Lifeline USA Portable Power Jumper Review

Written by Jack Woodrup for VerticalJumping.com

The Lifeline USA Portable Power Jumper is a fairly recent development in vertical jump training. Its unique and clever design allows the trainer to quickly incorporate the many benefits of band training into their program. It is something we use extensively in our own training and recommend you do too. For our full review, read on.

What is the Portable Power Jumper?

The Power Jumper was invented by a chap named Jon Hind. He has worked with many professional sporting teams and athletes. He created the device as there wasn't anything in the market that allowed an athlete to readily capture the benefits of using rubber resistance bands in their jump training. The result was the Portable Power Jumper.

As you can see form the pictures below it is a device made of two sturdy velco feet attachments joined by the rubber resistance cords. Into each of the foot attachments you plug in one to three especially designed rubber resistance cords. Obviously the more cords you use the higher the level of resistance.

Once you have the cords in you step into the device by placing them over your head where they rest on the back of your neck. You are now in such a position that whilst wearing the device, the more upright you stand, the further stretched the bands become.

The practicalities of this position are as you extend up into a jump the stretching of the bands requires more physical exertion on your behalf. As you bend down into the bottom of your jump, the bands contractive forces make you quicker.

Figure 1: The Lifeline Power Jumper is our favorite piece of vertical jump training equipment.

Our Training Experiences

The Portable Power Jumper is one of our favorite training aids. For starters, it is incredibly versatile. For plyometric and jump specific training it can be comfortably worn for virtually every exercise including drills that require running such as a 1-2-3 Jump.

Although it was initially designed for plyometric type exercises, we have found that it is very effective in the weight room too. It can comfortably be used to add accommodating resistance to improve training efficiency for nearly all types of squatting, lunge and deadlift type movements.

In terms of the resistance it provides, the 2 cords included with purchase are both challenging and sufficient. You can buy an optional third cord, but we have found that we almost never require it.

Lifeline USA recommend you unhook the cords from over your head in between sets. This is good advice. Unlike say Jumpsoles, it is not something you would walk around the house wearing. Whilst you are working through your sets though, it is fine.

Another one of the features we really love about the Power Jumper is that it adds resistance without adding weight. This allows you to increase the intensity of your workouts without placing any extra stress on your joints. You get the benefit of having worked that bit little harder without the downside of having to take the extra time off to recover.

Does the Power Jumper Work?

In terms of making gains quicker, yes absolutely. We are big advocates of its potential. It is our opinion that no other device allows you to create the kinds of efficiencies in your workout like the Power Jumper does.

As described in the band training article, a device such as this optimizes the eccentric portion of each jump or rep, it forces you to accelerate through the entire range of the jump, it provides more resistance in the areas of the jump where you are stronger, and it does all this without adding any weight.

These are not insubstantial benefits by the way. As will all training aids, you need to be going out and doing the hard work first. The Power Jumper is not a magic pill jumping solution. What it does do though, is makes your training super efficient meaning more gains in less time.

Aside from the benefits of being able to incorporate rubber bands into your jump training, it also has the extra advantage of not restricting your movements in any way. This means you don't lose out on the development of your jumping co-ordination which is so important in achieving movement efficiencies and maximum jump height.

Conclusion

Having used ours extensively we recommend this product very highly. The way it improves the quality of your training is fantastic. At $59.95 it is very competitively priced.

If you want to know a bit more check out Lifeline USA's site by clicking on the logo or the link below:

Lifeline USA Portable Power Jumper