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My name is Isaiah Rivera and I have the highest officially tested vertical on the planet at 50.5 inches and am the co-founder of THPstrength, a company that focuses on vertical jump training for athletes.
What makes me a little different from most athletes that jump high is that I started with a pretty low vertical and documented my entire journey on this channel. Here is my journey in a nutshell:
14: Started working out to jump higher for basketball
16: Hit my first dunk and shortly after found out about the world of pro dunking
17: Trained like a madman and hit my first between the legs dunk
18: Entered my first professional dunk contest
19: Knee pain almost made me quit dunking
20: Met my coach John Evans, who helped me get rid of knee pain
21: Won my first international dunk contest
22: Tested a 48 inch vertical and started coaching full time
24: Tested a world record 50.5 inch vertical
The reason I make so much free content about jumping higher now is because it’s a resource I wish I would’ve had when I was in high school that would’ve prevented a lot of unnecessary mistakes and injuries.
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0:00
The job is not over. It's never over
0:06
A lot of people, when they do any jump training, or anything in life to be honest
0:13
they always have a goal, right? There's always an end goal to achieve
0:18
but what's really interesting about jump training specifically is that you can't win at jump training
0:27
You can hit your goal, but to achieve the most success, you have to keep going
0:33
And this is a game you can't win. The objective of the game isn't to win the game
0:37
It's to keep playing the game. Alex Ramosi always says that. It's an infinite game that we're playing
0:45
So having said that, it is the day after I tested 50.5 inches
0:51
world record, officially measured, and all that good stuff. but we're right back at it
0:58
Less than 24 hours later, we are right back in the gym, ready to go
1:03
The objective today is to do a feel-good lift. We usually like to do these once a week, usually after a jump day
1:13
The whole point of it is to recharge the battery. We just spent the battery yesterday, and we want to recharge it
1:20
and the objective is to feel even better after the lift and then even better tomorrow with the lift
1:29
and then get some momentum going into the training week and start the hypertrophy cycle officially, right
1:37
So I just did, this was a deload week, an introductory week to the hypertrophy cycle and I'm going to be full in it starting on Monday
1:44
and it's going to be a lot of pain and a lot of suffering during that
1:48
as far as how my body feels, I actually feel pretty freaking good considering I just did a
1:55
two hour session. My sessions normally nowadays are about an hour. Uh, the session yesterday was
2:00
like two and a half hours. Um, that's always what happens when you have, you know, a big meetup
2:05
dunk session with a lot of adrenaline and caffeine in your system. You usually end up dunking way
2:11
longer than you should. Um, but overall my body feels pretty good. If I were to do a full body
2:18
ysis, lower back a little bit sore from a million under both attempts, PFP under control
2:27
my TFL, right, the IT band pain, zero pain, knees all feel great, so overall feeling good
2:38
With the feel-good lift, we're going to keep the intensity very, very, very, very, very low
2:43
So, again, we're trying to recharge the battery. So, keep the intensity very low
2:50
High reps, kind of in that hypertrophy range, around the 8 rep range
2:56
I'm probably going to do some, like, oscillating, bottoms up, front squat, maybe in that, like, half squat range
3:03
Just oscillate where I don't feel the PFP. Then we're going to hit hamstrings with Nordic curls
3:10
I'm going to do probably 2x8 there. and then some abduction work
3:16
I'm thinking banded abduction and then seated calf raise. Again, if you have PFP
3:26
abduction work and soleus work, really beneficial for it. Just a side note
3:33
if any of you guys have that issue at all. But yeah, that's pretty much it
3:39
I'm going to film the top sets, even though they're not going to be very exciting. This is the boring work, ladies and gentlemen. The boring work is 90% of what pushes the needle forward to jumping higher. I know I could post plyometrics, max outlifts, dunking, and those are the things that get views, but the boring work, that is what actually pushes the needle forward and causes you to make progress
4:12
That's 90% of the training is the boring stuff. So if you're watching at this point, you're a mother
