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If you’re a basketball fanatic who has a love for the game, then the thought of one day being able to dunk has probably crossed your mind.
Considering there is so much information regarding dunking on the internet, you would think that finding useful information on learning how to dunk would be a cinch, but oftentimes you just find bits of information that can seem confusing to put together.
That’s where vertical jump programs come in and one of the original programs in this space is The Jump Manual, a program that dominated the vertical jump scene when it first came out in 2008.
Considering its age, this program has acted as the foundation for many modern vertical jump programs that have come to exist today.
I bought the program myself back when I was just getting into learning how to dunk, and after completing it, I saw some pretty nice results.
You may have seen me occasionally mention The Jump Manual in some of my other articles, not really saying much else.
But as I look back on the experience I had with the program, there was actually a lot I wanted to touch upon.
So with those thoughts running through my mind, I decided to review The Jump Manual and see whether or not this program still holds up relative to other vertical jump programs.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. If you click through and make a purchase, I’ll earn a commission, at no additional cost to you. Read my full disclosure here.
| The Jump Manual Summary: The Jump Manual is a program that, like its tagline says, contains proven jump training based on science, not hype. An eBook is provided containing plenty of reading material on the science behind vertical jump training. It also includes the workout sessions, as well as an instructional video library for reference. The program is broken down into weekly workouts that alternate between weight training and plyometric exercises. It has a steady pace, gradually leading to improvements over a 12 week period. If I had to describe the program in one word, I’d say: Comprehensive. Everything on jump training is covered in this program! Pros:
Cons:
Final Rating:
I can say from experience that this program worked well for me! It improved my vertical and gave me a greater understanding on the subject of jump training as a whole. If you’re serious about jumping higher, then I highly recommend it! |
What Is The Jump Manual?
If you aren’t already familiar with The Jump Manual, it’s a professional vertical jump program from 2008 that saw rapid success in 2010.
Fast forwards a few years as other new, flashy programs have sprung into the market and The Jump Manual simply hasn’t garnered the attention that it used to.
But even so, it’s still considered to be one of the better vertical jump programs available and has since maintained the title of a tried and tested program.
The Jump Manual is also a program that is tailored to help basketball players with dunking, but the program has had a strong record of helping various athletes achieve their goals through its proven methods, showing it works just as well for non-basketball players who want to improve their jump.
They guarantee you of adding 10 inches to your vertical, which sounds pretty amazing, and the fact that they help you accomplish this goal in just 12 weeks is impressive.
Something unique about The Jump Manual is the tagline that they use on the official site, which states that the program contains proven jump training based on science, not hype.
Once you enter the program, it becomes abundantly clear that the tagline is spot on, as they provide you with plenty of background information on the structure of the workouts and the exercises used.
The fact that they dispel their rapid success from 2010 instead of using the hype to their advantage is also pretty reassuring and shows that the creators care much more about providing a solid program than making money.
What Do You Get With The Jump Manual?
The Jump Manual Program
The Jump Manual is a big program that offers a lot in terms of value and guidance towards helping you improve your vertical.
With The Jump Manual, you get a digital eBook that contains information along with the workouts, as well as access to an entire instructional video library.
The Jump Manual eBook
The digital eBook covers a lot of theory and relevant topics regarding your vertical, with the last two chapters focusing on the workouts themselves, making for a total of 8 chapters filled with information.
Some of those topics include:
– Nutrition
– Benefits of stretching
– Understanding muscle explosiveness
– Ultimate pre-workout warm-up
– Max explosion workout
Upon purchasing you receive complimentary bonuses that come completely free with the program.
one of these bonuses is called “Plateau Busters”, a thorough questionnaire designed to help athletes who feel as though their vertical has peaked, and as such, aren’t making much progress.
It asks questions that relate to potential issues you may be having and focuses on uncovering those problems so that you can deal with them and keep progressing with your vertical.
Another bonus is “Bodyweight Basketball Training”, which is an entire module dedicated to those who don’t have access to weights or a gym.
It replaces all of the weight training exercises with carefully selected bodyweight exercises, making sure that you still receive the results you would have otherwise gotten with weight training.
This section is incredible as it removes any potential restraints users may have and allows you to perform the program practically from home.
The Jump Manual Pricing
How much does The Jump Manual cost?
Currently, the price is at $97 on the official site which can definitely seem steep when compared to something like Vert Shock which costs $67.
They do however have a 60-day money-back guarantee if you feel as though you’re unsatisfied and want a refund.
But for the amount of value they provide you, it really is a guarantee that your money will be well invested in improving your vertical.
You can also choose to get 1-on-1 coaching for a monthly payment of $19, although they give you a 14-day free trial to start.
Who Created The Jump Manual?
