How to Jump Higher Off Multiple Plants

0:00What's up guys, welcome back to the THB strength podcast and in today's podcast, we're going to be talking about can you increase your vertical off of one foot and two foot at the same time. But before we do that, my name is Dr. Ben Mox, since I am a physical therapist and performance coach over here at THB strength where we have worked with and developed four out of the current six athletes who have tested a 50 plus inch vertical and helped thousands more, their knee pain and jump higher and joining me is the host of the weekend podcast or one of the hosts of the weekend podcast, Austin Burke, he has a 45 inch vertical off of two feet, a 47 inch vertical off of one foot and he is also one of the athletes that I have the pleasure of training personally. So Austin, I'm going to let you lead it up here. What do you, what is your, what are your thoughts on and can you increase your vertical off of one foot and two foot or two feet at the same time? I will say as someone who does both, it is possible.

1:01I do think it's also not ideal. I do think you are leaving some stuff in the tank by being, is there a term for like multi plant like ambidextrous, could we like make one up? Multi plantar. Multi plantar. And yeah, I do think it's possible. I do think it's a little bit of a slower route though, for sure, and I think it definitely comes down to jack of all trades, master of none or master of one foot or master of eight of one plant. And we tell us a lot with our athletes starting out is work on one plant first, master one plant first. Typically, it's way easier to master a two foot plant, not easier, but it's better to master a two foot plant. And then you can do more one foot jumping just because two foot requires a lot more coordination than one foot. It's just a lot harder than one foot. People usually jump higher off of one foot naturally and two foot just better because it

2:02has a higher transfer from the weight room. It's usually easier on your knees. Like guys can do two foot jumping into their thirties and forties and still be fine. And it's also more applicable to teen sports like basketball and volleyball where they do like predominantly two foot jumping or it's safer to jump off a two foot in like in the basketball case and like take contact. So we usually tell guys, you know, don't be of, it's okay to be a jack of all trades, master of none, but master one plant first. And what ends up happening, which is interesting is guys will train one plant like say they're left right plant, but as they get stronger and more powerful and get more coordinated in their main plant, all of their plants going up. And I've seen this like I never jump off my right left plant. I'm a left right jumper. I never jump off my right left plant. I still jump higher than what I did four years ago. And I actually just, I just jumped off a one foot for like for a couple jumps the other day. And I had not jumped off a one foot for a while, a one eye to cap string, but two I just never do it. And I was jumping high. I was like, whoa, I haven't done this in a while, but and it's just because as you increase your overall like organisms, your your body's capacities, I think, you know, high tides raise

3:07all ships. And I think you've seen that too. I'm sure. Yeah. I've never really been up a little bit. Yeah. So I guess do a one foot predominant, or not that session, I just trained for like three hours. So I'm a little derpy, like a one foot predominant training where it's like very specific, hyper specific one foot training. I've never been healthy enough. And I've always noticed just getting stronger, getting more powerful and generally increasing my fitness levels. My one foot has a shot up and they they kind of rise with each other where you don't necessarily need to do the most specific training. I'm sure like there's a lot of like extra low hanging fruit by doing that, but you can still increase like your one foot by just getting stronger and getting more athletic and more. Yeah. And for you, like you usually like to like if you're, have some like knee pain or like you're like the foot thing, yeah, jumping off a two foot is like one way to kind of maintain like your explosive, like your explosiveness basically and still get your jump volume in. And it's odd because you'll just come back and within like two sessions, you'll jump high

4:08off of one. Yeah, yeah. Like it is, it comes like one foot seems to come back a lot quicker than two foot for a lot of guys. And that's not always the case, but it seems that one foot vertical like once you know the general rhythm of one foot, it seems to be a pretty easy motor pattern to maintain. I will say yeah, definitely as long as my fitness levels are up to speed, like if I'm coming back from an injury and like I'm in shape, like I didn't like gain 50 pounds and you know I'm like, I don't know, like eating bow jangles all day. That's what is define bow jangles for the I we don't have that here in Nebraska. What is it? No, I'm well jangles. Bow jangles is a fast food establishment known for their fried chicken and there is southern cuisines. So yeah, I used to live in Virginia, so okay, it doesn't matter. But yeah, if I'm out of shape, basically the one foot does take longer, but if my fitness levels are higher, two foot typically takes about three to four weeks to get those patterns

