Most athletes need bounce. Whether in sports such as long jump, high jump, triple jump and weightlifting in which jumping is the central focus. Or sports such as football, handball, basketball and volleyball in which it is one of the most common movement patterns. And also in all sports in the sprints and races is crucial, since the jumping ability indirectly has a very large effect on the sprint speed. In summary, bounce is critical for the vast majority of athletes.
What is the basis for bounce?
Bounce means being able to accelerate your body vertically. The greater the force generated during vertical acceleration, the higher the bounce. The term acceleration is crucial here. It is about a certain resistance, with the jumping power primarily the body weight, to accelerate or move with as much force as possible. The necessary power quality for this is primarily the explosive power and secondarily the maximum power.
Both strength qualities are defined as follows:
Explosive Strength - Often referred to as power, is the ability of the neuromuscular system to develop high levels of force in a short period of time. Is the ability to accelerate resistance. Whether it's your own body weight for sprints and jumps or a barbell for weightlifting exercises.
Maximum Force - This is the greatest possible force that the neuromuscular system can voluntarily exert against resistance. In the context of strength training, maximum strength can be tested, for example, with compound exercises such as the LH squat, LH deadlift, LH bench press and also the pull-up. The decisive factor here is the maximum weight that can be moved for one repetition.
These two qualities of strength are directly related to each other. It was the German sports scientist Prof. Dr. dr Dietmar Schmidtbleicher , who popularized the phrase “ maximum strength is the mother of all strength qualities ” more than 20 years ago. For jumping power, it means that the level of explosive power is always limited by the level of maximum power. If you can't deadlift 100kg, you won't be able to do a 100kg power clean. That's simple physics. First you have to be able to move a resistance slowly before you can move it quickly.
Statistically, the most limiting factor for most athletes trying to improve their jumping power is maximum power. The higher the maximum strength, the more important it becomes to train the explosive power and thus the acceleration directly.
The training plan for jumping power
There are various training systems and exercise groups that lead to an increase in explosive power and thus in jumping power. With the training systems, it should always be noted that the repetitions are in the range from 1 to 6. Higher reps primarily lead to adjustments at the metabolic level, which can result in less positive carryover and even a negative effect on bounce at high levels.
From the point of view of the functional anatomy, the hip-stretching muscles are decisive for the jumping power.
Training plan for jumping power - legs
The following training plan focuses on increasing the explosive power and, secondarily, the maximum strength of the hip-stretching muscles.
A progressive range power clean, 6 sets of 3 to 5 reps, 10×0 tempo, 180s rest
B LH Squats, 4 sets of 3 to 5 reps, 4010 tempo, 180s rest
C Power clean, off the floor, 2 sets of 3 to 5 reps, 10×0 tempo, 180s rest
Notes on the training plan:
- Gradually increase the weight of each exercise to one heavy set per workout
- Record the weight used for each set in each workout
- Increase the one heavy set per workout by one rep or one level in the weight in each workout
- One leg workout every 3 to 5 days
- Alternate the training plan above with an upper body training plan
- An explanation of the ABC system of exercise order here
- An explanation of Tempo here
- What the optimal warm-up for strength training looks like is detailed here
The Power Clean
The power clean is one of the primary weightlifting exercises. With the Power Clean, the barbell is lowered from the floor to the shoulders in one quick movement. In contrast to the classic clean, the knees are only slightly bent during the power clean in order to emphasize the acceleration aspect of the exercise.
Basically, there is no weightlifting exercise where the weight can be moved slowly. The fundamental skill of weightlifting is explosive power. The exercise group of weightlifting exercises is ideal for increasing explosive power. In particular to increase the explosive power with a high safety aspect,
The Progressive Range Power Clean used in the training plan is a variant of the Power Clean in which the first repetition starts at hip height and the range of motion increases from repetition to repetition, i.e. a progressive range of motion is used. The aim of this variant is to increase the acceleration from the hips.
In the video below, Polish speed skater and Olympic competitor Jakub Jaworski demonstrates the Progressive Range Power Clean:
Good luck to everyone who improves their jumping ability with this training plan!
A complete overview of power qualities can be found here
More training plans for different goals here:
A training plan for muscle building
A workout plan for fat loss
A workout plan for women
A training plan for beginners
If you want to learn more about structured and successful strength training for jumping, then complete the YPSI Trainer A license
Image: Simon Baumgarten is the captain of the handball Bundesliga club TVB Stuttgart and has been working with Wolfgang since December 2017. During this time he has significantly increased his maximum and explosive power, which has an effect on his jumping power even at a body weight of 115 kg, as you can see in the photo. (Photo: Jens Körner )