Band Traing For Explosive Vertical Gains

Written by Jack Woodrup for VerticalJumping.com

Band training to enhance your vertical jump is both very simple to apply and extremely effective. The elastic nature of the bands has some unique properties that when applied to your training, can really supercharge your vertical gains. Read on to find out more.

How and Why Should You Use Bands?

As stated in the introduction, the elastic nature of bands has some unique positive training benefits. The four biggest potential benefits to the vertical jumping athlete are optimized eccentrics, progressive and varied resistance, and resistance without weight.

Firstly, optimized eccentrics. If you stretch a rubber band and then let it go, it will rapidly contract back to its original size. Using the bands in your training allows you to take advantage of this effect by optimizing the eccentric portion of your movements.

For example, if you attach one end of a band to your foot and the other over your shoulder, when you stand up you will be stretching the band out. Now, if you bend your knees and descend as you would into a vertical jump, the elastic nature of the band forcefully tries to contract back to its original size which assists you in dropping down far quicker than if you were doing it without the band. In other words it accelerates gravity.

Why is this a benefit to a vertical jumper? The extra acceleration on the downward movement created by the elasticity improves your ability, through the stretch shortening cycle, to transfer kinetic energy back in to an explosive, upward movement. In other words, the quicker you descend, the more powerfully you come back up. The more powerfully you come up, the higher you jump.

The second benefit that using rubber bands has is that the further you stretch it the more force you need to apply. If you have a rubber band attached near your feet and over your shoulder, as you extend upwards you are required to exert increasingly more and more force to push against the band. By regularly using a rubber band type attachment, you condition your body to accelerate powerfully throughout the whole range of the jump.

The need to keep accelerating when using bands is a huge benefit, particularly with weights. Normally when lifting weights you have to decelerate at the top of the rep to control the weight and avoid injuring yourself. However, when you jump you want to accelerate explosively all the way through the movement. Too much weight training can potentially negatively teach your body the bad habit of deceleration. The band training reduces that effect by forcing you to explode the whole way through the lift.

The third benefit of band training is the variability of resistance (also known as accommodating resistance). If for example you perform a squat with a band attached, the resistance from the band lower at the bottom of the movement. This is handy because you are also less leveraged and therefore weaker at the bottom. As you ascend back up and the leverage of your joints kicks in, the band stretches and the resistance increases. Consequently you are required to put in more work at the same time as you become much stronger near the top of the lift.

This positive correlation between resistance along the movement curve and your bodies force output capability allows you to train the stronger part of the lift more effectively without being limited by the constraints from the weakest part.

The fourth benefit of bands only applies to actual plyometric and jump training, and this is the ability to add resistance without adding any weight.

Basically, when using something like a Lifeline Portable Power Jumper, you are able to increase the intensity of your training without noticeably increasing the weight and therefore, the impact on your joints.

This has a couple of benefits. Firstly, the resistance of the bands will make you stronger and you will jump higher. Secondly, when you add resistance to your jumping with something like a weight vest you increase your bodies exposure to additional shocks from the landing forces. With bands there is virtually no weight so it won't have the same impact on your joints and muscles.

Figure 1: The the Lifeline Power Jumper is a truly excellent band training device that can really enahnce your results.

What Sort of Bands Do You Use

The type of bands you use generally depends on what you are doing. However we cannot recommend highly enough the truly superb band training device known as the Lifeline Portable Power Jumper (see picture). We have found it to be both extremely useful in the weight room and for our plyometrics. It is very easy to throw it on and perform most types of lifts (even the Olympic lifts), or as you head out to the track and do some bounding, skipping, hopping etc.

If you are using bands purely to improve the efficiency of your weight training we suggest you go for something a bit more heavy duty such as a Jump-Stretch band. These are the sort used by Willie Simmons over at Westside Barbell. Jump-stretch bands are basically large flat rubber bands of varying resistance. You can get yourself some Jump Stretch bands for your weight training at www.jumpstretch.com

Conclusion

Increasing the intensity of your jump training through bands is an amazingly simple, yet highly effective method to improve your vertical. Incorporating bands via either jump stretch resisted weight training, or into your jumping will quickly help you build spectacular explosive power.

The four benefits of band training we have mentioned here really are just the tip of the iceberg in regards to the advantages they can provide. Getting yourself a Lifeline Power Jumper to take advantage of band training will be one of the best investments you will make in your vertical jump development.