5:08back. But one foot is typically I can get lucky in my first session back. I can jump off one as long as the fitness levels are there because once it's really like as long as you're not fat, like you know, as long as your weight is, that's like the number one thing for you is like as long as you're not 10 pounds, like you gain 10 pounds and you're rehab period or whatever, then you'll come back and jump five of one foot. But if you gain weight, you're going to notice that your one foot feels like dog water, it feels terrible. Two foot, you can get away with it because you can kind of just spend a little more time on the ground. But one foot, if you gain weight, you're going to notice it immediately, either during the session or the next day, your body's going to be like, what the hell? No, totally. It's so funny. You say that too, because right now I'm jumping some of my highest of ever jumped of one in two foot, but I'm actually the heaviest I've ever been, but you're also the strongest you've ever been to. I'm very, very strong, but it's probably up for body because I kept injuring my ankle and, yeah, I'm 170, I was 171 the other day, and when you really, you didn't tell me this,

6:10no, I just used to be, I was waiting for it. Oh my gosh, she was withholding information, valuable information. No, I literally, like if I lose five pounds, I'll probably hit like 49 of one or something. Yeah, but I guess we talked about that earlier was, we'll just have you cut for them. Like, you'll cut some of that water weight before a contest. Yeah, I know. I'm going to like you find with that show, but yeah, no, it's one of those interesting things because I think as someone who's a predominantly one foot jumper for me, specifically, learning two foot and learning how to balance the sessions is really helpful. There's this Dunker named J Roth, and I had a session with him. Yeah, yeah. And he taught me this. He said, two foot's easier to warm up, and two foot's a great warm up for one foot, and I kind of like stuck with that throughout the years. That's actually good advice. Yeah, no, he told me that. And I was like, okay. I could kind of jump up to you, but I couldn't really jump up to you. So I always start with like some light two foot jumps. I'm able to push the intensity harder and once I'm able to max effort jump, I kind of know I can start warming up one foot, and that's a way to maintain it for me. It kind of goes in this pattern of warm up to max approach jumps up to, okay, once I

7:12hit that, and I'm at like, I get a couple good ones in, I feel happy about it. I go to one foot, make sure I'm practicing. I get good jumps in. The moment that declines, I go back to two, get a few more jumps in, I'm good to go. Or I'll kind of like do one foot and two foot in that middle section, depending on how I'm feeling. I've told some guys, too, is like warm up your two foot and then go to your one foot, warm that up. And then once your one foot burns out, then go back to two, because usually with two, you'll still jump high and you'll still have a quality, because like one foot you usually can't get in as many jumps, and that's a good way to kind of balance the two if you needed both of them. I also say like a lot of times with, you know, to take a team sport athlete, for instance, like in basketball, you know, they do jump off of one quite a bit, but not a lot. I'll tell you guys, like you'll get a lot of your one foot jump reps in through your sport, like doing your skill practice and like, you know, driving to a, you know, one hand dunk or whatever. And so in your, so in your jump sessions, you know, you should be prioritizing more two foot and mastering that approach, that plan, because it's way harder than one foot.

8:15You'll already get one foot reps into it the week, so you don't need to worry about, like let's go ahead and segway since we have plenty of time here. Let's segway into what are your thoughts on jump balance? Oh, jump balance. Someone actually comments on my YouTube video the other day, if you don't subscribe, go subscribe to my YouTube. It's very poorly edited and I put no effort into it, but it means a lot to me. But basically, someone commented it was like, because I jump off my left foot and my two foot is a right, a left right plant. And they were saying that I should switch to right left, so the loading is lower. And I was just kind of like, I get that, but at the same time, like I don't think it's necessary. I have never really practiced right foot. I never practiced right left and my vertical's gone up. I don't think it helps with my injuries, typically my injury levels are determined based on my fitness and not over jumping and listening to my body. But also, like I think if you want to increase all these plants, like you don't need to,

