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Does anyone know or have any experience about vertical jump height changing after cycling training??
I have a good body to jump high but my vertical jump is very average (20 inches!!!) is this caused by practicing cycling or is just genetics?? Thanks.

Paul Barnard

I am 5'11" and could dunk a football up until the time I was 41 1/2 years of age. I still have fabulous guads, but I don't race bicycles.

Avocados

Paul Barnard What do you think about my case? If i can only jump 20 inch, i have a genetic predominance of slow fibres or cycling completely hurts my vertical? (im 16 and i've never jumped before)

joeruge

I'm not a physiologists, but anecdotally, my college track coach (world known) suggested that bike riding was not great for running, and by extension I would assume jumping.

. He was a huge proponent of stretching and especially, jumping. We were doing Jumping Exercises yearrs before plyometrics became a regular training regimen. He claimed that cycling shortened your hammies. I can't say he was an expert on cycling, but he knew track and field having dozens of world record holders and Olympic gold medals under his belt.

I wasn't of that high quality, but even I had a standing broadjump of 9'6" and a vertcle of nearly 30".

tyrion

Jumping involves a lot of your back/core. I suspect biking doesn't help one's vertical at all, probably reduces it.

Paul Barnard

A titanium bike is the best solution to your problem. I like to sprint as hard as I can for like five minutes, then get off the bike and try to jump. Vertically of course. I feel silly I jump so poorly with my jello legs. Should jello be capitalized when used in this context? But this is the important part. Because titanium is the best frame material, I ride more ,and the more I ride the stronger my legs are. I can't dunk a football anymore, but I can't dunk much better than if I didn't ride at all.

Pratt

For some reason I'm reminded of some videos I've seen of a guy named Doug McKinsky, or something similar. He certainly combines cycling with vertical jump

Ironfish653

Cycling would help improve overall conditioning, but not really improve “jump ability” unless you really do a ton of specific high-intensity bike drills like sprint intervals or hill repeats.
Being on the bike isn’t really conducive to developing the ‘explosive’ fast-twitch muscles that power your vertical leap.

On the the other hand, doing off-bike training to improve your vertical would also help on the bike for things like sprinting and climbing

aplcr0331

My vertical leap has plummeted. More so to do with age. In my teens I very badly wanted to dunk. I worked as a Janitor in a hospital during my first two years of college and everyday at work I would do 500 calf raises. I also paid $120 (back in 1990) for some jump sole shoes to increase my vert.

I never did make it. I got so tantalizingly close though..just couldn’t finish.

Cycling makes it worse

CAT7RDR

Intuitively, perhaps sprint training up steep grades might help one's vertical jump. After all, both are fast twitch and gravity based. Maybe by defeating gravity by maximizing weight to power ratio, climbing and jumping have that in common.

joeruge

I don't think you are ever going to increase your jumping ability by bike riding. I don't care how hard you pedal. To increase jumping ability you have to train to jump. Something as simple as jumping rope will help, but there are all kinds of exercises to help increase the stretch reflex. It's a little too involved to go into it here. Look up "plyometric exercises" to get a plethora of ideas and information.

Cougrrcj

At 'only' 5'8" and cycled everywhere in my youth on heavy all-steel bikes, I had what I called 'Earl Campbell thighs' -- You older guys will catch the reference. VERY strong legs. I could do reps of the entire weight stack on the leg press (~760 lbs) on the Nautilus weight machine in high school.. My vertical leap? With a running start I could reach the basketball rim with the middle of my hand (not enough to dunk, though) I was also a long jumper in Track... I had LOTS of spring in my legs!!!

None of that leaping ability helped with my cycling though. Even at 18 yrs of age, I used to be whooped after only 10 miles or so. Only through riding more and more was I able to build any endurance or speed. A year later? 60 miles was a 'normal' afternoon ride... Centuries were sub- six hours - counting breaks!

Viich

If you're not training for jumping, you'll get worse at it, not better......... the only way that cycling will be to its detriment is to take the place of specific training.

Do some box jumps, squats, jump squats, tuck jumps, etc.... you know, just google for a vertical jump training program. If that's an important performance item for you in some sport you participate in, then train for it.

