Is a 55 inch vertical possible? One of the best track coaches in the world certainly thinks so. And John called me at like 11:30PM the other night and tried to explain to me how it's possible. A lot of it was going over my head, so I figured probably a good place to explain it on the podcast so the reasoning behind it and how you think and Rolf, which is the the track coach we're talking about, thinks that it can happen. Before we get into that, my name is Isaiah Rivera.

I a have 50.5 inch vertical. John coached me from a 42 to a 50.5 and he's now coached three other athletes to a 50 plus inch vertical. Soon to be four. Yeah. Maybe five with

you. Five. Sorry. Five. Yeah.

Five.

You're right.

And if you wanna use the same training system he uses for us, go to thbstrength.com, and you can get six free months when you buy the year plan. Link in the bio or in the pinned comment.

Alright. So let's get into it. I called so essentially, Rolf has a son. His name's Patrick. Patrick's been staying with me for the last three weeks or so.

And if you don't know, Rolf is probably one of the best sprints coaches, high performance strength editioning coaches in the world. He's collected more data than people didn't know existed on sports performance, and he uses a lot of VBT devices. This includes using time to peak velocity as well as

I've done a podcast with him. If you guys wanna check out the podcast what was the title? Do you remember?

It has Rolf's face on it. If you if you tie if you go by most popular videos, it's probably like the tenth one down. Yeah.

So And it has, Soo Bingtan in the in the thumbnail.

Yeah. And Rolf has worked with Randy Huntington, who Randy's, again, arguably one of the best track coaches ever, if not the greatest jumps coach ever. And I was talking to Rolf the other day because it was Patrick was here, so it was the evening or whatever. And we were talking about how to integrate the quantum into the work that we already do. So Rolf had explained this to me probably three or four times, but I didn't really fully understand it until probably this week.

This probably is the first time I really, really got it. And what he was saying is you need a quantum to really take it to the next level. And I was like, okay, well, you know, we can do accentuated eccentric. We can do all that stuff. The quantum is essentially a device.

It is an isokinetic resistance training device. There's mass based loading, which would be like using a barbell or a dumbbell or something else. And essentially, what happens when you do that is you have one set mass on you, and as you accelerate the bar, you know, you get in a more leveraged position, you're going move the bar faster. However, with isokinetic devices, the harder you push, it will stay at a current, like, set velocity.

If you Isokinetic ISO means same, kinetic, I'm assuming speed.

It's technically I think kinetic is force, but it's the force it's same velocity is really what it is. I I don't know. I'd have to look that up. But

Let look it up. Let

me Yeah. Let's let's check this out.

You're gonna explain it while

So essentially, the you can set the bar to a given velocity, and you can push as hard as you want, and the velocity won't change. So it same velocity would make sense, but kinematics is velocity, so kinetic is force usually, which is weird.

Kinetic is it comes from a Greek root kinet kinesis? Kinesis?

I don't know how to

say it.

And it's movement motion. Okay. So

same

same

same movement. Yeah. You go. So the exactly. So same velocity, and you can stand up with as much force as you as you want.

So if you wanna push in 10 pounds, the bar's still gonna go up. It would go up on its own. The bar would go up on its own. If you push in with a 100 pounds of force, it's still gonna go up the same speed. You push in with a thousand, it's still gonna go up the same speed.

Interesting. So you can set the down phase and you can set the up phase and you can pick the velocities that you want the bar to go.

And is it isokinetic on the down phase as well? Yeah. So you can set different Yeah. That's what I was missing. Was missing how the quantum worked exactly.

Yeah. So it's like if you've ever taken an actually, a science get one. So they're they're very expensive, but there's an isokinetic dynamometer that people often use in school. There's a leg extension portion of it. There's a hamstring curl, and you push into it, it'll track the it'll track the forces.

So this is essentially the same thing, but it's a Smith machine. So there's yes.

Will it tell you how much force you're pushing with?

