I've reviewed over 20 of the top vertical jump training programs from some of the best vertical jump coaches that exist today and do you want to know what they all had in common um Plyometrics they all had Plyometrics that is why I've spent the last s days going back through these programs dissecting these programs blowing the dust off these programs hey can you please stop blowing protein powder all over the floor just so I could Pride the Plyometrics from their cold clammy hands and do one ultimate tier list of the greatest Plyometrics of all time
let's [Music] go and now that we've had that dramatic entrance for absolutely no reason let's go ahead and get started with the tier list these are 40 Plyometrics from over 20 different programs in where I would personally rank each exercise for how effective it is going to be at increasing your vertical jump our categories for the tier list this time are number one the top tier category this exercise will cause major adaptations on your vertical jump the next tier is great adaptations then we have good adaptations then we have minor adaptations and finally the bottom
tier on this tier list is don't do this exercise it sucks starting it off with broad jumps I'm going to say that broad jumps will cause great adaptations on your vertical jump so this is why I ranked it so high no matter if you're a beginner if you're intermediate or if you're Advanced this is going to get you some gains because it is extremely measurable you can take a tape measure you can place it out on the floor and you can try to beat your personal record every single jump that is why this exercise is
so underrated because if you're trying to PR you're going to be forcing adapt ation in your body therefore forcing your vertical jump to increase so starting it off broad jumps is going to cause great adaptations you should all have this in your program the second exercise that we have is dumbbell Pogo jumps and I am going to put this in the will cause great adaptations category as well and I like this exercise for two reasons number one is because of course it's going to increase ankle stiffness and number two is because as opposed to regular
poo jumps we are now holding extra load and your body is only used to absorbing the Ecentric force of your body weight but when you add extra load now it has to improve the ability to absorb more Force eccentrically because of the added dumbbell so this will cause great adaptations in your body this is a great exercise to do I'm going to put it in the will cause great adaptations category next we have lunge jumps and I really like lunge jumps for a few reasons number one is because not only are we jumping from a
lunge position we are landing in a lunge position and the ability to absorb force eccentrically in a lunge position is always going to be good this is just an all-around good exercise however is it going to get you the inches that you're looking for I would say for beginners and intermediate athletes this is going to get you a very good amount of gains this is going to make great adaptations in your body but once you start to get more advanced I just don't think it is going to get you any more into is as you
become an advanced athlete so I am going to put this in the will cause good adaptations category the next exercise that we have is power skips and ladies and gentlemen if I could give you a little fun fact about vertical jump and if your goal is to dunk a basketball listen closely any plyometric where you are transferring horizontal momentum into vertical momentum is completely underrated and is going to be excellent for your vertical jump power skips is a great exercise good for single leg jumpers going to be great for beginners and intermediate athletes however once
you get more advanced it's not going to have that much of a potent effect it's not going to cause that much adaptation in your body because the force that you produce during a power skip isn't going to be as great or even as specific as a single leg approach jump or if you're doing single leg dunk so I'm going to put Power skips with will cause good adaptations all around good exercise but once you get Advanced like you are watching this video it ain't going to do that much the next exercise we have is depth
jumps and you guys know I love depth jumps so I'm going to put depth jumps in the will cause great adaptations category now if you're a beginner I would avoid dep jumps until you do more Force absorption training but once you begin to get intermediate or Advanced is going to be a great exercise for you however the problem that I see with depth jumps is that athletes just drop off of the Box you know it's going to be a slower stretch shortening cycle longer ground contact times deeper knee flexion and then you're exploding up improving
your Force improving your power your explosive strength such a good exercise but the problem that I see is that people don't track or measure their depth jump so if you could touch something if you could touch a rim or a net or a backboard or a vertec or a high wall I'm telling you that's going to be so much better if you have a Target to touch with your depth jumps than just going out and doing five sets of three depth jumps not knowing how high you're even jumping it's an excellent exercise there's no wonder
that it was one of the most common seen in all of these programs that I have reviewed depth jumps got to have it in your training next we have ban resisted squat jumps and I'm going to immediately put that and will cause great adaptations because there's a reason why a vertax is so expensive they work if you just set up a couple dumbbells add some bands to it put it over your shoulders and do band resistant squat jumps once again it's going to be pulling you back down faster then you can just fall down obviously
gravity can only pull you down so fast but a band can pull you down down faster meaning you hit the ground harder meaning more force is going into the ground meaning that you have to absorb more Force eccentrically excellent exercise highly highly underrated and will cause great adaptations on your vertical jump next up we have dumbbell box jumps now this is one of my favorite exercises however I'm going to put this in will cause minor all right all right I'll move it up will cause good adaptations I almost put this in minor because while this