4:22
I'm trying not to cuss. A mother freaking real one. All right. You because this is the reality of the situation is that this is the stuff that matters
4:32
This stuff right here. The boring work, the day in and day out monotony of the training
4:38
The stuff is not fun at all. but what sets me apart from other athletes, right
4:48
that have trained to jump higher and haven't been in the game as long as I have
4:51
or haven't, you know, jumped as high as I have or specifically made as much progress
4:56
the thing that sets me apart is I never stop. I show up every day and I do the boring stuff every day
5:03
no matter what. So having said that, I'm going to get into some ISOs real quick
5:10
on the feel lifts we don really do as extensive warm we just go isos to the knee extension work so I gonna do that and I catch you guys on the other side
5:25
all right I'm now warmed up we're in the hat so I can front squat and you guys can
5:32
still listen to my heavy breathing yeah keeping it light as you can see there's
6:34
Let me recover a little bit. I'm not going to lie
6:45
Last night, I ingested a lot of poison. The poison that the whole world is addicted to
6:58
If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'm talking about alcohol. which I don't do very frequently
7:07
and I always regret the next day. Whew. So I think that's a huge reason why I feel freaking horrible today
7:27
But the thing is, like, when you have an outlier day in terms of performance, that's expending your body's preparedness
7:43
So it is to be expected that the next day is going to be bad
7:48
Like, if you think – I explained this. I wrote a periodization – well, a strength training master class for my THP clients
8:01
my one-on-one clients. and when I was doing the research for it, I was studying basically like how adaptation occurs, right
8:09
The whole point of training is to spur on adaptation. You have an organism, in our case it's a human body, and there's the environment, right
8:21
So if you think back to like, think of an animal, a cheetah, right
8:26
a cheetah has to sprint every single day in order to catch its prey so the body adapts
8:36
in order to make it as good as possible as sprinting and to be able to sustain that every
8:41
single day right the whole point of training is you have a goal for us that's jumping higher
8:47
so you have to subject the organism aka the human body to an environment that is conducive to
8:56
jumping higher. So how do you do that? You overload the organism. You subject it to a load it's not
9:06
used to so that it can adapt to its environment. Your brain, it doesn't know the difference between
9:12
jumping higher or distance running. Your brain is trying to survive. Your body in general is trying
9:18
to survive. So when you train, you overload the body to the point where your brain's like
9:25
hold up. This dude's about to die if we don't change something. So it stimulates adaptation
9:33
Boom. Your muscles get bigger. Right. In terms of if you're training for hypertrophy, which
9:40
we're doing right now. We're going to force development, right? Okay. Let's teach this
9:47
organism to become neurally more efficient, to produce force more quickly, all right, so that
9:56
this organism can survive. That's the whole point of training, but in the short term, that's long
10:02
term. In the short term, when you train, your preparedness goes down, all right, your body's not
10:08
fit, so like a day like yesterday where I PR'd 50.5, I've hit that level of vertical maybe
10:13
five times in my life, my body's like freaking in need of immense help
10:23
All right My preparedness is really down but I going to adapt And that why actually plyos and jumping every day and that type of thing helps so much because they self As you get better at jumping as your technique gets better you overload your tissues
10:38
And then your body adapts, you jump higher. But I'm rambling. I am putting off doing this last set
10:46
So let me get this in real quick. I hope you guys like my little rants comment if you like the rants
10:55
that way I don't feel crazy oh my god
11:25
I don't feel like working out today, guys. I do not feel like training
11:34
So while I set this bar up for Nordics, on the point that I was talking about, right
11:40
I'm trying to maintain vertical, right? In order to just even maintain my vertical
11:53
I have to continue training because I have to continue subjecting my body to that
12:02
quote unquote harsh environment that's why I mentioned this in a previous video
12:10
and I've written about this too in my newsletter which by the way