Fuck. Yeah. It'll tell you all the metrics. It's really, really advanced. So Rolf made this in the early two thousands, I think he started his company, 2005, and it is, yeah, probably one of the single best pieces of equipment, but only if you understand the progression.

So the key is that this specific device, you can only do the specific protocol that Rolf found to elicit the winding filament theory or model through this protocol. That's the only way you can do it. So while you are taking advantage of this very advanced theoretical, there's some evidence out there that indicates that it's it's happening, process, you need this device to do it. This device is like $60,000, which Rolf didn't want to do, but that's just the the price of the Quantum. So the progression essentially would look like this.

We do the standard volume the first month. We do the standard max strength or, you know, whatever. Let's just simplify. Let's say we went volume, max strength, accentuated eccentrics. Right?

So with the accentuated eccentrics, you can set the down phase. The quantum would probably do it better, but we could put a 110% on the bar, lower it down, you'd get all of the benefits of doing that.

I'm confused on on the down phase. Let's say, like, you were explaining to me the other night, like month one, you'd be at two meters per second.

Well, this is gonna be different. Yeah. Let's ignore What

I was gonna ask is, how does it feel? Is it pushing you like, it's instantly trying to push you down? You have to try to stop it? Are you like Yeah.

It would I I don't know exactly how that part works. I'd have to ask Patrick. But I think it's probably like, okay, we press go or you start lowering and then it it drops you. So essentially, what you do is you set it to a high Is

whatever you're pushing back on.

So you but here's the key. You can load the winding filament theory with two things, tension and velocity. So if you have a really high velocity down and a decent amount of tension, you can get the winding filament theory. So you can wind up the muscle, you get the elastin on stretch, and then you get all the other aspects of the winding filament theory. Essentially, when you're when the bar is accelerating you down, let's say that it's Rolf set it at, like, four meters per second or three meters per second down.

That's fast. Right? The for perspective, the fastest the bar is moving up on a clean is, like, a heavy clean is 2.1 at peak VLO. So this is an average velocity of four, so it's really fast. So you're gonna drop down really fast.

How fast would you like, on a drop squats that we were doing the other around half

past I don't know what you'd get to. I know on this, I've hit negative 2.7 meters per second on the down phase, I think, on average. On average, On the banded belt squat. Oh. So it's fast.

It's really fast. So you're basically dropping as fast as you can.

Twice as What if you set it to, like is there a limit? Like, could you okay. Set it to, like

So it can't go infinitely fast. There's a top speed that it hits. Yeah. It would literally kill you. But, yeah, there's a top speed that it can go down and up.

Okay. So as it pushes you down really, really fast

Question, how fast is a jump? Like a like a Negative vertical? Like a CMJ, like, counter movement jump.

On the down phase? Yeah. That, I don't know. I'd have to check with the we could do it real fast with the with the OVR. But it's probably around in the twos, I would I would say.

Okay. So the idea is that you accelerate down faster than you're getting an over speed on the down phase. You're only putting, like, a 100 kilos on the down phase, because there's a certain resistance that you can do higher at the higher velos. The higher the velo, the less resistance down. Yeah.

So, you know, if you're really slow, it can push you down with a basically infinite. But if you're going at the higher velocities, I think at the top end is a 100 kilos. And so essentially, what you do is this throws you down at four meters per second, and then on the up phase, you set it to point three meters per second, which is slow as balls. So you're dropping fast, and then it's you can push up as hard as you possibly want, but it's only gonna go up at point three. And what that does is it bridges the gap between accentuated eccentrics and fast eccentric with a max, basically, isometric concentric condition.

So you're getting the winding filament theory on the down phase, you're taking advantage of that, and then you're pushing up, so you're getting all the max strength benefits of a high velo concentric exercise. Or sorry, low velo concentric exercise, but it's max effort.

And you said the down phase is a 100 kilos is the max?

I think that's the max

it goes.

Yes. Yeah. So you could

Can you set the weight that it's pushing you

down Yes.

At the velocity?

I think we're all set about 50% of your max.

