StreetBallTalk.com

tvp · #1 (**permalink**) 01-17-2007, 05:32 PM

Read this article
Basically, an average white guy had a 44 inch vertical by just standing on his toes slightly for his whole life because there was little tissue under his feet. He never even tried to do anything to increase his vertical.

youngtricker · #2 (**permalink**) 01-18-2007, 08:34 PM

Hm, seems like if your heels were constantly elevated, they would get used to it and plateau the gains..

Illuzionist · #3 (**permalink**) 01-18-2007, 09:42 PM

I'm sceptic.

youngtricker · #4 (**permalink**) 01-19-2007, 01:49 PM

i tried it. If you do it right (it takes a little playing around with to get it) it hurts for like 5 minutes. Holding it after doesn't hurt that badly while you do it, but when you let it down and sit for a bit, it hurts pretty badly. This isn't the ideal exercise in my opinion, but great if you have to stand up for anything and you can't workout with anything real.

Illuzionist · #5 (**permalink**) 01-20-2007, 12:07 PM

Of course i'm pretty sure that it would be hard on the calves to do that, i'm just not convinced that it would had such an impact on your vertical jump.

youngtricker · #6 (**permalink**) 01-20-2007, 01:46 PM

completely agreed

tvp · #7 (**permalink**) 01-20-2007, 07:33 PM

No offense guys, but I don't think either of you have the expertise to say exactly how life-long isometric contractions will effect tendons and muscles.
And by the way, I forgot to mention that I got the link from one of the guidelines in "The super secret 'instant vertical' exercise" in The Vertical Project. Specifically, the guideline says that standing and walking on your toes quickly increases the strength of the achilles tendon and to a lesser extent the calfs.

youngtricker · #8 (**permalink**) 01-20-2007, 09:16 PM

Of course neither me nor Illuzionist are experts, didn't mean to imply anything. Also, I don't believe that just because Luke Lowrey said it that it's true (not being sassy, just don't agree with everything he says).

Just saying, probably not many people have that kind of discipline or patience to do life-long isometrics.

Interesting article, not my thing.

Alright?

Illuzionist · #9 (**permalink**) 01-20-2007, 10:37 PM

Besides, walking that way can probably create alot of problems to your back and knees, the same way it does for women who constantly wear high heels..

I don't believe that walking on his toes was the reason this guy can jump so high, and it is my right to believe that way.

Calves play a REALLY small part of action in a jump, even if you had extraterrestrialistic strong calves, it wouldn't necessarily make you jump 44 inches in the air if you didn't have good quads...If that story is true, that guy probably just had good genetics to start with..

tvp · #10 (**permalink**) 01-21-2007, 10:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Illuzionist

Calves play a REALLY small part of action in a jump, even if you had extraterrestrialistic strong calves, it wouldn't necessarily make you jump 44 inches in the air if you didn't have good quads...If that story is true, that guy probably just had good genetics to start with..

Oh, really? Try standing on your heels and jumping. You won't get very high. Of course, the same is true if you lock your knees and just use your calves, but this just goes to show that determining how much certain muscles affect jumping ability requires science, not pure reasoning.
I think a lot of people approach fitness issues like aristotle approached science: using pure reasoning and "common sense" to postulate what one wants to believe in order to make the most sense, instead of using the scientific method to find out what IS, regardless of what our instincts tell us.