may not be the most trainable and time-efficient aspect of developing the complete athlete.

More specifically, the mechanical and physiological determinants of how high you jump are based on your center of mass (COM) velocity just before takeoff. The theoretically maximum achievable speed of the COM itself can be based on several factors, both from an engineering and a physiology perspective. These factors include, but are not limited to:

1. Anthropometry (that is, limb segment lengths)

2. Percentage of fast twitch fibers (genetically predetermined, although it has been hypothesized that some intermediate fibers can become fast twitch)

3. Passive element abilities (ie, ligaments, tendons, etc.) to store energy and properties (eg, ligament length, stiffness, etc.)

4. Muscle moments (that is, point along the limb where the distal ligament joins with respect to the axis of rotation)

5. Angles of penetration of muscle fibers (for example, spindle muscles whose fibers align more with the ligaments are oriented towards higher velocities; bipinnate muscles are more force oriented)

Given the fact that most of these properties are largely untrainable (that is, they cannot be altered or to a very small degree), how should the athlete increase their vertical jump, and to what degree? Fast twitch fibers are always of interest to the performance improvement community. There is still a debate about the extent to which fibers can alter their shrinkage properties. If any fibers have the potential to convert, they are expected to be the intermediate fibers (Type IIx).

Muscle contraction properties are largely predetermined by the type of myosin heavy chain that fiber possesses. Similarly, some trainable qualities of the athlete’s muscles that the laws of physics theoretically show can potentially improve one’s vertical include:

1. Cross-sectional area (CSA) of the muscle (that is, more fibers to potentially recruit for greater force)

2. Recruitment of motor units (that is, more fibers activated by the nervous system to increase strength)

3. Technique (ie, timing of all segments in the kinetic chain to maximize the overall velocity of one’s center of mass for maximum vertical jump)

The training capacity of the musculoskeletal system to increase maximum strength is of central concern for vertical jump. Those who are weaker relative to their body weight will naturally benefit the most by becoming stronger. This is due to the fact that an increase in force should result in an increase in acceleration for a given mass, by definition of force. When performing a jump, the athlete attempts to achieve the highest achievable speed within a given range of motion. If the athlete’s force output is relatively low and consequently has poor acceleration, the athlete may not reach the maximum speed at which his muscles are capable of contracting within a given range of motion at takeoff.

The best way to visualize the benefits of increasing peak force to jump higher is through a car that has a very high top speed but little power. If the car accelerates from rest and its speed is measured after a short distance (for example, 100 yards), the car may be well below its maximum speed that it is eventually capable of reaching. Increasing your power should increase your acceleration, allowing you to reach a higher speed within a certain distance (for example, 100 yards), although your top speed has not increased. The 100 yard distance restriction represents the restriction of range of motion that the athlete will perform their jump.

How does a restriction represent the range of motion? Of course, increasing the range of motion may seem logical, but a physiological phenomenon such as the stretch reflex dictates the optimal range of motion for a muscle to produce maximum power. From an engineering point of view, muscles and ligaments have viscoelastic properties (that is, they store and dissipate energy when stretched).

There is an optimal length that muscles and ligaments can stretch to take advantage of their elastic properties (ie energy storage) before viscous (ie energy dissipative) properties take over. The stored energy comes from stretching the muscle and ligament, which is then also used to drive contraction, similar to a spring breaking.

Also, limb timing is an area that can be improved. In theory, the athlete should want to take advantage of the physical fact that moving objects tend to stay in motion. If all the segments are at their maximum velocities at the same point in time, their maximum velocities and their momentum will add up to a net total momentum from the body’s center of mass, which ultimately determines one’s vertical jump. Of course, the most relevant time to achieve synchronous top speed is take-off.

Given these trainable qualities, different types of athletes will benefit to varying degrees from improving each quality. Specifically, the types of athletes who will benefit the most from improving each quality include:

1. Weaker Athletes with Low Maximum Strength and Low Muscle Mass – Focus on Increasing CSA, Increasing Motor Unit Recruitment:

2. Athletes with high muscle mass but low peak strength: Focus on increasing motor unit recruitment.

3. Athletes with sufficient muscle mass and maximum strength, but lack of synchronization and unsynchronized extension of the limb segments: focus on improving technique

These simple facts regarding trainable qualities may explain the vast differences in the observed improvements in vertical jump skills of athletes with different training styles. Essentially, the types of training that can contribute to improving each quality and are ultimately responsible for increasing one’s verticality include:

1. Increase in muscle CSA: basic strength training (eg squats, deadlifts, etc.)

2. Increased motor unit recruitment: basic strength training, plyometrics (eg box jumps, depth jumps, etc.)

3. Technical: plyometrics, Olympic lifts (eg, power cleanings, snatch, etc.)

An interesting observation is that people who master Olympic lifts (eg clean and jerk) also tend to have phenomenal vertical jumps. Is it correct then to conclude that the Olympic lifts are solely responsible for the jumping abilities of these people? The answer is up for debate. Given the fact that there is a strong positive correlation between Olympic lifting and jumping, the cause and effect relationship is unclear. It is plausible that those who are successful in the Olympic lift may simply be more competent jumpers early on, naturally, given the great resemblance to the scoop phase during Olympic lifts with a vertical jump. Alternatively, Olympic lifts may have helped these weightlifters master efficient jumping technique. Either way, these weightlifters are extraordinary jumpers. However, it is crucial for the athletic performance specialist to keep Olympic lifts in context as they constitute a separate sport that requires a dedicated commitment to mastery.

This same type of analysis is applicable to virtually any movement, including linear speed for sprinting. There are genetically predetermined elements, as well as trainable qualities. The main point is to realize the degree of trainability of all these movements. The lessons that can be learned and gleaned from this engineering perspective and analysis are:

1. Don’t get caught or brainwashed into trying to imitate another athlete with superior athletic traits: Many athletes who are glorified for their supreme athleticism possess genetic advantages that fall into one of the impassable qualities discussed above for their observed feats.

2. What works for an athlete will not necessarily work for you! – Each athlete has a unique set of strengths and weaknesses. Without proper evaluation, an athlete may not focus and maximize efforts to improve weaknesses and may not reach their athletic potential.

3. There is no guarantee how much YOU will increase your vertical, decrease your 40-yard dash, etc. – The important thing is that your improvement will be based on how you attack YOUR weaknesses. Relatively speaking, you should be able to reach your potential if your weaknesses are addressed according to trainable qualities.

4. Notice when you’ve maxed out one skill and focus on improving the next one. Athletes often become obsessed with continually trying to improve one skill (eg jumping) and sacrificing another. It is important to realize when you have reached your genetic limit in order to improve a certain skill. Instead, spend less time improving that particular skill and just try to stick with it as part of a balanced performance-enhancing routine. Spend more time honing the skills that have the most room to improve to become the most well-rounded athlete your sport can become.

In general, always be aware of the myriad of features that can be improved for your sport. Focus on all the little aspects of being a complete player. Remember, if your sport is not athletics, don’t get obsessed with general physical abilities (eg, jumping, running, etc.) and your measurements for these abilities. It is most likely a much finer skill that everyone else overlooks (for example, how quickly one rotates one’s hips during an attempt to play defense in basketball and pass an opponent, speed foot, etc.) competition. Otherwise, all the top athletes on track and field would automatically dominate all other sports as well. The beauty of improving athletic performance lies in the fact that there is always a new skill / trait that needs to be trained that has been overlooked and not trained to the max. You just have to be diligent enough to find out!