need to grab the rim

[Jay-X]

i'm 5'9", thin, quite muscular (just my upper body, the lower one sucks), with a standin' reach of 7'4". this year i was involved in high jump and my personal record is 5'3", which is quite good (btw, is it a good result for a 17yr-old junior in us?! i ever been curious about it). i usually miss 2 inches to grab the rim (although sometimes i can reach it). i need to be able to grab it regularly in 2 weeks. is it good to do 500 calf raises every day for 2 weeks? will that give me those 2 fuxxin inches? i would do that, plus squat 25kg every other day. what are your thoughts about this plan?

 

[Lifeforce]

whoa that's great... last time I jumped I managed 4 feet :/

I am not extremly sure on this but jumping is a fast twitch thing. So training resistance training should be a waste of time. You need explosiveness. To train this I squat but instead of just doing normal squats I lower myself to a squat and then go as hard as I can upward and then jump with the barbell. Be very careful with your knees and your back if you consider this.

 

[madgame]

I am not extremly sure on this but jumping is a fast twitch thing. So training resistance training should be a waste of time.

Yes it is a fast twitch thing, but that doesnt mean at all that resistance training is a waste of time. By resistance training you can either train (mostly) your fast twitch fibers by using low reps (in the 4-8 rep range or so) and heavy weights or you can train your slow twitch fibers by doing endless repetitions. That explosiveness thing is something different. It furthers your ability to contract the muscle fibers quickly. Thus this explosiveness thing is something completely different, actually (it DOES help you jump higher etc. though!).

If you wanna increase your vertical leap you should strengthen your leg muscles and thus increase their maximum power. That way you WILL be able to jump higher. After doing squats for a couple of weeks and increasing the weight I could use, I am all of a sudden able to jump about 2 inches higher (not that much of a change but Im still aiming for more plus it was the 2 inches that I lacked to dunk at ease ;-)). As far as I know increasing your squat power wont help you jump higher or run faster anymore.

Another way to increase your vertical is doing plyometrics, which is kinda similar to doing explosive squats i guess, as it helps you flex the muscle fibers more quickly. Google for plyometrics..