40%. Like, if you, like, don't know what you're doing, like

I know

you're like, if your squat max a 100 kilos and you do, a four meter per second 100 kilo on there, like

You're done. It'll just I mean, it'll stop. There's there's safeties in place. But, yeah, it's a Smith machine. So it'll drop you down at four meters per second, and then you push it infinite as much as you can, point three meters a second.

So it's like this. It throws you down, then push, push, push, push, push. You can't mimic that any other way than having a Quantum. There's no other device that can do that. Because if you do it on the belt squat, let's say you put the bands on there, that can accelerate you faster than gravity.

Right? Yeah. You can't push up at point three unless someone is gonna resist the belt squat on the other side. Right?

I was thinking about ways we could potentially do it. Is there a way to put stoppers on, a machine? Like, let's say,

like Then it would be isometric. You wouldn't get a concentric condition.

Be concentric.

It has to be a concentric condition. You could do it where you did a fast down phase into an isometric, but then you're not getting the muscle shortening at a low velocity, which makes sense because if we know that what's actually happening in the musculotenous unit is the muscle slowly contracting concentrically while you're pushing up or ice well, isometric. But if you're really good concentrically, then it's mimicking exactly what happens. Exactly. So you're able to get this very unique stimulus that you can't do otherwise.

You can't do it without the quantum. That's only one step. There's another step. So you do that month four. Right?

So this is you said it's bridging eccentric eccentrics and fast eccentrics Yep. While working on the slow concentric side. Okay. So then

So now, the next thing the next thing is down fast, up fast. So here's the thing. If you only use pneumatic based resistance, meaning air resistance, to get the down phase fast and the up phase fast, because it can accelerate faster than gravity and you're not limited on the up phase, you can just accelerate as fast as you want, which the the Quantum wouldn't be able to do, then you need a Kaiser. Right? Kaiser's are really expensive.

But here's the thing, you can't just use pneumatic based loading. You need a fifty fifty combo of pneumatic this would be like the month after. So month four, you did the Quantum. Month five, you do the the Kaiser and resistance based loading. So you go fifty fifty mass to air based loading.

So you have 50 is pneumatic, 50% is traditional mass based loading, and you're at like 60% of your total. So

if This is during the last month? This is the

last month.

You go fifty fifty mass to pneumatic? Okay.

So then what you would do, let's say for How you

does Kaiser work exactly?

The Kaiser is sending its air pressure, essentially, and you're creating hydraulic it's a hydraulic system that I think there I don't know if there's a fluid. It might just be air. So, yeah, I think it's just pneumatic. Don't quote me on this. I'm not an engineer.

Push you or it's you push it

down? It's a constant it's a constant resistance down, and it's a cable system. So you set the resistance, the air resistance, to whatever. Let's say you set it to a 150, there's two cables that come up from underneath the rack and they hook onto the bar. So it would take the place of the this here, the rack, the squat rack.

You'd have cables that come up and hook onto the bar, and you can set the air resistance resistance on it. So you'd put like one thirty or one forty. The cables will pull it down. Yeah. But the air resistance is like attached to a compressor that's plugged in.

You stand on it and then you press the button?

The button is on the rack right here.

And you feel it like

Yeah. You'll feel the you'll feel it push down on you. Yeah. Like if you've ever been on a Keiser Squat rack, it's constant.

So okay. Okay.

And so

How is it different from just using a barbell?

Because a bar is limited by the acceleration due to gravity. Pneumatics is like variable resistance with the bands. Mhmm. Because gravity is is peaked at 9.8 meters per second squared due to, like, gravity or acceleration due to gravity. The pneumatic device, if you were to let it go, it's gonna accelerate it down at a Faster.

At a faster than gravity. Right? So if you have a fifty fifty combo of gravity so if you have a if you have a it's like throwing something downwards versus dropping it. Yeah. It's gonna go faster if you throw it.

I don't know. No matter if you have a weight, doesn't matter how heavy it is, it's gonna fall at the same rate as something lighter. They always in in physics class, they always tell you, like,

what Bowling ball and

Bowling ball or feather, assuming no air resistance.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It's or

a marble. A marble versus a bowling ball. Yeah. They'll both hit the ground. If you drop them off a skyscraper, they'll hit the ground at the same time.