is one of my favorite exercises this is not going to be that effective for your vertical jump sure if you're a beginner if you're intermediate it's going to be great for explosive strength great for power in theory it's excellent and then you're also removing the Ecentric Landing because you're Landing up on a box so while I love this exercise I don't think that anybody who is really Advanced is going to see that many gains from dumbbell box jumps next up we have box jumps and I'm immediately as fast as my little fingers can click moving
this to will cause minor adaptations because box jump jumps are not some crazy beneficial exercise they are going to do exactly that they are going to cause minor adaptations on your vertical jump they're overrated you just need to use box jumps properly to get all the gains and benefits from the concentric portion of the jump and minimize the force of that eccentric Landing box jumps love them but they're not going to do that much for your vertical jump box jumps will cause minor adaptations on your ver high object touches immediately moving it to will cause
major adaptations on your vertical jump what are we trying to do we're trying to jump higher how do you try to jump higher if you just try to jump as high as you can over and over and over again your body will be forced to adapt as long as you're measuring and trying to touch something higher and higher and higher well okay I couldn't touch the rim now I can touch the rim well now I can get my fingertip over the rim now I can get my whole finger over the rim now I can get
my palm to the rim now I can get my whole hand over the rim now I can get my wrist to the rim oh now I can dunk a basketball high object touches are extremely specific extremely beneficial they will cause major adaptations on your vertical jump because you're doing the exact thing the exact skill that you're trying to improve next up we have hurdle jumps and I'm going to put hurdle jumps in will cause great adaptations on your vertical jump for two main reasons number one is because they are excellent in improving your reactive strength
and number two is because they are one of these Plyometrics where you are teaching your body to transfer horizontal momentum into vertical momentum now there's a ton of different variations of hurdle jumps we could do penultimate hurdle jumps we do repeated hurdle jumps we can do Galloping hurdle jumps hurdle jumps great adaptations on your vertical jump next up we have jumping rope and while I want to put this and will cause minor adaptations on your vertical jump I am going to put this and will cause good adaptations especially if you are a beginner or an
intermediate athlete who has ankle stiffness to improve but there's going to be somebody out there who says well my great uncle Frederick said that he gained 10 Ines by doing jump rope for 5 minutes every day he he probably got some bounce but once you begin to get to uh being an advanced athlete jumping rope is not doing that much for you it's just a bunch of submaximal jumps and once you become Advanced what you really need to do is force adaptation force your body to jump higher by doing Max effort jumps and jump rope
is just not that so while it's great for beginners and great for intermediate athletes it's not going to do that much if you're Advanced lateral bounds or ski jumps I like this exercise a lot it's the first lateral exercise that we have it's going to be great for explosively working your adductors and your groin I'd probably put it in good because it gives you great adaptations in general athletically but when it comes to vertical jump I'm not sure that lateral bounds deserves a spot in good adaptation so I am going to put it in minor
adaptations however that is just for increasing your vertical jump when it comes to athleticism in general change of Direction lateral explosiveness you are going to want Lal bounds it's one of the best thing that you could do but as I've said multiple times now in the case of increasing your vertical and helping you really dunk a basketball it's going to cause minor adaptations on your ver next up we have Pogo jumps I'm not going to put Pogo jumps in great although dumbbell Pogo jumps and Pogo jumps you should be doing both of those you shouldn't
just ever stick to one you want the added load from dumbbell Pogo jumps you also want to do Pogo jumps without the added load but I am going to put pug good jumps and will cause good adaptations just because there's so many exercises that we could do that are going to get you more gains on your vertical jump than Pugo jump next up we have repeated box jumps they're very similar to Pogo jumps but I do like repeated box jumps a little bit more than I like Pogo jumps and here's why they're both going to
be great for reactive strength they are both going to be great for tendon stiffness and Ankle stiffness however because you are dropping backwards off of the box and Landing that puts your ankle into more of an ankle more of a dorsy flex position position and I do like that just a little bit more so I love this exercise I'm going to put it in Great adaptations not the best thing that you could do but definitely an excellent exercise that will cause adaptations in your body and get you some vertical jump gain next up we have
seated box jumps and I'm going to put this in minor adaptations I like these a lot better than box jumps it's going to be great for concentric power but I just don't think it's going to do that much for your vertical jump and if I'm looking at Pogo jumps dumbbell box jumps power skips lunge jumps I just can't see putting seated box jumps in there with it so seated box jumps is going to as I stated be great for concentric power you're you're taking out the stretch shortening cycle so it is just concentric power great
for if you're doing contrast training and you want a deep range of motion Pio you can make the Box a little bit lower cated box jumps great love it but it's going to cause minor adaptations on your ver next up we have single leg box jumps and I'm going to put this in will cause good adaptations for for no other reason than it's a unilateral exercise however when I'm looking like jumping rope I'm sorry I'm so I'm so sorry Uncle Frederick I'm sorry I'm moving jump and rope to minor adaptations I just can't see it
