Vertical Jump Training - Explosion over Endurance by Tyler Whipple

First of all, understanding the difference between these two trainings (explosion and endurance) is the key to your vertical jumping success. Some vertical jumping programs suggest doing an over the top number of repetitions, in some cases a thousand or more for one exercise. However if you do that, you're going be training your jumping endurance and not your jumping explosion. This would be like training for a hundred yard dash, yet your coach is telling you to run one to two miles. Sure you'll become good at running one or two miles, but you are not gaining the speed or training your muscles the right way for the hundred yards, which is all about explosion. The same concept can be applied for vertical jumping. If you have followed any programs that have drills or exercises that are asking you to do anything over fifteen reps, or anything where you are pacing yourself, you are probably jeopardizing your training and are gearing it towards endurance instead of explosion.

So the principal you should be taking in here is to gain outstanding vertical jumping you have to increase your intensity and not your repetitions. Because what happens when you pace yourself during an exercise is you short-cut your potential. Your muscles work on a principle called the "all-or-nothing principle." Basically your body recruits a certain number of muscle fibers, and then it either uses all of them, the entire fiber, or not. In other words, if you're training with lighter weights, you're probably not training certain muscle fibers at all, because you're only training a certain portion of them. So that's why in training you want to emphasize heavier weights, because you're going to be training every single one of your muscle fibers as your body recruits everything it has to lift that weight.

So if you are not getting the results you are looking for or have even lost results, the program you are following may be focused more on endurance. For more information on explosion training visit Jump Manual.