Earlier in the month I posted and article from DieselCrew.com on how to increase your vertical jump. One of the suggestions given by the author was to perform weighted box jumps, with the corresponding video depicting someone performing box jumps while wearing a weighted vest. But does wearing a weight vest when performing box jumps make sense, and how heavy should the weight vest be?
First of all, jumping is a skill, just like sprinting, throwing, catching, and shooting are skills, and all of these can be improved with practice of the skill. The other takeaway from this is that the movement and muscle firing pattern is very technical and it can be altered if too great of an external load is applied. This is described by Yuri Verkhoshansky in his book Supertraining, "While simulation of a sporting movement with small added resistance over the full range of movement or with larger resistance over a restricted part of the movement range may be appropriate at certain stages of training, simulation of any movement with significant resistance is inadvisable since it can confuse the neuromuscular programs which determine the specificity of the above factors." (Verkhoshansky, p. 27). So the question then becomes, how much of an external load is appropriate?
From the literature I've read, the number I've continually come across regarding skill development is 10%. Anatoliy P. Bondarchuk touches on this subject is his book Transfer of Training in Sports, "The greatest amounts of correlational interrelationships were most frequently found in cases where the deviations between the lighter and heavier implement weights was insignificant in relation to the competitive—from 10%..." (Bondarchuk, p. 98). In terms of jumping, I would not use a vest that is heavier than 10% of my body weight. As I said above, this is because adding a load greater than this has been shown to alter the technique of the movement, in turn altering the movement itself.
So, if you are going to add a weight vest into your box jump routine, keep it to 10% of your body weight. Something also to take away from this is that after you have performed the movement with the external resistance, make sure your last reps are at your normal body weight so your neuromuscular system further cements that movement into its firing pattern.
In my next post on this subject, I will discuss the difference between using a weight vest and other means of external resistance for jump training.
Charlie Cates, CSCS
Self Made®, Owner
Charlie Cates is a strength and conditioning specialist and the owner of Self Made® (http://selfmadefitness.com/) in Chicago, IL. He has worked with competitive and everyday athletes of all ages and ability levels, from 9-year-old kids to NFL MVP's. He can be reached via e-mail at charlie@selfmadefitness.com.
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