Do Hindu Squats improve your vertical leap?

[Toolbox]

I am trying to improve my vertical leap and I want to know if anyone can tell me more about:

1. "blocking"

2. plyometrics

3. calf exercises (they help the most with jumping)

[ManaZe]

http://www.terminalvertical.com/programs.html

Check this out, it should help.

and anything that makes your legs stronger can inprove your vertical.

And calfs don't help "most". I mean don't skip over them or anything but jumping power has alot to do with your quads. so just check out the link.

[monkeygirl]

I'll move this to the Health, Training & Fitness forum.

[Kaminari]

Plyometrics involve jumping onto and off of things. Maybe a chair or some sort of object with a platform that can support your weight, etc. Over time, you'll be able to jump onto taller and taller things. A google search should get you more info, too.

Squat jumps are really good, as well.

Try this link: http://www.home.no/slominski/Air%20Alert%20III.htm . I know it's been posted before, but it has the calf exercises you were looking for.

[Aodhan]

http://www.terminalvertical.com/programs.html

Check this out, it should help.

and anything that makes your legs stronger can inprove your vertical.

And calfs don't help "most". I mean don't skip over them or anything but jumping power has alot to do with your quads. so just check out the link.

I must oppose this view. Quads provide about 30-40% of the lift, but the main motivator for vertical height is the gastroc complex (Calf muscle), if your muscles are in balanced development. If your calves are not developed to the same extent the quads are, then the quads will take over, but you will not get near the vertical you would with equal calf development.

Aodhan

[Toolbox]

A huge percentage of the muscle fibers in the calves are fast-twitch. This might be a reason they are hard to grow and develop for some people. Obviously to train fast-twitch fibers, you have to do explosive exercises like plyometrics. I just want to know though if isometrics are a good idea too. You need fast-twitch fibers for jumping so could I do isometric exercises for my legs? Do you guys have any suggestions or even better exercises for my calves pertaining to isometrics? If plyometrics are better give me plyometrics but if isometrics are better give me those instead.

[white lily]

the calf "muscle" is actually a grouping...the gastroc is mostly fast twitch used for the jumping/sprinting/explosive movements we do

the soleous (mostly slow twitch) is the work horse that helps us through our regular day...standing/balance/walking

plyos, ballistics, resistance will all help your vertical/horizontal jumping and leaping

also, you may want to approach things from a "train the movement not the muscle" angle. While training a muscle in islotaion bodybuilding style can provide benifits, analyzing the motion and traing in ways that closley mimic that motion will provide great benifits. More sport specif benifits/martial art specific benifits

If you like links check Charles Stayley's stuff at https://www.myodynamics.com

he has lots of good info

also https://www.drsquat.com Fred Hatfield

and https://www.martial-athlete.com

[Toolbox]

Plyometrics seem like the best idea for what I am trying to achieve but this website is giving me a bit of confusion. I just want to clear things up a bit. What do you think about this website?

https://www.athleticquickness.com

The one book I am looking at is called "Jump Higher With Isometric Training"

It involves using a resistance band. There is a 80% that this is just a money-making scheme, but there might be some truth to what they talk about. The reason plyometric are effective are because they train fast-twitch muscle fibers. You said that doing exercises that mimic the motion that you want to improve on is a good way to go. What if I used an isometric approach while still mimicing the jumping motion? Is that possible?

Another question I have is that if strengthening the calf is important, I should do calf raises right? That wouldn't put enough stress on my calf muscle to recruit fast twitch muscle fibers unless I did it while holding a barbell. Should I do calf raises without weights but in high reps like 200-300 or should I do it with weights with sets of 3 and 7 reps? I heard a suggestion about putting your toes on the edge of a stair so your heels come off a little. Would that put additional pressure on my calves to grow?

[Aodhan]

Plyometrics seem like the best idea for what I am trying to achieve but this website is giving me a bit of confusion. I just want to clear things up a bit. What do you think about this website?

https://www.athleticquickness.com

The one book I am looking at is called "Jump Higher With Isometric Training"

It involves using a resistance band. There is a 80% that this is just a money-making scheme, but there might be some truth to what they talk about. The reason plyometric are effective are because they train fast-twitch muscle fibers. You said that doing exercises that mimic the motion that you want to improve on is a good way to go. What if I used an isometric approach while still mimicing the jumping motion? Is that possible?

Another question I have is that if strengthening the calf is important, I should do calf raises right? That wouldn't put enough stress on my calf muscle to recruit fast twitch muscle fibers unless I did it while holding a barbell. Should I do calf raises without weights but in high reps like 200-300 or should I do it with weights with sets of 3 and 7 reps? I heard a suggestion about putting your toes on the edge of a stair so your heels come off a little. Would that put additional pressure on my calves to grow?

If they are advertising isometric training using resistance bands, then they are a crock. True isometric contraction occurs when there is no movement. (Such as pushing against a brick wall, for example.) So, you couldn't really mimic a jumping motion and still be isometric.

Plyometric works because you are exploding in one direction against resistance traveling in the opposite direction (Such as jumping down off of one box and up and over a higher box).

As has been pointed out, the gastroc and soleus make up the calf, so if you do calf raises, you'll need to do them in three positions to hit all the calf (Heels in, heels straight, heels turned out). Doing them on a stair allows a greater range of motion, although there are some machines that allow for this.

Alternating knee lift jumps are a favorite of mine. Drive one knee as far up towards your chest as you can, and jump off the other leg. As you come down on that leg, put your first leg down, then drive your other knee up and jump again. (It kind of looks like really exaggerated skipping.)

I rarely do calf exercises, but I bicycled competitively for about 5 years, so my calves got really built up from that, and I don't really need to keep training them specifically, other than class drills and work.

Aodhan

[Toolbox]

There is an exercise I know where you sit with your back against a wall and slide down until your legs are at a 90 degree angle. You form like a chair so I all this "wall sitting." You hold the position for a few minutes. It feels like holding horseriding position for a few minutes. Is that isometric? Afterwards my legs are shaking from it. My instructor says that the reason my legs did that was because I was training muscle fibers that have been used for the first time. Most likely fast-twitch fibers which require for all the slow-twitch fibers to be exhausted or for a stress load only fast-twitch fibers can handle for them to come into play. During your lifetime some fibers are never activated because you never face a stress that is hard enough to turn them on.

Message to Aodhan: The exercise you suggested is like the visual aid in the Air Alert III link I received. It is called step-ups. Is this what it looks like doing your exercise?