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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
If you want to jump higher, what's better? Single leg lifts or double leg lifts? Today we're going
0:05
to answer that question. My name is Isaiah Rivera. I have a 50.5 inch officially tested vertical
0:10
This is my coach and fellow dunk addict, John Evans. I would say actually a jump addict
0:16
Yeah, training addict, jump addict. And together we have a company called THP Strength. If you want
0:22
to get coached by us, go to THPstrength.com. Use the code THP for 10% off of your first month
0:27
having said that let's get into it all right what do you like more unilateral or bilateral lifts
0:33
bilateral why uh unilateral i feel like i can't load up as heavily i can't reach quite the
0:42
intensities what quite the intensities that i get with uh double leg lifts i also just love
0:50
squatting i grew up watching olympic weightlifting and powerlifting and ronnie coleman squatting 800
0:56
pounds what do you think is the heaviest unilateral lift you've ever done uh a split squat at
1:05
315 for reps was that here no that was 29 i actually might have i don't know what i did
1:14
with the hand supported split squat i might have been i think i did technically and this is actually
1:19
something important technically that's asymmetric bilateral yeah shout out alex brown the alex we
1:25
used to lift with he made this beautiful point when i worked at athletic lab we were doing debates
1:29
and it was about unilateral versus bilateral and he was like some person was making this whole
1:34
argument about unilateral lifts and he kept referring split squats and lunges and alex was
1:38
like first off let it be known those are bilateral lifts they're just asymmetric and i will never
1:43
forget how passionately and pissed off he was so that is uh we'll count it as unilateral but
1:48
I'm talking truly unilateral. The heaviest, all right. I've done a pistol squat front rack position with the bar
1:57
How heavy was that, 115? No, just the bar, 45 pounds. What, that's it
2:01
All the way down? Yeah. Oh, okay, that's pretty good. I've had you do heavier than that on negatives
2:06
And then that's the other one I was going to bring up. I've done half pistol squats on a Smith machine, negatives
2:15
And I think, oh, what's the heaviest I've done with that? I feel like you only went 115. late yeah i think maybe 135 reds but on the smith machine so yeah maybe 135 so yeah i think 115 i
2:25
think i've done free bar 115 actually i think i've seen you do that as well yeah i remember that it
2:29
was like on a cooler yeah that's whenever your back was ed up the thing is though is my limiter
2:35
i mean in the last four or five years i could actually probably do single leg work now
2:40
because you're tfl my tfl is like you're healed yeah but yeah my hip was a huge limiter in the
2:46
last four or five years with single leg work um and then before i met you my knee never let me do
2:53
single leg work so you've rarely done truly you've rarely done truly unilaterally loaded lifts
3:00
and your vertical is 50.5 yeah sounds to me like there's a whole avenue that we need to explore
3:06
no literally training yeah yeah that we have just i think single leg work exposes weaknesses
3:11
yeah obviously on my right leg is just pfp you know one one thing i always think about too with
3:16
unilateral work is you can't load the nervous system quite as intensely
3:21
Like the bilateral deficit is the idea that we can lift more on one leg than we
3:25
could with two. So if I'm doing a leg press, right. And I can leg press 400 unilaterally, I can do more than 200
3:33
So you be like well why is that possible Yeah But it doesn because your nervous system more up regulated when you have 400 pounds on the leg press versus 200 pounds on leg press
3:43
and i think that's maybe one of the benefits of doing truly loaded bilateral work they obviously
3:49
tried seizure hops then you can bypass the tell tell tell uh tell the people what the
3:56
seizure hops is this exercise we've talked about several times on the podcast but we should
4:01
probably reference it now there's this there's this youtuber his name is frank yang and frank if
4:05
you watch our video we're huge fans back in like 08 2009 2010 he used to post vertical jump training
4:12
videos i think he has one of the first on a on the jump mat one of the first like 40 inch
4:17
standing verticals on a do you know jordan kilgan has a 46 inch vertical on the jump mat
4:21
oh but on a vertec he's only tested one sorry jordan you're catching strays all right but yeah
4:27
So he had, he actually had really dope training. And one of the, one of, by the way, he's a psycho
4:34
Yeah. He's nuts in a good way though. I kind of like it. Yeah. Yeah. Like he's really funny people in gyms and stuff
4:40
Yeah. One of the things he would do is something called seizure hops. And he literally just goes and like jumps really fast right before doing a lift to
4:48
to upregulate his nervous system. We used to have those. They were called tantrums
4:55