To my surprise, The Jump Manual was the work of one person who did all of the heavy lifting himself to get the program to where it is now.
Jacob Hiller
Jacob Hiller, Performance Coach
The creator of The Jump Manual is Jacob Hiller, an athletic performance coach and professional trainer who has coached various NBA players and Olympic athletes from across the world.
Hiller is sought after as a vertical jump training specialist who has helped tons of athletes, most recently professional dunkers, improve their vertical for more than 10 years.
He’s even certified as a personal trainer by the ACE (American Council on Exercise), which shows just how qualified he really is.
With all of his experience as a sports trainer, he has dedicated years to making and perfecting his jump training program, The Jump Manual.
Everything you do has been meticulously laid out by Hiller, who also demonstrates the exercises in the instructional videos, and responds to questions that members have.
In The Jump Manual, Hiller shows you how he went from a 19-inch vertical in highschool to reaching an impressive 40-inch vertical and combines that with his years of experience as a professional trainer.
You’re ultimately provided with an efficient and proven system to improving your vertical with the added benefit of getting educated.
How Does The Jump Manual Work?
Upon entering your dashboard in the membership section, you get an entire overview of the background information behind the vertical jump and how we improve upon it, as well as a section dedicated to the exercises themselves.
I will take a moment to note that the layout of the website is rather dated, with video and picture quality lacking as everything has been kept much the same as it was back in 2008. Although the exercises work just as fine now as they did back then, the site itself needs refining.
The entire program itself is structured as if it were a book by having different chapters that you can access, each of which pertains to a different topic.
The science behind The Jump Manual is pretty extensive, covering a lot of ground what it comes to providing you with the information necessary to understand how the program improves your vertical.
9 Major Components Of The Vertical Jump
This program covers 9 major components that impact your vertical jump, which are:
1. Strength
Don’t dismiss weight training
Strength plays a critical role in helping you produce more force when jumping to increase your vertical, and we build our strength through weight training. Something overlooked by many is the role that the upper body and core play when jumping, as well as the importance of training both.
2. Speed
Speed is really the time it takes for you to produce and exert force when jumping, and if you can shorten that time interval by improving how fast you jump, that can increase how high you can reach even if the force you input is the same.
3. Muscle Recruitment
Increased activation of the nerve cells leads to an increase in muscle usage
Muscle recruitment is the recruitment of neurons that are connected to muscle fibers. When jumping, we send a signal to those neurons to activate the muscle fibers and contract. By increasing the number of muscle fibers we can activate in as short a time as possible, we dramatically increase the muscle force we can generate when jumping.
In The Jump Manual, we focus on recruiting Type 2B muscle fibers, which contract the quickest and generate the most force out of the three muscle fiber types.
4. Form
The form used when jumping is extremely important since this essentially dictates how well you can synchronize your body to jump by maximizing the amount of force produced while minimizing the countermovement of our body.
Not only does countermovement reduce the overall force we can generate, but it also increases the leverage of your body weight on the lower body. This essentially means that you are forcing your lower body to generate more force and deal with more leverage just to reach the same height.
Instead, we reduce that countermovement by implementing the proper jumping form that will allow us to jump higher.
5. Nutrition
Nutrition is equally as important as the training itself, if not more so because no matter how hard you train and work on implementing the right form to maximize your vertical, all of that work is entirely useless if your body is unhealthy and unable to respond.
The body itself requires food to have the energy to recover from a workout, strengthen itself, and stay healthy. As such, the type of food you feed your body will affect how well your body can carry out these necessary actions.
6. Flexibility
Stretching is key to a good workout session
Flexibility allows for fast, fluid movements while jumping to maximize the height of your vertical. Without the proper level of flexibility, you limit the range of motion your muscles have to contract and generate force, which will limit your ability to jump.
When performing a movement such as jumping, it should easily be achieved at high speeds, which signifies that you should be able to stretch well beyond the position of the movement itself.
This can be seen in basketball players who, while dunking, are performing a lot of complex movements. Without proper flexibility, they could easily hurt themselves.
7. Balance
Maintaining balance while jumping is important as it shows control over the lower and upper body as well as control over the weight distribution through the body. Improving your balance will improve how well you can coordinate your joints and muscles to remain stable and perform the necessary actions to generate force while jumping.
8. Body Composition
Body composition has a direct correlation with jumping as the level of body fat and muscle you have will determine how well you can jump. With The Jump Manual, you are constantly on top of your body composition, making sure that your body is in peak conditions through both proper exercise and rest.
9. Genetics
With genetics, the genes you receive from your parents play a role in determining how well you’re able to jump. But regardless of how many type 2B muscle fibers you currently have, you can actually retrain your slower muscle fibers to contract much faster and act much like the type 2B muscle fibers.
