Weights and plyometrics

Sounds to me like what you are doing will work.

You may consider doing one of the beginner lifting routines that have you squatting 3x/week while losing weight. (Starting strength, StrongLifts, ect...) Id keep the jumping volume low so as not to interfere with strength training until you can squat 1.5x your weight. This would probably speedup increasing your base leg strength which will help your vertical leap.

I get better at jumping by jumping. The compound lifts can add power to your plyometrics. You could try supersetting the two. @Sam_I_Am77 may be able to help you here.

andrasita30 wrote: »

I have a complex goal. Im a 35-year-old male. I used to play basketball and used to have a good vertical leap. That was 15 yrs ago.
Goal 1: losing weight
Goal 2: get lean build a little bit of muscle
Goal 3: jump high again

I'm currently doing the following training
Day1: upper body pushing exercise
Day2: squats, deadlifts and plyometrics
Day3: rest
Day4: upper body pulling exercise
Day5: lunges, plyometrics

I'm also doing intermittent fasting and on a calorie deficit

Am I doing the right thing?

Doing all of this on a calorie deficit makes the getting stronger and improving jump more challenging. It's doable but you may hit a wall fast this way.

Vertical Jump (VJ): This is definitely a display of power as another poster mentioned. You can improve your VJ through Squatting, Deadlifting, and of course by doing different jumps. You also need to have good mobility so you can quickly move through the range of motion and get the triple extension properly.

You didn't really get into your programming so it's hard to really comment on what you're doing. I would say that with every training session start with some kind of plyometric jumps, namely Tuck Jumps or Box Jumps, or Squat Jumps. Do anywhere from 1 to 3 sets of 8-10 reps. If your squat session is heavier in-nature then do something like a set of squats, 20-sec rest, and doing a set of 6-8 Tuck Jumps. What the data suggests is that one's Type II muscle fibers are highly active after a set of heavier squats or even deadlifts, so those muscles get good benefit from doing a power movement directly after the strength movement.

Actually, I will at least comment on your split. Your 35 and on a calorie deficit trying to lose weight and you have a 4-day split. I would simplify this considerably.

- Day 1: There's no reason you can doing upper body pressing and pulling in the same session. Do a set of bench press and then do a set of chin-ups or lat pulldowns.

- Day 2: Do Squats and some accessory work like Lunges here; don't dedicate an entire session to Lunges

- Day 4: see my Day 1 comments
- Day 5: Cut this

This is incredibly general and leaves out other training variables but just from a training split perspective I would go more like...

Day 1: Upper Body Pressing & Pulling. One big pressing movement, one big pulling movement, a couple accessory exercises. Do some power work before hand in the form of Med Ball throws or jumps

Day 2: Squat and a couple accessory exercises. Do some jumps after each squat set

Day 3: Military Press & Deadlift with a couple accessory exercises. Before you train do some med ball work or jumps.

This leaves you with 4 days to rest and or do some conditioning and gives your knees a rest, since you're a basketball player this is important.

Of course the above is very generalized and it's important to look at your training variables (sets&reps, load/intensity, tempo, rest, frequency) over a course of months rather than just a day or even a week. There are a lot of good programs out there that will remove your decision-making from the equation which is honestly what most of us need. I think it's often better to let somebody smarter and more experienced than us to tell us what to do so we can just focus on the important stuff.

- StrongLifts / Starting Strength: To me these are about the same thing; it's okay to throw in some jumps as I indicated (start of session or after squat sets)

- Beyond 5/3/1: Good training method, sets you up for long-term training whereas the above has more of a time-limit to it; this can be used for life.

- Juggernaut 2.0: I've been reading a lot of Chad Wesley Smith's work over the last couple months and I really like how he sets up his training. He's very athlete focused, that's what his organization does, and his program is very well thought out with everything from Strength work to Speed and Agility work. I highly recommend buying the "Juggernaut 2.0" manual. This can also be used in the long-term.

- Westside for Skinny B a s t a r d s: Coach DeFranco is also along the lines of Chad Smith in that he is very athlete focused, emphasis on strength, speed, conditioning, mobility. Checkout his site and he has a YouTube channel as well.

-Kelley Sterrit: Checkout his YouTube page and even his book "Supple Leopard". He is an expert on mobility work and I've even turned to him when I ran into issues with my own mobility. He has some different approaches to what has been more common, his videos are worth it.

Edit: I had to space out *kitten*, I guess that's a bad word?

Check out one of Joe DeFranco's WS4SB templates.

It's basically designed to do what you want - if you couple it with a caloric deficit.