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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
I am angry, John
0:03
Are you upset? Who hurt you? The random Instagram comment. Is someone really peeving you off
0:12
They're really just grinding your gears? They're grinding my gears and not the architectural gears
0:18
Not those gears. These guys are getting under your skin. Yeah. Yeah
0:23
I was on Instagram. Who hurt you? Who hurt you? I was on Instagram and I shared a video of Tony Crosby saying he..
0:29
great guy in the world right and john morant also shared a video with john morant jumping high not
0:35
so great of a guy um allegedly allegedly allegedly no one knows if that's true yeah uh and talking
0:45
about their jump technique and then in the comments they were like dude this jumping's all
0:49
genetics there's no point in worrying about this stuff let me reword let me let me restate this
0:56
for the people he's saying that jumping is all genetics and that there's no point in training
1:01
yeah is that right or did it kind of sound something like this something like that did it sound like that he jumps like a genetic
1:10
i love it okay so so these you scroll through these comments and it really just started to
1:20
grind your gears you know yeah it's really started to get into your skin because you're a
1:24
you're a pretty hardworking athlete. I'd, I'd, I'd stand by that. Yeah. You'd stand by that
1:29
I'd sign off. So you consider yourself a hardworking athlete. I consider you a hardworking
1:33
athlete. And these people are discrediting your work by saying, Oh, buddy could have just woke up
1:38
got out of bed and decided, you know what? It's time for me to go. I'm going to jump 51
1:42
Five inches. Yeah. Just, just woke up this morning and my legs just kept developing faster
1:48
than anyone else's because I'm just a genetic freak. So I don't believe that to be the case
1:54
and we have a lot of different things we can talk about but i just want to share a quick anecdote
2:00
because for those of you that don't know i have been coaching isaiah for a long time which you
2:06
probably should know that i've known him since 2018 and in that first conversation he probably
2:11
had like a 43 ish inch vertical like he was doing impressive dunks on 9 9 9 10 and like maybe you
2:20
had 360 East Bay at a handful of times on 9-10? I was able to hit 360 East Bay on 10
2:25
On 10? Was it consistent? It's like comparing my 360 under both now on 10. That level of
2:35
consistency, when I'm feeling good at first try. You could hit it. In any session, I could hit it
2:40
I grind it out if I feel like grinding it out. Yeah. If you suffer. He was good. Don't get me
2:45
wrong. He's very good. I had watched his development and saw him get to this point
2:49
because I first saw him do an East Bay when he was like 16 or 17. And it was a TFB video. I think
2:55
I reposted it or something. It was crazy. I don't remember what it was, but he looked like a child
2:59
And I was like, wow, this is incredible. He is literally the product of just training. And I
3:05
don't know what he's doing at the time, but I was pretty skilled as a coach
3:09
This is also an important point. I was doing resistance training. He was doing resistance training. Yeah. But he wasn't like a freak. When I see a freak
3:18
i mean i can take them to the track and they're gonna run 10 6 speed day one and it will make no
3:24
sense like it's just innate natural speed or you take them out to high jump like you'll hear these
3:29
crazy stories of guys going out day one and high jump and they jump like seven two you know or like
3:33
six ten or something like that like it's not like it's not like isaiah was doing that you know you
3:39
were really someone who had developed the craft of dunking and you could tell because your outputs
3:46
weren't crazy and you've been training like when i started working with him his back squat was maybe
3:50
315 his power clean was like 200 maybe 215 maybe i think i was i think i was 225 225 yeah so he'd
4:00
been training like he and there was even your upper body at one point had been pretty yoked like he was at this point had already gone through the muscular like pretty pretty stocky stage Um and then had a lot of knee pain So at that time I was
4:15
power cleaning 245. I was squatting 345 deep and I probably had an approach. I think my one step
4:25
vertical was like 35 or 36. So I have higher metrics and I was faster than him as well at the
4:31
time, like much faster. And my RSI was a lot better. So my stiffness metrics were better
4:36
My high rate of force development metrics were better. My sprint times were better. My max
4:43
strength was better and my power was better. Speed, strength and strength, speed. So I basically
4:48
across the board had everything checked except for coordination and mobility. That's where he had
4:52
a lot on me because mobility was genetic. And then coordination, he had put tens of 20,000s of reps
4:59
to get really, really good at two foot jumping. So, you know, coming back to this conversation
5:04
I was like talking to him about his training and I realized it sucked, sucked. It sucked so bad
5:11
And I was like, dude, well, okay. There were some things good about it, but I looked at it and I
5:16
was like, this is so archaic. This is literally caveman level of training theory and training
5:25
complexity and not that complex stuff is always better. That's not necessarily the case, but I
5:29
looked at it and I was like, there's no progression in the squats. There's no progression in the
5:33
accessory work. There's no progression to the sprint work. There's no progression to the warm up even. And there was like, not even cleans regularly. It was just like, I just do strength
5:42
