Vertimax training is a very interesting topic, I have read other studies in the past that were supplied by the company. I was excited when I saw these additional studies, I purchased a vertimax machine about three years ago. I have used it many ways including sports specific exercises as well as your standard power jumps. Split jumps and power jumps being one of the most common exercises that are performed on the vertimax on a day to day bases. So, it was great to read more about the benefits of this machine and how this type of band or bungee system could be used to help improve performance. The study supplied provided great information on how to put the vertimax machine to use in your building.
The study was to determine if the vertimax machine would help an athlete in lower body power, with college athletes that were highly trained. No secret that resistance training would increase an athletes’ lower body power, but would the vertimax apparatus be comparable or better, would it show greater results. According to, Rhea, Peterson, Oliverson, Ayllon and Potenziano they looked at two groups, with one that included vertimax training over a 12-week time frame. Each group participated in similar training programs with one doing additional vertimax jumps which included quarter jumps, split jumps and half jumps (2008). The results where positive for both groups, however, significantly greater improvements were noticed with the vertimax group.
Lower body power increases with vertimax training, “the increase in power in the vertimax group represented a moderate effect size of .54 and was found to be statistically different from pretest power. Improvement in power following training was found to differ between groups in favor of the vertimax group” (Rhea et al., 2008, p. 738). This is information that can be helpful for strength coaches or personal trainers that have access to a vertimax, and it gives coaches other options to use for training athletes. It can also be used in conjunction with weight training exercises and ways to vary up routines. Vertimax training can be very useful when training, especially when the focus is improving lower body power. Its also important to to mention that the vertimax may be a safer option, when comparing with other resisted jump training alternatives. It has also been the one machine that I have personally been able to closely mimic the exact sport move under resistance, without affecting their pattern.
Reference
Rhea, M., Peterson, M., Oliverson, J., Ayllón, F., & Potenziano, B. (2008). An examination of training on the VertiMax resisted jumping device for improvements in lower body power in highly trained college athletes.Journal Of Strength & Conditioning Research (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins),22(3), 735-740.