with lunge jumps power skips dumbbell box jumps Pogo jumps single leg like actually single leg box jumps could come down here too like these just aren't the cream of the crop this just it's Cutthroat out here next up we have bounding and bounding was present in a lot of these vertical jump training programs that I have reviewed I'm going to put bounding in will cause major adaptations because it will bounding will cause major adaptations on your body so bounding is one of those exercises that is teaching you to transfer horizontal momentum into vertical very underrated
it's a high intensity High intensive plyometric it's shorter ground contact times very intensive exercise I do like it a little bit more for single leg jumpers than double leg jumpers however Bal pounding I am going to put in will cause major adaptations on your vertical jump next up we have sled pushes and sled pulls depending on how heavy the sled is it's great for velocity great for power I'm going to put sled poles in will cause great adaptation snapd Downs if there was any exercise on this list that I would think about putting in don't
do this exercise it sucks it would be snap Downs however snapd Downs don't suck they're just for complete beginners when you are first trying to teach your body to absorb Force eccentrically so snapd Downs definitely I'm not going to put it in don't do this exercise it sucks because it doesn't suck however snapd Downs are going to cause minor adaptations on your ver next up we have Sprints now I know we're talking about vertical jump here but I am going to put Sprints and will cause major adaptations in your vertical jump because there is just
no other exercise that you could do to improve your velocity more than you can Sprints there is nothing there's nothing with shorter ground contact times there's nothing with a faster stretch shortening cycle there's nothing that's more involuntary than a Max effort Sprint so I am just going to put it in major adaptations you got to be doing your Sprints squat jumps will cause good adaptations on your vertical jump if you're a beginner you're going to get a lot of gains from it intermediate even but once you get to be Advanced they're not going to do
that much for your vertical jump it's great for the stretch shortening cycle great for absorbing and producing force great for you know the movement pattern of an actual vertical jump get you some squat jumps and get you some gain next up we have drop jumps and I don't think I can put that anywhere except will cause great adaptations because we have depth jumps here so drop jumps and depth jumps the only difference is the ground contact time drop jumps is going to be a shorter ground contact Time a faster stretch shortening cycle and the focus
of a depth jump is to hit the ground deeper ranges of motion get as high as you can whereas a drop jump is get off of the ground as fast as you possibly can but will cause great adaptations on your vertical jump if you do some drop jumps next we have trap bar jumps and as cold as these are as much as you guys would love me to put these and will cause major adaptations I don't think trap bar jumps are causing major adaptations especially when you get to be an advanced athlete once you're more
advanced you really need to touch the two ends of the force velocity curve force and velocity and power is great explosive strength is great speed strength strength speed that's all going to be great but trap bar jumps in my experience with the athletes of that I've trained I just haven't seen trap bar jumps get crazy amounts of gains I think it does deserve a spot in great adaptation not going to put it in major not going to put it in good tuck jumps I'm going to put in will cause minor adaptations I like to use
tuck jumps as a regression um just for for single leg hopping that's what I use tuck jumps for we do a tuck jump then we do a single leg tuck jump then we do forward tuck jumps then forward single leg tuck jumps then we get into forward hopping and forward single leg hopping that's why I use tuck jumps otherwise I would not have that in my program ever because tuck jumps are really just going to cause minor adaptations on your vertical jump explosive step-ups will cause good adaptations on your vertical jump I could put it
in Great you know for beginners this going to cause a lot of adaptation it's going to get you a lot of gains even intermediate athletes going to get you some gains um you're improving your power it's a deeper range of motion it's concentric focused um but you are also landing on that single leg you know it's a unilateral EXC size um you could do it with you know body weight or you could do it with dumbbells explosive step-ups is going to get you some good adaptations on your vertical jump however I don't think I could
put it any higher than that approach box jumps I am going to put a approach box jumps in will cause good adaptations for one simple reason we are now approaching the Box doing our penultimate step and jumping onto the Box teaching our body to transfer that horizontal momentum into vertical momentum so so that one part of the approach makes this a worthwhile exercise box jumps can stay down here in minor adaptations approach box jumps is going to be great and I think anything where you're doing an approach and transferring that horizontal into vertical is going
to be underrated and you need to do more of that for some reason ban resistant Pok jumps are on here twice so I guess we have only 39 of the most common exercises all right guys so as I am editing this video I realize that I obviously cannot read and ban resisted Pok was not on there twice it was band resisted Pugo jumps and then band assisted Pugo jumps so band resisted I would put in the great category band assisted I would probably put in the good category it teaches the central nervous system and the
stretch shortning cycle to work faster than it is used to it's an excellent exercise to do if you want some over speed work or if you need a little bit of a break and you're not fully recovered from your last session and you want to still get some good work in however I would keep them in the good category ategory next up are depth Landings now depth Landings are very important this is where you're just dropping off of a box and you're teaching your body to absorb the force of that Landing depth Landings are very