With these 9 major components covered in plenty of detail, you get a full understanding of how to best increase your chances of seeing results by determining the areas in which you can improve. All of this information also provides you with a resource you can use to see what may be limiting your ability to dunk.
With The Jump Manual, you get a detailed program covering absolutely everything you need to know comprehensively.
The Jump Manual Workout Routine
The workout routine that The Jump Manual offers is the bread and butter of this program; the creator has compiled hundreds of proven studies and research papers on vertical jump, tested each one, and filtered the information to create an easy to follow 14-day training routine.
In this 14-day training routine, you train two times each week, and during your off days, you’ll be focusing on a recovery routine that consists of stretching and core training. Each of the two weeks involves different exercises; week 1 follows plyometric exercises to build explosiveness, while week 2 involves weight training exercises that increase your overall strength.
Every exercise is meant to do be done at maximum intensity to target the type 2B muscle fiber specifically and improve your ability to recruit them quicker. Type 2B muscle fibers are only recruited by your body as a lost resort, so only by pushing your body to its maximum during each session are you able to tap into and improve those muscle fibers.
Once you complete the 14 days, you repeat the routine and continue to do so for a total of 3 months of training.
Break the 14 days into its individual parts you have:
Plyometrics
Plyometrics improve speed and explosiveness
Plyometrics will comprise the types of exercises you will be performing during the first week. Plyometric exercises involve explosive movements in short intervals to increase power and improve the recruitment of your type 2B muscle fiber.
This will lead to quicker contractions when jumping, which will reduce time wasted while increasing the overall force exerted by your body. The exercises include box jump, depth jumps, medicine ball exercises, and more, with sessions lasting about an hour and a half.
Strength Training
Strength training builds strength using weights
The second week is centered entirely around strength training through the use of weightlifting exercises that also involve explosive moments. The goal of doing these exercises is to build the strength in your muscles necessary to jump high with more power, while at the same time performing this action quickly.
As such your main focus is performing exercises such as deadlifts and weighted squats which build strength in the lower body and accompanying them with exercises that involve more explosive movements such as the hang clean.
To perform the strength training portion you will require special equipment or access to a gym to perform the proper exercises. The program does, however, provide you with bodyweight alternatives in the case that you don’t have access to equipment.
The sessions for the strength training will last about an hour and a half to two hours.
Core
The core muscles work to maintain stability
You’ll work on your core throughout both weeks, training your abdominals, hips, and more to become stronger and increase your overall stability. Workouts such as planks will be used to develop your core, and sessions will last less than an hour.
Recovery
On every off day you have, a recovery routine is set in place to make sure you maximize your gains by releasing tension through your body. We accomplish this through stretching which increases our flexibility and allows our body to rest appropriately in preparation for the workout secession.
This is the entire workout plan which covers everything you need to do in extreme detail, making everything easy to follow through with. Along with the 14-day routine, you also have the video library which offers step-by-step instructions on each exercise and the proper form associated with each.
But even though the program is meticulously structured so that you aren’t left guessing what to do, that doesn’t make the exercises themselves any easier. It’s definitely a challenge to perform every exercise, both plyometric and weight training, with proper form for 3 months.
The program is tough but with the knowledge you’ve gained and the workout plan you have, The Jump Manual has given you a straight path to improving your vertical, and all you need to do is put in the work.
The Jump Manual Results
So, does The Jump Manual live up to its promise of adding 10 inches to your vertical?
Well, the program offers a lot when it comes to having the necessary components to improve your vertical, from the knowledge provided to the arrangement of the workout routine. Everything is structured to include tested exercises with a routine that is proven to show results.
I personally gained 6 inches, so I didn’t quite hit the mark I was promised. But considering I had completed a separate vertical jump program, Vert Shock, before starting this program, an improvement of 6 inches to my already developed vertical well exceed my expectations.
I’m sure that if I didn’t already have previous experience with increasing my vertical through plyometrics and proper rest, then the results would have been much more dramatic and would have easily added up to the 10 inches promised in the program.
But regardless, being able to jump higher has made me feel better about my game in basketball as I block shots and get rebounds with more confidence and ease. The program has also gotten me into peak shape, making me feel more explosive on the court.
Something that I will say was unique to this program was the amount of knowledge I was able to learn and fully ingrain. This is extremely valuable for me as I was able to use this information to continue progressing long after I finished the program.
The Jump Manual Pros And Cons
The Jump Manual is an amazing program that offers a lot and covers a lot of ground to make sure you get everything you need, but there are a few things to take into consideration when going into this program.