9:16unless you like, if you think it's going to be for injury prevention, I don't think that's necessary. I think it's a dumb, I think it's a terrible excuse, like you're always going to have imbalances and what like is always going to be stronger than the other, because that's just the nature. Like it has to be. If it wasn't, like if it wasn't, you would jump lower. Like or in the case of like sprinting, like people, you know, they had their front block and their back block. Well, you obviously want your front block foot to be, or front block leg to be stronger than your back. Like it's like that's just the nature of the sport. And in your case, I actually think it's beneficial because you're left right off of two foot. Correct. Yeah. And then you jump off your left foot. If you can't jump off a one foot for whatever reason and you can jump off a two foot, well, now you're getting a lot of loading through your left leg because like that's your plant leg. So like you're, you're kind of able to maintain some of those explosive strength qualities. So that way when you get back to one foot jumping, it's actually, you know, it's actually easier because like that is kind of your strong leg. And I think, yeah. And I kind of to bank off what you said, I would say a lot of trainers like to recommend jump balance because they're like, well, you're going to, you know, be using all of these

10:18plants in the game, you know, you, it doesn't matter if your verticals 40 inches, you want all of them to be like 35, 36, but I think, but it's just a going back to the jack of all trades master of none. If you try and achieve jump balance, like you truly have the same jump volume for everything, you're going to end up just jumping lower. Like you're just going to end up as having an average vertical versus being or versus having a great vertical off of one plant. And when it comes to recruiting, when it comes to in-game performance, like that's going to hurt you. And a lot of people severely overestimate how much they use their other plants. Like I am a left-right jumper. I played college basketball, and I've been playing basketball since I was, I don't know, seven or something, eight. And I rarely jumped right left. Like in game, fit it matter which direction I was going, you can get to your dominant plant a lot more than you think, or you'll just do like a different, like, or I'll just jump off my right foot and do a lay-up or something as I'm going right left. Like I don't, you don't really, because my best one-foot plant is actually my right,

11:19actually used to be my left in high school, but you really don't jump off of, or like in volleyball, they use the same, like if you're right left, like if you're a right-left jumper, right-hitter, or like right-hand-hitter, they're going to jump off right-left on the left side and on the right side. So it doesn't really, it doesn't really matter, and by increasing your main plant, all your plants are going to go up. Like we see it with Isaiah all the time, like whenever he gets hurt, and he ends up going right left, or he jumps off of one foot, like his verticals higher than what it was the last time he like, the last time he jumped off of one. So it just, when he become a freak athlete with one plant, it's impossible to not jump high. Like you're never going to have a 12, or you're rarely going to have like a 12-inch difference between plants. Like if you have a 42-inch vertical off your left right, well your one foot's probably going to be 36 versus having a 34 on all of them. You know what I'm saying? So I don't think, yeah, I don't think jump balance is really necessary. I think it's completely overhyped. I would say that when you're looking at like the sports specificity argument of, you know,

12:26like we can always kind of, and we can even tie this into, you know, coaches don't want to do max effort approach jumps with athletes. They just want to do like, like off the dribble, drop step, you know, box jumps, and like that's their jump volume. Because like, well, you're never going to have a max approach jump in a game. And it's the same thing. It's like that doesn't raise your capacity. Like that doesn't increase your eccentric RFD or your ability to convert, you know, a high amount of horizontal to vertical momentum. And by, and max effort approach jumping, like that is a great stimulus, not doing a drop step jump. Like, or a drop step, you know, one foot or drop step, two foot box jump with the ball to just because it's like sports specific. And so I think guys can just get too much in the weeds. I'm not saying that you're never going to jump off your opposite plant, but you're not going to do it very often. And you'll get in all those reps you need through just playing your sport and practicing it. Like I got my right left jumps in through doing my left hand drives, right left, you

13:28know, extendo left hand finish like that was my like that was my right left, you know, plant work. I never did. I never had my jump sessions right left. I think it was easily beneficial because guys will just become average athletes and some great athletes. Yeah, I mean, if your goal is to be great at basketball, definitely there is some benefit in learning all these plants, but like at the same time, you should still focus on one plant. Like I was thinking about this. It's like a good way to learn anything, for example, two foot. What I used to do before I can actually dunk up two foot is like, I would just do one step jumps, 360 jumps, do whatever, just as I'm warming up just to get the use to it. And then I'll prioritize one foot. And I think that's the same. If you really need like, have the need in the actual like, you need to jump off your right, whatever warm up with stuff, like teach yourself slowly, don't make it the goal of the session because that's also like, it just not, it doesn't, it's just something. Yeah, you can just sprinkle it in, you know, you don't have to make it like, like I've had, I can think of some athletes that were like, okay, well, this week, I'm going to do this plant next week.