12:19
if you want to get I write a daily newsletter free tips go to the link in the description, sign up for the course
12:25
When you sign up for the course, you put your email in, you're going to be subscribed to the newsletter once you do that
12:32
And you get a bunch of free programs and stuff. But I've written about this
12:38
As you become more advanced as an athlete, the load needed to retain your fitness becomes way higher. like
12:51
the weights I need to be hitting in order to just maintain my vertical
12:59
are loads that three years ago would have destroyed me like this workout for example
13:06
two days or three days ago now but two days before I tested my vertical yesterday
13:14
and I PR'd I did two sets of eight squat at 315
13:23
and built up to a heavy power clean single of 295. And I came out of it fresh
13:33
feeling like a million bucks, right? If I would have done that same workout
13:40
three years ago, it would have decimated me. that would have been
13:46
a load that would have spurred on adaptation. Right now, that's a load
13:55
for me to retain performance, retain strength. And possibly not even
14:05
It might be a detraining load. So there's detraining loads, which is a load you impose on your body
14:10
where your fitness is going to go down. there's retaining loads, which is a load where you're going to maintain performance
14:20
Retaining loads are really good for, like, in-season training. My bad, I'm trying to get this weight out of here
14:31
And then there's overloading your body, which is what our goal is with training
14:41
is to overload the body so that we can keep making progress. So, right now, a feel-good lift or even a deload week is a perfect example
14:57
In a deload week, that's a detraining load, technically. But, if you've been training really freaking hard for a long period of time
15:09
oh, this is what I was looking for. if you've been training really freaking hard
15:13
for a long time and then you subject your body to a detraining load
15:18
in the short term depending on how long you were overloading your body for
15:24
that's where super compensation occurs that's where adaptation occurs you allow your body to adapt
15:31
that's where the magic happens so that's what happened to me this last week
15:37
my deloads is everybody else's regular technically my D is harder than most athletes regular training to adapt But that what happens as you get better and better
15:52
All right. Let's hit these Nordics. By the way, this is an example of a setup for Nordics
16:01
At-home setup or at the gym. Just going to do 10 here
16:08
I'm going to keep my intent really low on these. always got to keep the goal in mind for the session
16:18
So right now, I'm thinking, what's going to make me feel better tomorrow
16:24
more recovered, while still maintaining some semblance of fitness, and go into the week feeling great, right
16:35
I know when Monday hits, if my body feels great, I'm going to crush that training week
16:49
I'll probably superset this. Looks good
17:01
My nephew's just got here. All right. Alright, final set of this
17:11
I'm actually supersetting this with damn walks. You're gonna be in the YouTube video now, Jader
17:21
You can be if you want. So I'm super setting this with bent walks, and then I'm going to hit seated calf raise
17:44
Get some soleus work. Oh, Nathan's here too. okay
18:02
all right so that was the last set of that now we're going to finish with band walks
18:14
so I really like for abductor work see how my first cusp word of the series
18:24
but look just bend that thing over like two times hit a lot of resistance in there
18:32
you can do it I believe in you Jaden so I'm doing
18:45
2x10 on these All right, now we're going to do single leg standing calf raise, because I don't feel
19:24
like setting up seated calf raise. So I'm just hitting these 2 by 10
19:44
Again, the point of today isn't a sprawling adaptation. It's a feel-good lift
19:54
Just trying to stimulate the tissues a little bit, every muscle group. That way by Monday, it's like a million bucks
20:02
So that was one set, I just go straight into the other set
20:08
7, 8, 9, 10, and last one. Cavs, by the way, is one of the most neglected body parts
20:25
I like to hit them heavy as hell. With frequency. No weakness in the body
20:34
But that's my feel-good lift. I hope you guys enjoyed that. This is, again, the boring work
20:41
That is 90% of the training. It's good. Like always, sign up for coaching
20:52
THPstrength.com. Best coaching on the planet. Let's get it. I'll see you guys Monday
20:59
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