and then I just jump and then I just do strength and I just jump. And it was basically block periodization. And he had a lot of knee pain too. So there was a lot of things to work on
5:49
And I realized after like getting him healthy in that first cycle back that his potential was way higher
5:58
And it wasn't necessarily the fact that he hadn't trained. He had trained incredibly hard, especially at the specific skill of jumping
6:07
It was that he hadn't deep dived into the complex options and opportunities that would let him reach beyond what he thought his genetic potential was
6:20
So when we went into that little magic goodie bag and it was like, okay, what can we do that's going to push the needle forward for him that he hasn't done in the past
6:29
Can we take advantage of these maximal eccentrics? Can we take advantage of these maximal isometrics
6:33
Can we take advantage of doing different plyos and allowing him to start to implement that at a higher degree
6:40
Can we do sprints? He hadn't done any sprinting in his training, I think, at that point
6:45
I don't think you had any acceleration development. No plyos, no power work
6:51
I hadn't even undulated volume and intensity. It was literally set to five
6:56
Yeah. but the one thing that he did better than anyone else and why he was so much further along is his
7:01
specificity intent of specific work which is one of the number one determinants of your rate of
7:06
force development and your ability at that sport improving was incredibly incredibly high quality
7:13
and incredibly incredibly high volumes and i always pushed in the weight room too yeah you
7:18
had high intent in the weight room when you were lifting but that but i think you're like when
7:22
you're comparing me and you, because I don't think that we are that different in terms of our actual
7:28
genetic ability, not as much as what a lot of other people think. And HVAC gave me a call
7:36
had to answer it, but I was talking about our genetic ability. So I actually don't think
7:40
believe it or not, I do not think Isaiah and I are that different, not as much as what I think
7:45
other people assume. And here's why. One, when you look at sprint speeds, Isaiah and I are very
7:51
very similar, even upright, who knows about now, but when I was his age and we had both been
7:56
sprinting three days a week for six or seven months or a year, like we'd both been sprinting
8:00
a lot. Um, our sprint times were very similar. Yeah. I was actually faster than him for a long
8:05
time. It took him a long time to catch me in terms of sprint speed. That's one, two
8:09
our one foot vertical which is highly sensitive when it comes to the nervous system is identical Actually on my best day who knows if he did it all the time but it would be but on our my best best day my flight times are higher than his on his best day right now
8:23
So that's the second reason why three are strength numbers in exercises that are not limited by
8:31
mobility are not that different. Um, now I will say his quads are over the last five years that
8:37
are three, probably three years, that discrepancy has increased, but it's not because of his
8:43
genetics being so much better. It's because I have not been pushing in the weight room as hard
8:47
as he has in deep knee flexion exercises. I can't deep squat. If I could deep squat all the time
8:54
like Isaiah does, my quads would be a hell of a lot stronger. And I'd probably have a lot more
8:58
muscle mass in my hips and my quads, but I don't really have that option. The only thing I can do
9:02
is I can get on the leg extension. And I probably only had access to that a handful of times
9:07
Either I was training at a CrossFit box or I wasn't going to use that as a staple in my training
9:12
And I was a one foot jumper. So I also didn't necessarily want to do that. The other thing is
9:16
that mobility aspect, I think played a major role into him progressing a lot more than I think other
9:22
people realized. So you look at our RSIs, even now, even now our RSIs are not that different
9:29
which is a major, major, uh, measure of your tendon stiffness and your nervous system's ability
9:35
to recruit force really, really fast. Now, where we differ the most is that Isaiah is able to
9:41
generate force over longer intervals better. So if you give him, for example, on a 315 hex bar jump
9:48
his wattage will keep climbing up. And I believe Ben called it explosive deficit
9:53
but it's basically that you are able to achieve really high power outputs closer to your max
9:57
strength versus lower percentages. He has a very low deficit, meaning he can just keep generating
10:05
force at heavier and heavier and heavier weights. It just, the power just keeps going and climbing
10:11
and climbing. Like maybe we can get to the same force in 200 milliseconds or, you know, whatever
10:17
about the same or 210. But as soon as you say, Hey Isaiah, generate force over 300, 400, 500
10:22
milliseconds, he just keeps revving up and it just keeps going and going in terms of wattage
10:28
right? There's no drop off. There's no dip. It's just like this linear power curve
10:32
We have the data. We have the data. I've looked at the data. I've looked at the force, the load velocity relationship
10:40
And you'll see me just drop off. As soon as I get to a power clean at like two, probably like, I don't even know, 235, my powers start to dip down a lot
10:50
But Isaiah's powers don't dip down until 275, 285. He'll just keep going up and climbing up that curve
10:55
And so his ground contact time on the ground is fairly long. so he can generate force across that 300 milliseconds damn near 300 milliseconds
11:04
and and or he can run faster generate a lot of force but then keep generating force across that
11:11
he's way stronger in deep deep knee flexions so what's that yeah i think you'd still be a really
11:17
good one footer to let it be known if you did do it a lot but the other thing we've noticed is his