Funny enough, training programs for BMX racing look a lot like the vertical jump programs.

mcours2006

I'm 5'9" and back in high school and could do a two-foot take off to grab the 10' basketball rim with one hand, like grab, not just touch. Never really trained for vertical jumps. After years of inactivity, and then years of endurance training with distance running and cycling, my vertical leap is perhaps half of what it used to be. But that could just be my age.

aclinjury

Cycling (and age) will kill your vertical jump.
I'm 5'7" and could dunk a small basketball or soccer ball on a 10' rim with room to spare, but I had a hard time dunking an NBA sized ball because my hands are small, but if I bounce the ball and time my jump perfectly then I could dunk it pretty good.
I could easily grab rim with both hands with a 3-step start.
Standing vertical jump as a high school freshman was 35", by senior it was 42-43".
I'm also good long jumper and triple jumper.
l also ran the 100m and 200m though I'm only average, usually a mid- to back- of the pack.
also ran 400m and did ok in it, low 50s lap.
In high school the football coach invited me to traning camp to run 40-yd and I beat all of their WRs and RBs
Like most sports that require fast twitch muscles, it's mainly genetic. It's easier to train for endurance than it is train for speed. With sprinting and jumping, it's either you have it or you don't.
Today, 20 years later, I cannot dunk anymore, but I still can almost touch rim one-handed with a running start. Nowaday, my training is mainly about endurance cycling, usually can just make the top 10% in all the big local climbs. But I'll bet i can out jump all the guys who beat me on the climbs!

Avocados

Like you said, you have a "good" genetic to jump high, but me (16 yrs, i've never done plyometric), with a vertical of 20 inch, do you think i can be a good jumper with my good body to jump?? Or I have a genetic predominance of slow fibres?

Viich

If you want to, then train for it. Measure your jump. Log your training. Measure your jump periodically. You won't know until you try for a few months or years. Generally at 16 years old you have the opportunity to train your body far quicker than us fogies in our 40s (and older)

I didn't start running until my mid-20s. Turns out I was pretty good at it. Not great, but pretty good. No way for me to have known that without training.

Viich

In fact, if your jump isn't well trained, you will probably see relatively rapid improvement. Just don't get too carried away - the first principle of training is DON'T GET INJURED - if you get injured, you have to stop training, and you'll lose some of your gains.

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​​​​​​I' ll see rapid improvement, of course, but enough to have a good jump to compete in high jump, with a 20 inches vertical?? . My question is: i have a genetic to jump high and the only problem is i' ve never trained it??

Viich

What is 'enough to compete'? No reason you can't compete with a 10" vertical jump.

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Ok, enough to have a good vertical

Viich

You'll never know if you don't train. It's possible, even probable, that you can get there with appropriate training - but you have to define your goal. 'Good Vertical' is not a definition. The NFL Combine are superlative athletes, and vertical jump numbers ran from 24.5" to 44.5" this year. You aren't far from the low end, but I'm guessing you aren't a gridiron football lineman.

aclinjury

How tall are you? How much do you weigh?

20", in general, is a good height (but not exceptional) for a 16yo who has never trained to jump or who has never played a sport (eg, basketball) that involves a lot of jumping.
If you start to train, I think you can hit 25-28" within a year. But to go past 30", you need some talent. There are plenty of guys on the boys highschool basketball team who can't hit 30". To get to 33", you'll need more talent, and most guys 33" is where it ends. I knew a guy in highschool who could hit 33" in his sophmore year but then he never progressed further. To go past 33", you definitely need some natural ability. At 35", there's probably only 1-2 guys per highschool who could do this.

But I consider jumping as having more "natural ability" in it than many other aspects of sporting. I know plenty of guys who could out sprint me in the 100 and 200m but cannot out jump me (they would come close). The younger you start, the better you are. That's why I always advise kids to play team sports before they get in endurance sports. Endurance sports can be played all the way into your old age, look at all the "age-groupers" out there. But explosive sports is something you can only do when you're young. When I see a cycling dad so wanting to train his teenage kids to be good in cycling, I say, why do it unless the kid has a natural VO2max freak, then he ain't gonna be a cycling pro, but he'd missing out a lot of the team sporting aspect of his youth, reason is because cycling requires a lot of your time, look at all the aspiring amaetur competitor cyclists, all they do is talk about training and numbers. I wouldn't want my kid to do that in his teenage years unless I know for sure has a freaky aerobic engine that has potential to go pro.

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About the final part of your answer i'm totally agree, but if i had a natural jumping ability, my vertical could be higher than 20 inch? (i stared competitive cycling 3 years ago)

aclinjury

well that's the thing, you started competitive cycling 3 years ago, that means you started with you were 13? I'd say starting cycling that early (and without doing any other stick & ball sports) hinder your natural jumping ability. Reason why I say that is because cycling only uses very specific muscles, and furthermore these muscles are use in a "non full range" motion, and using muscles in a less than full range motion is what you want to AVOID doing repetively if "overall athleticism" is your goal.
But how did you get into cycling so early? Almost all highschools (in the US) do not have a cycling program. Did your dad get you into it?