Add INCHES To Your Vertical With This Plyometric Workout: Quarter Squats And Depth Jumps!

If you want a FREE week of jump training click here:

My name is Isaiah Rivera and I have the highest officially tested vertical on the planet at 50.5 inches and am the co-founder of THPstrength, a company that focuses on vertical jump training for athletes.

What makes me a little different from most athletes that jump high is that I started with a pretty low vertical and documented my entire journey on this channel. Here is my journey in a nutshell:

14: Started working out to jump higher for basketball
16: Hit my first dunk and shortly after found out about the world of pro dunking
17: Trained like a madman and hit my first between the legs dunk
18: Entered my first professional dunk contest
19: Knee pain almost made me quit dunking
20: Met my coach John Evans, who helped me get rid of knee pain
21: Won my first international dunk contest
22: Tested a 48 inch vertical and started coaching full time
24: Tested a world record 50.5 inch vertical

The reason I make so much free content about jumping higher now is because it’s a resource I wish I would’ve had when I was in high school that would’ve prevented a lot of unnecessary mistakes and injuries.

My mission is to share my passion and love for dunking and training and to make dunking an officially recognized sport.

I hope that I can be an inspiration for your jump training and dunking journey,

Isaiah

[genuwine]

I’m 42 now 5’7” but could dunk a tennis ball in my early 20s self trained without any experience. I have no doubt if I followed your exercises back in the day I’d have been dunking like spud Webb. These exercises you provide were not readily available to everyone 20+ years ago. I’m inspired to follow your exercises to get back some explosiveness and bounce because I still love to hoop. Great work.

[hello.gumption]

I'm 43 and I still want to dunk consistently. I stopped playing about 7-8 years ago, leaving behind a 36" vert and kind of heavy (6'0" fluctuating at 85-94kgs, torn meniscus')... I want to get back to weekend games and enjoying my physical capabilities whilst it is still with me.. Awesome information Isaiah; you have this section of youtube locked down.

[charlesborel]

Heed his warning when he says to make sure to go through that strength period and everything where you build up to this. I’m not the strongest dude in the world but I am pretty strong for my body weight and do a lot of general strength training and have pretty decent numbers. I don’t really get too sore anymore from strength training because I’m use to it. One phase I worked on this type of work where I went a little lighter and went fast as I could up and down, which will require that elastic recoil that he is talking about where the muscles load and you have to reverse that strength as fast as possible. I did single leg quarter Hatfield squats w/ (safety squat bar), with lighter weight, fast as possible up and down for like 5-7 reps, about 4 sets and my legs were toast for like 5 days. You can do any exercise that use these properties, Romanian deadlifts, squats, anything. It doesn’t matter the specific exercise just the application of how it’s used and you can reap the benefits of an elastic cycle.

[connorbarthyt]

As always people do not realize they could skip college and just watch your Youtube to get all the info they need to be able to dunk basically.

[rileyrfitzpatrick]

Those explosive quarter squats make a lot more sense for developing eccentric leg strength than full rom slow eccentric squats which is my usual choice. Reversing directions quickly is going to get you a lot more eccentric load than just spending more time in the eccentric with a load thats limited by your concentric strength. Gonna have to try those out.

[corycataldo]

I had this superset for the first time last Friday, and Saturday was the bounciest I felt in a while. Got my first 2 hand dunk by accident! I was hitting 1 handers hard too.

[zacsavge]

Yo can you post a routine? At very least your split? I love this training... i find it difficult to program and balance strength training or even hypertrophy its a whole new world to me

[Geness___]

New to the channel bro, you seem knowledgeable.

Trying to incorporate plyometrics into my workouts, can’t wait 🤞🏽

[dimanakonechnyy]

Could you do a video on how to build a proper power and elastic cycle schedule?

[nickpage]

Have you ever experimented with combining exercises from different cycles into one workout? I've seen some solid vertical gains over the past two months or so from splitting my leg workouts so that the first half is heavy and low-rep lifts that you'd see in a strength cycle and the second half is a series of jumps and explosive movements. I might switch to a stricter periodization soon, but so far this system has been helpful for me.

[SNEworkshop]

useful video，although the maximum strength is important，but the more direct way to improve the running vj is the speed-strength and plyometric training like the ssc and reaction of the feet，the most guys focus on the strength，but ignore this point，so put this cycle into ur plan in the suitable time （u have stored some strength）

[TheXVCTRx]

Im 28 244 lbs 6 foot and I’ve never ran much in my life. In October I started running for a 10k and my legs got extremely strong. Go figure. I stopped running to focus on strength training but my vert has stalled out at 9’5. I even dropped ten pounds from 255 and still no noticeable vert increases. I am also trying to learn how to transfer horizontal movement to vertical for those extra inches. Progressing is definitely fun.

[strictlyvintagebasketball]

Naw not too much actually what you have done makes sense Tim Grover Michael Jordan's old trainer has a program that includes this type of work but this is a great video to post to keep it a bit simple for those interested without all the extra fillers to the point thanks for posting this.

[InevitableAthlete]

Love the content! Do you still deep squat and deadlift during this phase? Or do you just do the elastic/speed strength exercises?

[om_]

Wow this is really helpful. full of great info!

[arielfokoua]

Hey Isaiah I’m transitioning into the volleyball season, where I’ll of course be less in the WR, however I still wanted to strengthen my knees because I’m very explosive thus so much pressure on my knees

[maciekwojcicki]

Appreicate the vid! Gonna start building that strenght base much more. Some time ago I switched to only reactive - explosive excersises and I am not seeing a lot of progress on vertical. Lets see if strenght training will help 🤔

[Taiganodunk]

after how many months of a power cycle training should I switch into an elastic cycle?

[JUAN_KAKA]

Hi Isaiah, I wanted to add some inches to my vertical, jump higher and finally been able to dunk. I was looking for a training progam and I think yours would be perfect, exept for this one problem: I don't have access to weights (of any kind). So I wanted to know if you have a training plan with no weights or an advice or sugestion.

[bigpenny]

Daily Reminder to get in the word of God❤️