11:22
tendons are a little bit more compliant than mine are so his achilles specifically like when we do
11:27
calf raises, you bounce in the calf raises. I do not, I cannot do that. And I think it's because
11:34
your tendons are a little bit more compliant. You can still get elastic energy at a really high load
11:38
like that. I cannot. Um, I either need it to be incredibly stiff, not as much angulation
11:45
you know, I mean a lot, a lot of force, more isometric in my gastroc and soleus where you're
11:50
like, yeah, I'll just like allow a lot of deformation in the tendon and get, and you'll
11:54
return that energy back but this is not how it always was like how long do you think it took you
12:01
to get your calves to a point where you could calf raise a comparable weight to me or your rsi was
12:06
comparable two years probably yeah like it was very much so a training response of training
12:15
20 or let's say 10 to 20 hours a week 19 20 20 2021 2022 is when i started
12:21
I mean kind of yeah yeah And then RSI I mean the highest you ever tested was the other day Prior to that the highest I seen was 3 The other day you tested 3 which is the highest it ever been
12:37
The highest I've ever hit is just under four barefoot when I was about 25 or 26. So, you know
12:43
that was prior to my tearing my patella, partially tearing my patella and having any labral issues
12:48
That's the highest I ever hit in terms of RSI. So, and, uh, I could deep squat and things like
12:53
that. It definitely helped, but you're now finally seeing, you know, those numbers eclipse what my
13:00
all-time metrics were in terms of reactive strength, which is crazy. I think people look
13:05
at you and they're like, Oh, it's just genetics, bro. It's just genetics. There's no training effect. I absolutely do not believe that your power clean has gone up marginally across the
13:16
years and your vertical has increased marginally in conjunction with that same thing with your
13:20
squat same thing with your front squat same thing with your belt squat now like people don't realize
13:25
we've just pushed the needle so damn far on every single possible physiological biomechanical
13:33
aspect that there's not also ignoring the research too what's that and then you're also ignoring all
13:41
the research too like we we made a list of like every variable we could think of in regards to
13:47
to jumping which i think we have two minutes i'm gonna i'm gonna speed run them nervous system
13:54
all the nervous system variables motor unit firing frequency speed of motor unit recruitment
13:59
all of these are modifiable every single one of them is modifiable yeah how synchronized they are
14:04
when you recruit those motor units then you have inhibitory responses mainly from the goalie 10
14:08
and organs. So that's like the central governor that's telling your brain, whoa, he's stretching
14:13
the tendon way too far. Let's reduce this form output. In terms of muscles, contractile strength
14:20
architectural gearing, which under that falls, fascicle length, penation angle. You have your
14:25
parallel elastic components, which consists of tight end, your connective tissue, your
14:28
heptoneurosis, and you have your tendons. Main variable there is stiffness, jump technique
14:33
every single one of these variables are things that you can genetically be more predisposed like
14:39
they can be favored towards jumping higher right if you have stiff tendons naturally strong
14:44
wired nervous system a lot of type uh two muscle fibers and in research it has shown that all these
14:50
things can be improved and if you can improve those things that means the training can make
14:55
you jump higher here's another quick anecdote before we go one of my best friends whenever i
14:59
is coming up as a young coach. His name was Eric Broadbent. Eric did four years of college track
15:05
and field at a very high level, right? He trains for two years post-collegiately. Most people just
15:10
stop. Most people stop getting better after high school. He trained for four years in college, got better every single year. He trains for four more years after college and his PR just kept
15:19
going up every single year. This is someone who high jumps seven foot, right? And this is a
15:24
quantitatively assessed sport. There's nothing qualitative about it. Every year, metrics would
15:29
go up in the rate room. Metrics would go up in RSI. Metrics would go up in sprint time. Then his
15:33
long jump would get two, three inches better every year. An inch or two. Every year, another two
15:38
inches, another two inches, another two inches. Next thing you know, he's jumping 24 feet, 24, five. Going from 23 feet to 24, five. High jump, same thing. Comes in at 6'4", 6'6"
15:46
One year, he's 6'8". Next year has a big breakthrough. It goes to 7'2", or 7'1"
15:51
Right? Hurdle times, just keep coming down. Keep coming down. Throws, just keep going up. Keep
15:55
going up a foot each year, a couple inches each year. Next thing you know, he's at the damn Olympic
15:59
trials winning day one until pole vault because he can't freaking pole vault. But if he had spent
16:05
enough time doing it, he probably would have been or on pace to be a US Olympian. Life got in the
16:10
way. He had a wife, he had kids, couldn't financially afford to do it anymore. But the
16:16
ceiling is way higher than everyone thinks. And the potential is way higher than everyone thinks
16:20
People are just, they just want to cop out and they want to be lazy. And oh, my excuse is, well
16:25
oh, it's just genetics. So there's no point. That's just not the truth. So we got to get going though
16:29
If you guys are interested, go to teachprestrength.com and sign up for coaching. Bye
16:35
Ciao
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