and yeah, it just immediately gets rid of the bilateral deficit. It's kind of crazy
5:00
No, I don't think it's done at all. Don't do that and then load up more weight than you've ever done in a squat
5:08
And expect it to. Because Isaiah told me. Yeah, that's absolutely not something we would advocate for
5:14
So I think that the – and maybe this comes back to like the one-foot
5:18
versus two-foot jumper, sprinter, et cetera. Because if you look at specificity – we talked about transfer training yesterday
5:23
But if you look at specificity, you would say, well, one foot jumping needs unilateral exercises, right
5:29
Because obviously that's going to have better transfer to training and it's more specific because you're on one leg
5:34
I have not necessarily found that to be true. Well, one foot's so weird for me because it's like I just train a lot and then I get better after I unload
5:46
And if I follow the rule of specificity, that's the case. but it's not like if I go do a month or two months of unilateral work and I just stop
5:52
I'll jump higher than had I done bilateral work. I think that the shift from bilateral to unilateral
5:58
or keeping at least one day of unilateral in for me is generally good. But a lot of the time
6:03
like you said, it, it kind of exposes your weaknesses. It's harder to load. A lot of the
6:08
time you have to be a lot more creative. If I can load it and it makes sense, I will. So a lot of
6:12
the time on machines, you know, if I can do a leg extension or a leg press, I can do it. But I've
6:16
also noticed that unilateral work kind of pisses my back off because your pelvis is rotated a lot
6:21
of the time and if you have mobility issues you can get more range of motion by rotating and maybe
6:29
a different way allowing you to load more but that's not always good for your back so i've
6:33
actually for me i've never it's the opposite bilateral is worse yeah bilateral has always
6:38
been way worse but but you have better mobility too you can maintain i have good mobility and then
6:42
load is usually like the bar you mean because like if i squat for example i could squat 225
6:48
ass grass all day and not get back pain it's usually load dependent but with unilateral work
6:54
i usually can't load heavy enough and i can usually maintain good position in my do you think that your
6:58
tfl limits your the lift more than your back does though oh wait yeah on single leg work yeah like
7:05
if your tfl was fully healthy do you think you would have back issues doing doing a negative at
7:11
215 I don think so Really Interesting Yeah I just remember I was at Christian Williams house and I was doing what was I doing It was some unilateral exercise It might have been reverse
7:23
lunges, which technically you are partially in single leg support on the, like if you're not
7:27
if your foot's off the ground, you know, on the step back until you get to the bottom
7:32
And that was very provocative for my low back. I remember it really pissed it off, but I also
7:40
jumped my highest ever a month later so like I was saying I do think that you want to go from
7:46
general specific and include it especially for one foot jumpers I think that it's really important
7:50
for two foot jumpers I I don't know we just haven't done it with enough guys to know
7:56
but I've never seen when we have done it I've never seen it make a noticeable difference I will
8:02
say anecdotally I when I've been strong with single leg work I've usually been jumping really
8:10
high are you healthy because it's an indicator of how healthy i am if i if i can push heavy i mean
8:16
specifically on a split lunge or a reverse lunge that's usually the main ones we've we've messed
8:20
around with let's just count let's count asymmetric let's count asymmetric bilaterals yeah yeah um
8:27
when i've been really strong and not feeling pain on like a split squat basically when i've been
8:33
able to reverse lunge or split squat 300 plus it's a good indicator that i'm strong as hell
8:38
and I'm feeling healthy. Mascot's back. Yeah. But when those two checkboxes are checked off
8:45
I can usually try hard on my jump. But you did three, I don't even know what you did on the hand-supported stuff
8:51
I think I did 300 plus here. Did you test 50 during that time? That was right before I tested it
8:55
That was right before? That was leading up to it, yeah. All right, you heard it here first. Unilateral work is the best way to jump higher
9:01
No, I'm kidding. I mean, this is kind of insightful. We've never really covered this extensively
9:06
But I don't know if that was the – I don't know if doing that lift made me more healthier
9:12
I was more, like, conscientious of doing the lift properly. I can't do it properly if I'm hurt
9:18
You know what I mean? Like, that's, like, one variable. So you're healthier, therefore
9:22
It's like power cleans. Was it the chicken or the egg? Exactly. Were you jumping higher because you were healthier or were you jumping higher because it's unilateral
9:27
Exactly. Because it's almost like a power clean where we say we've seen it be more of a display of readiness