So and it doesn't matter how much horizontal velocity either. It's always gonna go down at the same speed.

But if you have a pneumatic device The bowling

if you had a pneumatic device on the bowling ball, it'll get there way faster.

Yeah.

Like because you're you add an you have another net force. So it's the same thing as bands. Bands do the same thing. Bands are not limited by gravity. You have a resistance pushing you downward.

Pneumatic is constant. A band

Well, yeah, there's very it's not variable. Yeah. The band is variable, so it's harder to quantify, whereas pneumatic device, it's a set load the whole time. And Good

for periodization. Yeah. It was really good.

So then what you can do is you can blend traditional base loading with pneumatic device. So it's like dropping the bowling ball for 50% of the weight, and the other 50% of the load is gonna be pneumatic. So let's say we wanted 300 pounds on the bar. Right? We would put a 150 on the bar, like a 155 or a 150 pounds, and then we put the Kaiser on there at a 150, and now we're at a total load of 300, but 50% of it is faster than gravity, and you would do that's where you do the rhythm.

Really high v low. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.

How much how much air resistance?

It's 50 per it's fifty fifty. 50 air, 50 traditional. But the total load is probably like 50%. If your max squat So if your max squat is 400 Yeah. We'd put 200 on the bar, and we would say, look, there's 200 pounds on the bar or there's 100 resistance on the bar, 50% of his air, so a 100 pounds is air and a 100 pounds is resistance.

Attach weight. That's what you mean by 50. I thought you meant like 50% of the volume you do that cycles.

Woah. Yeah. That is So you would have so the bar so you'd you'd put greens. Exactly. That are constant.

This is why we needed to explain it

at Yes. 3PM five. What do you wanna say, Donovan? Donovan, what do wanna say? Hey.

A little podcast. We have Kaiser equipment thing coming. That's right. This will be good.

So what's the cost of this?

Okay. So the problem is this, is that a chi a p a Quantum is 60 k. That's the downside.

And how much is the Kaiser?

And the Kaiser is gonna be a 15.

Alright. So hear me out. Maybe more. If you sign up for the year plan, if we get 80 sign ups, we'll have a counter. The next 80 sign ups, we'll put it towards the Kaiser.

So

then the last problem is where are you gonna put it? So I was talking to Patrick and we'd have to move everything around. Because the the Quantum would have to go over there, the Kaiser would probably have to take that, and the rack would have to be moved when we need it. But this would only be here's the thing, in a six month

my house. Yeah.

And my house will be the month five, month six.

So like, that's what I'm saying. You're only using these pieces of equipment for like, you know, 20% of the six month or 40%, well, each respective piece of equipment for one month. So if you're doing six months, then 40% of the time, you're using the specialized equipment that you spent, you know, tenfold on for, but it's the most specific periods. It's like the most important periods, you get the highest gains, but it's really expensive, and the footprint of these devices is huge in your garage.

Said he thinks I can get to 55. You said

I think 53, potentially, but it was eye opening when he explained it because I was like

Should we it? Should we do it, guys? Comment below if we should send it.

Rob Rob just dropped 75 bans on equipment. Rolf's gonna try to work some magic. I don't know if he can, but it would be crazy. And so when you blend in all of these qualities, you're able to bridge each consecutive potentiated cycle better than you would with traditional base Oh, that's what because otherwise, you'd have to use the bands. You'd have to use the bands and a bar and go fast.

Right? And that's not the same. It's not as good. It's okay. But you can't mimic the quantum.

So you could do let's say it was a six month progression, you could do five of them. But that one month where you have the quantum, like Yeah. Wouldn't there's no way to mirror you cannot mirror it any other way.

The the Kaiser cycle, what does that do? What's the what what is that?