necessary especially for beginners you have to do Force absorption training you have to teach your body to absorb Force before you go crazy getting your vertical jump and producing all this Force however as great as these are as beneficial as these are especially for beginners they're not going to do that much for increasing your vertical jump so they will cause adaptations on your ver next up we have Dr box jumps I'm going to put these in will cause good adaptations Dr box jumps are going to be great for beginners intermediate athletes once you get Advanced
they're not going to do that much for you unilateral exercise great for power explosive strength etc etc good exercise but not a great exercise dumbbell squat jumps I guess if we have trap bar jumps up here we have to put dumbbell squat jumps up here as well I do like dumbbell squat jumps more than I like trap bar jumps but you're going to get the eccentric Landing with more load than just your body weight if you do these repeatedly you're going to get the efficiency of the stretch shortening cycle dumbbell squat jumps are going to
be great adaptations for you however they're not quite major once you're super Advanced dumbbell squat jumps aren't going to change your vertical jump that much kneeling jumps don't do this exercise it sucks thank you thank you we finally have an exercise in this category don't do kneeling jumps they suck I get it they look cool explosive hip extension yada yada yada there's a million 17 other exercises you could do for EXP exposive hip extension there's just no point in kneeling and jumping to your feet let me tell you a quick story I once knew a
freak athlete named Lenny Wix who jumped from his knees to his feet with a 315lb barbell on his back and you're going to think I'm lying so I'm going to put it on this video he later said probably one of the stupidest things that I've ever done however one of the most impressive things that I have ever seen but nonetheless kneeling jumps just don't have a place in your programming they they just they suck don't do that exercise it sucks lateral bound to box jump will cause good adaptations think about it to really increase your
vertical jump to really Force adaptations you need to be doing maximal jumps or doing things that your body has not seen before a lateral bound to a box jump it's all submaximal unless you're doing the lateral part as far as you possibly can but a lateral bound and then you're jumping onto a box normally you're just you're not jumping onto a box as high as you can it's just it's all submaximal work so it's going to be good adaptations but it's not going to be great line hops a lot of these programs had line hops
I'm not going to put this and don't do this exercise it sucks because it doesn't suck it's a good exercise it's just going to cause minor adaptations on your vertical jump this is more of a central nervous system exercise however it was one of the most common exercises that I saw come up over and over and over in multiple programs so that is why it is included in this video and on this list I am met sequences these will cause good adaptations on your vertical jump however I'm not going to put it in Great plyometric
sequences are fun however very similar to lateral bound to box jump plyometric sequences are normally a handful of sub maximal jumps so they're not going to force that much adaptations but if you're a beginner or an intermediate athlete plyometric sequences are not only fun but they will get you some good adaptations on your vertical jump single leg line hops I am going to put in minor adaptations as as well because single leg line hops are going to be great for the efficiency of your central nervous system however they're not going to do that much for
your vertical jump standing vertical jump now I don't like a standing vertical jump as much as I would like I would rather you do an approach vertical jump however we can't deny it standing vertical jump H it will cause great adaptations if you just stand and you jump as high as you can especially if you're trying to touch a high object we can't deny that standing vertical jumps will cause great adaptations on your vertical jump depth broad jumps I don't program these much myself however I will put them in will cause great adaptations because not
only are you dropping off a box doing a depth jump but you're doing a broad jump and if we have broad jumps in this category why not have depth broad jumps in this category because you can measure the broad jump in the depth broad jump as well so depth broad jump I do think they can be a great exercise to get you some great adaptations on your vertical jump single leg broad jump I really just want to put in good adaptations because I don't like it as much however I feel that's unfair if we have
braad jumps here we should have single leg braad jumps here you can measure it it's going to be great for all the same reasons that broad jumps are great except it's going to be unilateral so while I don't necessarily love single leg broad jumps performing them myself it is going to get you some great adaptations on your vertical jump last but not least we have dunks and I'm going to put dunks in the will cause major adaptations because if you're trying to dunk a basketball if your goal is to dunk a basketball you need to
be dunking a basketball ball small ball dunking low Rim dunking High Rim dunking if you don't have that you could do high object touches there is nothing more specific that you could do to improve the skill of dunking than actual dunking itself so we end it with four exercises in our top then we have a whole bunch of exercises that will get you great adaptations then some good adaptations minor adaptations and then only one that you should not do this exercise hopefully doing this tier list and giving you my explanations as to why I placed
everything where I did helped all of you and if you are interested and you want to take the guess work out of all of this I do have vertical jump programs that will take your athleticism and your vertical jump to the next level I have beond the M strong and bouny beond the M project plyo beond the m 1 2 and three those are meant to be done in sequence I have indestructible knees upper body programs any program that you could use to become as athletic and as explosive as possible
