Jumpsoles Review
Today we’re taking a look at the most popular piece of vertical leap equipment ever released, Jumpsoles. Why are people still rushing out and buying strengthshoes and jumpsoles in an attempt to jump higher, do they really work?
To determine this we take a look at what goes into developing an outstanding vertical leap. Firstly, jumpsoles are aimed at targeting the calves. So do the calves play a big role in vertical leap? Absolutely not! Your calf muscles play such a small aspect in your overall vertical leap, that you shouldn’t be isolating them. They get more than enough workout from your compound exercises in all sound vertical leap programs.
Yes you can throw calf raises out the window too! Here’s a quick test you can do right now, to get an idea of how important your calves are.
1. Stand flat footed on the floor, and jump up as high as you can by just flicking your feet, and not bending your legs at all. Didn’t get high at all hey?
Now by following big companies who are behind on the times, not only can your gains be hindered, injury can onset pretty quickly. I’m not so much talking about joint injury here, I’ll keep that for another post, but muscle imbalances. By isolating and focusing your efforts on ONE muscle, your setting yourself up for major muscle imbalances. Which of course lead to injury…
“Hangon then, well why are people gaining with Jumpsoles? I’m sure people are…i’ve read their testimonials!”
When people buy Jumpsoles, they are given a program called ‘phi slamma jamma’ to do. This Jumpsole workout is a one sheet program which incorporates such things as lunges, squats etc. Thus gains are obviously going to come from doing the strength and plyometric exercises, especially for noobs who have never gotten off the couch before. Are those gains a direct result of wearing Jumpsoles? Of course not! For a few exercises I’d actually go far enough to say, gains could have been increased if the jumpsoles weren’t worn. For example:
- How are you supposed to perform proper squats, driving through your heels, if you can’t lean back onto your heels without falling over?
- You could do the squats with alot more weight without them on…
Nevertheless, the testimonials pile in. “Hey I gained 4 inches” “Hey I can touch the ring now” etc. Now when I did vertical project throughout last summer I also ate chocolate occasionally. So when I gained 8 inches (considering I’m not new to training it was pretty damn good) did I send testimonials into the chocolate company saying “thanks your chocolate gained me 8 inches” of course not. People have to start smartening up! Have a think about why people may be gaining, and don’t be consumed by testimonials, especially ones on their own site!
If you’re about to get up & head over to the trash can, hold on! There are some very good uses for Jumpsoles. The proceiptor balance work is excellent, and if you own vertical project, you’ll know exactly what to do with them. I think Luke refers to is as “the Super Secret Instant Vertical Exercise” and it truely makes them worth every penny.
So summing up, using jumpsoles as originally intended may not be the best idea. However using them for the newer alternative training concepts is great!
4 Comments so far
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try jumping without flicking your calves, aint gonna get to high, they play a big role dude
without flicking your calves.. do you mean without contracting them?
either way, calves role is nothing compared to your hams, glutes & quads
I would have to disagree with this article. Some of the things it says just arent true. For one, despite what people are being told by the haters of platform shoes, their role is NOT just to isolate the calves! Sure thats one thing that they do, but the main reason is to overstretch the Achiles tendon. The Achiles tendon acts like a rubber band in the way that the more flexible and longer it is, the further it will be propelled (so the more flexible your Achiles tendon is, the higher you will jump).
Another thing the platform shoes do is to act, in a way, like a weighted vest. Weighted vests have been scientifically proven to increase your vertical by causing the brain to send signals to the nervous system to engage more motor units in the muscles. What this basically means is that you are not using your muscles to their full potential when you jump, (even top athletes only manage to get to a maximum of 90% muscle fibre recrutement) so the weighted vest helps to use more of your potential than normal. Now, I know these are not as heavy as weighted vests but they act in a similar way. Try it yourself if you have some platforms, just jump and see how high you can touch then put them on and do a few jumps as normal. Take off the platforms and see you will be jumping higher! This may only be for a short while but when you do the full 8 week program you will see a more perminant effect.
Another thing I do not agree with in the artical is the “test” to measure how much your calves contribute to the jump. This is beacuse it does not take into account the fact of a build up of momentum during a jump from all the body parts working together. For example, the hips play a big role in the jump (around 40-45%) but if I were to say “to test the hips, bring them back a few inches, then trust them forward and the height you get off the ground is the amount the hips contribute to the jump”, would that be correct? No! The same is true for the calf test that was stated, it simply isnt a fair test.
The last thing I wanted to argue against was about people claiming it was the platform shoes giving them the inches, when you say it was just the program they come with. I would probably agree with you here if I hadnt had many diffent people come and tell me that they had gained alot without even doing the program for whatever reason! I have also seen it on jump forums all over the internet.
So that about sums it up for me. I think that platform shoes are good for what the Vertical Project prescribes yes, but they are just as good at putting inches on your vertical by themselves. Thank you.
I understand that quads are the most used jumping muscle, but calf strength gives you that extra spring in your jump just as your feet are leaving the ground.