Ballistic Squats Increase Vertical Jump Height

Performing ballistic (explosive) squats before a vertical jump test resulted in better performance than non-ballistic squats— a phenomenon called post-activation potentiation. Ballistic squats also increased jump height more in stronger people. Timothy Suchomel from East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania, and co-workers, measured vertical jump height in test subjects two minutes after performing a single maximum-rep squat, either ballistically or non-ballistically. Combining ballistic squats with explosive jumps is a training method developed by Soviet scientists in the 1960s, and is widely practiced by track and field athletes. An example is to do heavy set of squats followed immediately by jump squats or hurdle hops. This is an effective technique for developing explosive strength in power sports. (Journal Strength Conditioning Research, 30: 1652-1660, 2016)