14:29I'm going to do this plant. And the next week, I'm going to do this plant. And then the next week, this plant. I'm like, no, terrible idea because you're going to end up just like not being able to get the coordination with, with any of those plants. So yeah, like you said, just do a couple jumps, if you, if you absolutely are like super neurotic about getting a jump balance or getting in other reps, then sure, do a couple jumps. But you're, you know, 80% of your sessions should be your main plant. And then the other 20% can be whatever you want it like, whatever else you want it to be. Yeah. Yeah. That would be my recommendation because I think, I mean, a lot of guys, especially if you're talking about trying to get, trying to get your first dunk master one plant, don't try to work like we have one guy I can think of right now. First day and last name, I could name him if need be, but I'm not going to be, I he wanted he every session, every session, he wanted to do all four plants. And I was telling him like, dude, just focus on one plant, whether it's one foot or two foot, it doesn't matter. Just focus on one plant. And then now he's slowly starting to jump higher.

15:30Yeah. I mean, I think we see that all the time. Yeah. It's interesting because like two, like I, I always think about it in the sense of like, you know, you're trying to prevent getting injured for the most part. That's what people, their main thing is, right? Like, and there's also a study which we can get into a second, but it's basically saying like just like the working opposite plants are using the opposite hand helps increase the skill with the dominant hand or the dominant leg and stuff like that. Like cross over effect test. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I also think to like, wait, what is this? Oh, no. What was I trying to do? What was I trying to do? Cross over effect. And prevention. Oh, injury prevention. Yeah. You're going to have much more benefit like preventing injuries just by listening to your body, not over jumping. Like, just like, just like, exactly, it's just like, oh, my left knee hurts a ton. I'm just going to go up my right, you know, it's like, or it's like, or you could probably do, you know, lower bandage your, your left knee, you know, literally. Yeah. I was like, I, that was one of the things for me.

16:31It's like, I learned that I used to be like, oh, like my one foot feels bad. I'm going to jump off to because I have the capability to do so. And then I'm like, now I'm like, oops, so little pain I'm done the same on my workout. I modify it. You don't push through it. Listening to your bodies and a better indicator of, or not indicator of better, I have no brain cells, a better way to prevent injury. There you go. No, exactly. Yeah. Low management is undefeated. And when it comes to, yeah, when it comes to preventing injuries and well, like one, like I was saying earlier, over time, you know, one leg's going to become stronger. It's going to become more resilient. Like that is one way to quote unquote, prevent injury is just by, you know, the great exposure to that. And I had a thought, but I think I lost it. I was saying, what's cross over effects? Well, there's, there's a crossover effect. I'm surprised. Like, you, you also came in here with a study. I wasn't expecting. I read stuff here and there. Yeah. So the crossover effect, if you guys aren't familiar, it's like, usually we use it in rehab with, if we have say, you know, a left leg that's immobilized or a super weak

17:34from like post surgery, we'll exercise the right leg. And that will actually make the left leg stronger through different neural pathways. Like the brains is the brains easier. So like guys will not exercise, say the right leg and they'll just exercise the left leg and the right leg will still get stronger like before and after the study. So it's a really easy way to, if you're, if you are hurt, it's, it's an easy way to increase the strength of your injured leg, even if you're not able to load, like, load your injured leg a lot. It's at least maintain some fitness and some coordination. There's a cross over effect in the corpus closum, which is like in the middle of your brain. I've also read studies on this. Probably get you in, you're doing a spouse corpus closum. Corpus closum. Okay. Oh, well. And before we get, make sure you guys, uh, it's not for training. The Lincoln pin comment we are currently running a, you can get the yearly package for the

18:34price, for half the price of the monthly. So it's buy six, get six free. If you're interested, but I should think that's a good place to stop. So. So once a reminder by increasing your power, increasing your, increasing your, increasing your fitness and getting stronger, you can increase both plants is not necessarily when people complain about needing a one foot cycle or needing this, not like I have been off a one foot cycle for years and my one foot's just going up like very rarely do I get one five. I think this is the first year of actually, you know, I got to a 44 or 45 inch vertical without doing any specific one foot. So. Yeah. Well, guys, Tata. Tata. Tata.