Cons
Shows Its Age
The workout plan offered in this program contains proven methods and as such has stood the test of time, but the same can’t be said for the website. The website and the quality of videos and images still retain their original conditions from 2008, which by today’s standards isn’t too great.
A simple update to the website and images as well as reuploads of the videos in HD would easily fix this problem and make the user experience much better.
Time Dedication
The Jump Manual is meant to be completed over the course of 3 months, and during this time you are either exercising or performing proper recovery in preparation for your exercises. The program requires you to dedicate a lot of your time to follow the workout plan during that 3 month period, leaving you little time for much else.
When starting the program your vertical may even suffer as you adjust to the weight training regimen, and it can take a good while of following the workout plan before you see any results. This is in a way good, as the program works wonders when you perform it long term.
But if you’re coming into this program to complete it in as quick a time as possible, then you’ll probably be a bit disappointed. A much better alternative is Vert Shock by Adam Folker, another vertical jump program that uses plyometric exercises to achieve results in only a 2-month timeframe.
Requires Gym Equipment
Access to weights is highly recommended
Even though Hiller has made it a priority to include alternatives to the weight training exercises in the form of bodyweight exercises, they simply aren’t going to be as effective at getting you results in the long term. After all, The Jump Manual workout plan was made to use weight training exercises to maximize the amount of strength you can build.
As such It’s recommended that you have access to gym equipment of some sort so that you can carry out the exercises as intended. This isn’t to say the bodyweight exercises don’t work, but that performing the weight training exercises will save you a lot of time when trying to see results.
Pros
Now that we’re done looking at the negatives, let’s delve into all of the benefits you get with a program like The Jump Manual.
Filled With Valuable Information
The Jump Manual provides you with a lot of valuable information regarding your vertical, all of which is given concisely so that you can fully understand it all. You get a deep understanding of the major proponents that can lead to a truly explosive vertical, which allows you to better analyze the areas you’re weak in.
This ability to understand where you are personally lacking is invaluable as you take this with you long after you finish the program. This signifies that you’ll always have in mind the correct way to achieve a good vertical, and as such, you’ll be a lot more perceptive to the workouts you perform.
You have many other programs such as BoingVert which cram tons of unnecessary information in a way that makes you feel overwhelmed. In those cases, it can be hard to learn anything of value when there’s so much information to consume.
Instead, you have all of the essential information ready for you to learn and then apply, something which no other program has done nearly as well.
You Can Reach Your Maximum Vertical Potential
Considering you’re making use of both plyometric and weight training exercises, you are being as effective as you can by focusing on building strength alongside increasing overall force. Combine this with a proper recovery routine and you have everything you need to reach your maximum potential when it comes to your vertical.
Nutritional Plan
They even give you a guide to getting proper nutrition
Something that shows The Jump Manual goes the extra mile to make sure you have everything you need is the nutritional plan they provide you. This is incredibly important since maintaining a good diet is essential when performing a lot of intense exercises.
As you perform exercises and rest, you’re also eating properly to make sure that your body is receiving the energy it needs to keep working. Even if we’re performing the exercises with correct form and getting enough rest, a bad diet will limit your results heavily.
Hiller knows this and understands that if he plans to get you jumping a lot higher, you need to be eating right so that the program can do its job.
Comprehensive Training Program
The Jump Manual breaks down everything for you to the point where you just follow a 14-day workout plan and repeat it for a total of 3 months. It’s mindblowing how easy they make the process so that you know exactly what you have to do, and at no moment are you left confused as to what’s next.
This is also taking into account that the workout plan is solid as it uses select plyometric and weight training exercises that are the best when it comes to getting results. Even on your off days, you have a routine set in place to make sure that you’re maximizing your gains even when you’re not exercising.
That’s amazing attention to detail and a level of consideration that you really wouldn’t find with many other programs.
Conclusion
So, does The Jump Manual hold up?
Although the website shows it’s age with pictures and videos taking a dip in quality, don’t let that distract you from the value this program offers. The workout plan set in place is still amazingly refined and the information provided is relevant and offers a lot of value.
The workout plan makes use of the best plyometric and weight training exercises available and has a proper recovery routine to maximize gains. You’re also provided with a nutritional plan that takes into consideration the diet you need to have a healthy body.
Everything is meticulously set up to include all that you would need for the perfect program, and it’s because of this that The Jump Manual has held up for as long as it has and will continue to do so. Hiller put a lot of work into making the best vertical jump program he possibly could, and it shows in the attention to detail.
I will say that it explains more information and theory than needed, as many might just want to focus on the exercises themselves. But the fact that it uses a lot of science to back the program is important as it illustrates legitimacy, and you could always just read what you need and skip the rest.
The Jump Manual definitely holds up in its approach to vertical jump training and deserves its spot as one of the best vertical jump programs available.
