Vert Shock Review – Vertical Jump Training Program

Regardless of what sport you do – be it basketball, football, soccer, or volleyball – you need to be fast, strong, and have a high jump. These are qualities which can make or break you as an athlete. The program Vert Shock by professional athletes Adam Folkerand Justin “Jus Fly” Darlington, you are told exactly how to train your muscles to maximize your performance as an athlete.

Vert Shock is a 3-part program designed to help you improve your vertical jump. Unlike pretty much every other jump training programout there, vertical jump does not rely on strength training alone. Instead, it uses methods which “shock” your muscle system, allowing you to jump higher than you thought was possible.

The entire program lasts 8 weeks. By the end of the first week, you will already be able to jump 3-5 inches higher. By the end of the second phase, you will have added 9-15 inches to your vertical jump (depending on what your initial abilities were). The final phase is about solidifying these results so you can jump high whenever and wherever you need to.

How Does Vert Shock Work?

If you are reading this Vert Shock review, then you have probably already spent countless hours on strength training in order to improve your jump. Even with all that effort, you probably didn’t see gains of more than a few inches – and you certainly didn’t
see them overnight! So, you might be skeptical of a program which promises to improve your jump shot by 3-5 inches in the first week and give you up to 15 inch gains on your vertical jump by the end of the 8-week program. The reason that Vert Shock can get results when other methods couldn’t is because it trains your fast twitch muscle fibers and also teaches you how to utilize these fibers in your body when you need them – like right before jumping for a dunk shot.

There are three phases of Vert Shock:

Pre Shock Phase

This initial phase lasts 7 days. It is designed to prepare your body for the exercises in thesecond phase and to help you identify your muscle fiber usage. After just this Pre Shock Phase, you will be able to improve your vertical jump by 3 to 5 inches.

Shock Phase

This is the most intense part of the Vert Shock program. It lasts 6 weeks and requires a commitment to training. You are expected to do a combination of plyometric and strength-training exercises 4 times per week (less than 1 hour per session is required). You will learn how to utilize your nervous system so you get explosive energy from your fast-twitch muscle fibers without exhausting your energy reserves.

Post-Shock Phase

This final phase of Vert Shock is all about teaching your muscles to act upon command, so they give you explosive performance without you having to think about it. This part is very important because it isn’t enough to have a high vertical jump – you’ve also got to be able to deliver the high jump consistently.

The Vert Shock program is based on the science of slow-twitch and fast-twitch muscle fibers. When we talk about athletic performance, we usually just talk about muscles in general. Muscles are made up of bundles of individual fibers. When these bundles contract, we get movement. There are two main types of fibers which make up muscles, each of which controls our movement in a different way:

Slow-Twitch Muscle Fibers: These are smaller fibers which are designed for endurance-based movements such as running. They are very efficient fibers as they don’t require much fuel to produce movement and can keep going for long periods of time before feeling fatigued. Athletes like long-distance runners primarily use their slow-twitch muscle fibers.
Fast-Twitch Muscle Fibers: Compared to slow-twitch muscle fibers, fast-twitch muscle fibers are much larger. They are designed for movements in which strength and power are needed. Fast-twitch muscle fibers produce the same amount of force as slow-twitch fibers. However, because they are fired more rapidly, they can produce very explosive results – like allowing you to jump 40+ inches vertically in the air! Fast-twitch muscle fibers are not efficient and require a lot of energy, thus they get fatigued easily.

When we move, our bodies determine which muscle fibers to use based on the type of force upon them. If your movement requires a lot of force, then it will use more fast-twitch muscle fibers.

Remember how I said that fast-twitch muscle fibers are not efficient? Because they take up so much energy, your body is pretty stingy about using them. Vert Shock is all about teaching your body to use more fast-twitch muscle fibers during a jump so you get explosive results.

Adam Folker with Kobe Bryant

How Do You Train Fast-Twitch Muscle Fibers?

Practicing your jump shot or doing strength training alone will not train your fast-twitch muscle fibers. You need to do exercises in a certain way which ensures that enough force is being placed on your muscles so your body reverts to using the fast-twitch instead of the slow-twitch fibers. In the Shock Phase of the Vert Shock program, you get specific instructions for exercises and there are videos of the exercises too.

While I won’t get into the specifics of the exercises in this Vert Shock review, I will say that studies show fast-twitch muscle training pays off. A 2004 study found Olympic weightlifters had greater fast-twitch muscle fiber development than bodybuilders because of the way they were training. A 2006 study in Sports Medicine found that people who don’t do heavy-range training use fewer fast-twitch fibers.

In other words, you’ve got to be training in a heavy range if you want to improve your jump!

What Do I Need to Get Started?

To get started with Vert Shock, you only need the training guide and willpower. There is absolutely so special equipment required except for a flat surface, like your local basketball court.

The Pre Shock Phase is fairly simple and doesn’t require much from you. During the Shock Phase, you are expected to do exercises 4 times per week. The exercises last under1 hour. Because Vert Shock is designed to target your fast-twitch muscle fibers, there is no need to kill yourself with strenuous, long-lasting workouts. You can still do sprints and drills to increase your speed and agility, but these aren’t required by Vert Shock to improve your vertical jump.