9:34
Yeah. That's kind of how I feel about split squats. Like, it's not that the split squat got me healthy and strong
9:40
It's more that, like, I don't know what he's doing with his tail
9:44
What the f- He's taking a shit. Oh. Oh! He's, like, twerking
9:50
There's a lizard taking a big old number two. What the f
9:56
Oh, now he's- Oh, he's basking. He's flexing. I really wish we had a second camera for
10:02
Bro, get the f- out of here, man. Stop it. You're distracting us. I just can't stop staring
10:09
It's like a train wreck. He sucks. He's gotten big. I feel like we've seen him grow
10:17
Yeah. Get the out of here, bro. Stop taking a shit on our property
10:21
That's a big one. Big dookie. That's the same. Oh, I thought you meant the lizard. It's like it's a big lizard
10:28
Yeah, I was kind of crazy. Sorry about that. That was kind of wild. anyway so yeah it could just be more an indicator versus something that you're seeing a significant
10:37
difference improving and that's always so difficult because there are so many variables that we have
10:41
at any one time right is it the you're also doing bilateral work at that time you're also doing
10:45
isometrics at that time i typically like to include it once a week unilateral work for you guys but if you not healthy enough then i not going to do that i also used it as a way to get more range of motion for exercises But now that I doing my closed toe frog squat I am able to get deep knee flexion
11:05
So I haven't needed it quite as much. And I've been hesitant to add it back in because of some of the back issues that I've had
11:11
Is that a police officer? I don't know. It looks like it. It looks like a detective. Yeah, this thing is blacked out
11:16
I was seeing police officers there the other day. I think yesterday. Where? Like an actual trooper who was driving down here
11:23
They're onto us. No, I'm kidding. That's not an omission of guilt
11:29
All right. So I think the conclusion. Oh, yeah. So let me ask you this
11:34
Yeah. Do you think it's necessary for you to jump 50.5 inches? Do unilateral work
11:44
Hmm. I stumped him. well what i'm trying to think of is if i would have never done if we would have done the exact
11:53
same training but then never have done you know i think you need i think you need it for variety that's what i think it's so important for variety it just builds a better product you
12:01
would get me at 49.5 yeah but maybe not 50.5 that's like saying like what if we never did
12:07
cover what if we never did positive like you still need those things for variety to spur on
12:12
adaptation it's like all right maybe it would have been a one percent difference how much do you think it helps your one foot oh i think it's even more of an indicator of health for one foot
12:21
yeah like for one all right for me personally one foot me personally if i can't split squat
12:28
i damn sure i'm not gonna be able to one foot jump good wait for me one foot's way more intense
12:35
than two foot jumping see i've never felt like my split squat was an indicator at all of my one foot
12:40
health yeah like for me it's the isos mind you think about how i jump oh yeah basically go boom
12:47
the ground isaiah has no technique when he actually i've seen him improve it in short periods of time
12:53
but typically his default is elbows at 90 degrees and just imagine you have 135 pounds on a leg
13:01
press in an eighth or quarter squat probably like a third squat and you just stomped on the plate as
13:06
hard as possible slow approach yeah it's honestly really impressive how powerful you are i don't know
13:13
how you develop that was like imagine if you had like a step up yeah like there was like a little
13:17
step like a little 12 inch box yeah and it feels like i just like you know that's not at all what
13:23
it feels like for me at all it feels like if i were in a single leg quarter squat on the ball
13:32
my foot and I'm like pushing down. That's what it feels like for me
13:36
And that's only after I'm in mid-support. Touchdown does not feel like that at all
13:41
Like, whatsoever. I would say when I've worked on it and it's been jumping my highest
13:46
it feels more like what you described. It's just like, kind of run fast
13:51
Yeah, yeah. Kind of bounce off it. Like when you tamalid, which by the way, you
13:54
I can't believe you made that off one foot. I forgot about that, yeah. That was crazy. When you sent me that
13:58
I was like, I... With my left arm. so crazy alright yeah that's all I have to add to this
14:06
if you guys want to jump higher go to hbschrength.com sign up for coaching, best coaching in the entire world
14:12
stand by that, we'll get on a call with you guys, go over your goals, make sure you know how to
14:16
use the service, that's a big change that we've been making if you're currently on the training, keep getting
14:20
after it, if you have questions send it to us alright, thank you guys
14:25
why should I start power cleaning again I'll answer. I'll get back to that question another time
14:32
See you guys
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