[Workout Advice] How to gain mass and/or jump higher?

A foot?

IMO, the best way to increase your vert is to jump up and touch the rim, and then immediately attempt a second jump in the same motion after landing.....do this repetitively until you die of exhaustion and do it as many times a week as possible...

 

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P90X Plyometrics

 

Gain muscle mass: Go work out at a gym

Jump Higher: Lower a basketball goal to where you can dunk on it at about 3/4 power. Dunk on it all the time, every day. Also do Lunges.

 

Practice explosive exercises in your lower body.

Work on squat jumps with a weighted med ball.

Drink a weight gainer if you're desperate to add pounds and start logging your calories.

 

For jumping higher there's a program called air alert that you should check out which is a workout program designed for getting you like 8 inches plus on your vertical.

 

The best way I've seen to work on jump ability is the Air Alert 3 system. I played college Ultimate Frisbee for 4 years and one of our training programs was Air Alert. Some guys saw gains of 12 inches and over over the 16 weeks. I went from a 24 inch vert to 30in in about 6 weeks. I probably would have gotten up to 34-36 if I'd finished the 16 weeks.

The only thing is that the schedule for the program is pretty rigid. You have to do the workouts on certain days. e.g. odd weeks are MWF, even are TWTh

Here's a pdf guide of the program: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=861393

 

I can vouch for Air Alert as well. I didn't complete the program, only did it for about 10 weeks, but I probably added about 6 inches to my vertical.

 

Do some power lifts like the power clean or power snatch. They are explosive movements that'll engage the quads, hamstrings, and the glutes in a way that's going to translate to vertical improvement and even speed.

The only problem you may have is that these are fairly difficult movements to PROPERLY execute so you definitely want to have someone experienced show you the form or you may hurt yourself. If anything youtube has tons of detailed videos of both.

Gaining weight is all about getting calories into your body. If you think you eat a lot but you're still not gaining weight then you're still not eating enough and you're not eating the right things. Space your meals evenly throughout the day because even if you begin to eat the right amount of food, if you starve your body between meals, you won't gain anything either. small guys need consistent energy to stimulate growth.

 

I did Air Alert as well. I went from about 22 inches to 29 inches in 8-9 weeks. It is very effective, but can be tough on the knees. It also only works on the plyometric side of jumping, not the strength.

To get the best of both worlds, you should buy the vertical jump bible at http://www.higher-faster-sports.com/products.html. Kelly Baggett really knows his stuff.

 

It's definitely the best thing out there. You get a program that's based on what you need rather than just some cookie cutter program. If your legs are weak, you're going to do more strength training. If your legs are strong, you'll focus more on the plyos.

 

Is this all the program? You do exactly what's on this chart and vastly improve your vertical?

Anyway, what about playing basketball when using Air Alert? I play basketball on Mondays, Thursdays and occasionally Saturdays.

 

If your gonna start lifting i'd highly suggest throwing chains or bands on your weights. Power lifters all use these now. A short example of how it works is if you have metal chains on the end of your bench press bar, the higher you lift the weights, the heavier it gets as the chains rise and add weight. Vice versa when you are lowering the bar. This also really helps build explosiveness. You can see how the rubber bands would have the same effect by adding resistance.

I remember about 5 years ago, there was a commercial and showed briefly Kobe Bryant was doing squats with chains on the end of the bar. That will also help your vertical thrust power. One quick note, if you can only do one exercise, do squats as they hit all the muscles.

As stated above, you won't get hardly any extra size working out without adding calories. I'd suggest a protein shakes 2X daily between meals. Once after working out to start rebuilding muscles as fast as possible and the other between meals. Which time, depends on the time of day you work out.

 

The Air Alert program tells you to play basketball - but it says to do it on the days you aren't doing the program. As someone else said, Air Alert is mostly about plyometric training. That means that it is very intense* if you don't have a strong strength base built first.

*Very intense = high chance of injury.

A less risky route that will build your vertical and make you more explosive / athletic is doing kettlebell swings. Buy "Enter the Kettlebell" by Pavel Tsatsouline and get a 35 lb kettlebell. Read the book and swing that bell - if you do it correctly there is a very low chance of injury.

You also asked how to build mass. Well, the best way to build mass is to do squats*, dips, and pull-ups (weighted pull-ups if you are strong enough because you are so damn light). These exercises (especially the squats) cause your body to release growth hormone. The GH will allow you to put on the muscle you can't right now.

Another great exercise is squat thrusts - basically a squat combined with an overhead press.

*About squats - learn how to do them right with bodyweight first. Go to dragondoor.com or crossfit.com for help. Anybody who tells you to stop at 90° to protect your knees doesn't know what they are talking about.

 

I would avoid Olympic lifts. they raise the possibility for injury to high for any benefits they give you.

I would stick with the basics that no one can disagree with.

Eat More.

Lift hard.

Limit long aerobic exercise.

Do compound movements slowly and very controlled.

Heavy weights.

 

Compound/Olympic lifts done in an explosive fashion. Cleans, jerks, squats, deads, etc. This will probably give you the best benefit in the shortest amount of time. If you are interested in a program that will give you great strength gains for a minimal amount of time in the gym, feel free to email me through this board.

Btw, I'm a 5'9" guy who can dunk.

The nice thing is, you are the opposite of where I was when I started trying to dunk. I was about 180 lbs, so I had to drop some weight while increasing my strength. You weigh so little that any increases in strength and lean mass are going to blast you off the ground.

 

Sorry, but you're not going to make significant mass gains playing ball 5 times a week. That's too much cardio for a calorie surplus.