That is taking the winding filament theory, and instead of stopping you, capping you on the power resistance up, it allows you to hit higher velo. So now you're actually getting a full stress shortening cycle. Because before you're capping it, you're getting the down phase and you're getting a really high force for a brief period, concentric period. But now you're going high VLO down, high force down, high VLO up, high force up.

And the reason we don't I actually talked to about this in the video I made today. The reason you wouldn't just Kaiser is because the adaptations stack on each other. Like you train to train. Like you get better adaptations by doing the previous. The Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So that's why we we always talk about surfing the force velocity curve. That's why we surf the force velocity curve. So without the quantum, it's like you're you'd be like surfing it, and then you like try to skip

Yeah. You would.

To the end.

Skip a whole step. And so that's what we've essentially had to do because we don't have Yeah.

That's why we're capped at 50.

Everybody's capped at 50 because they don't have a quantum. Yeah. But the Quantum's expensive. So Patrick Patrick is gonna do some magic and try to get us one. Patrick, I do have a question.

Can the why can't the Quantum do what the Kaiser does? Because it doesn't have the VLO on the up phase? It can't. So the

It was built.

So you're always set at the velos. Whatever it sets the velo at, it's set at, basically. So, like, on the on the down phase, do you have to push a button for the it to start the down phase, or you just drop and it comes down with you? Here. Come here.

Patrick, come here. This is this is Rolf's son. Come here. Come.

Come. Come So on the actual display Yeah. You set, obviously, the weight force you want it to be pulled down at. Then The VLO? Yeah.

The VLO. And then you just press start.

And it'll just drop it?

Yeah. As you get in

As guillotine?

Yeah. As soon as you start moving the bar, you're obviously in the Schmidt machine. So as soon as you start lowering it, that's the pace it will go down.

But my question is, do I press start and it lowers? Or do you start? Oh, shit. So you better be ready Yeah.

To go down. Well, you can I I think you can set it both?

Oh, really? So you could do it on my start? Yeah. As I drop, as it feels the first resistance down, it's just gonna keep

going? Correct. Correct.

And what's the peak force that you can lower? A 100 kilos down at four meters per second?

I know it's four meters per second. I'm not sure actually of the 100 weight

on the down phase. Like, can't put it, like, 400 kilos and four meters per second. It's like

the No. Yeah. Yeah. And then you can set, obviously, where you want it how far yeah. How far you want it to go now, where to

stop. Okay. That was it. That was what was And then in the up phase,

you can also set whatever below.

Yeah. So you can set it at one meter per second, even though you can push it

Infinite.

Even though you can push it quicker than that, faster than that, you will not physically be able to push it faster than that one meter per second.

Yeah. Gotcha. So we

Patrick is gonna footprint it in the garage. His dad, Papa Rolf, old man Rolf. Rolf, if you're watching this, is gonna try to help us find a quantum, and we're gonna try to make it happen. And then Isaiah will jump 55. And if he doesn't

Yeah. That that believes believes he can jump 55.

And and the reason so the the reasoning for it is because Sue went from ten ten one eight to nine eight three.

So ten one to nine eighty four. Yeah.

So they also used a ten eighty Sprint to they also used a ten eighty Sprint in

With that.

Is the same device, but it is a longer cord. So, like, the the Quantum, is it also have cables? Is that how it does it? Yeah. So the the ten eighty is literally the same thing, but the velos that it can do are way higher.

So like, it can get up to twelve, thirteen meters per second accelerating you, and then you can also do resistance.

Up and down. No. No. No. No.

It's just one it's like a box. It's a ten eighty sprint. It's a it's like a it's like a resisted sprints. Yes. But it's behind you, it tows.

So you put it on the ground, it anchors in, and then you could put let's say you put the resistance No. You just sprint out. Like like, so you it's a harness, you put it around your waist, and then it sits on the ground. Imagine it's the belt squat. Yeah.

And then it's a 200 foot cable that can resist you. Take off. Yeah. And it'll just resist you at whatever you set it at and whatever VLO.

So how do they use that?

So they they would do resistance sprints with it, and they would go from heavier resistances to less resistances, and then they would do accelerated sprints with it. So they would have you so basically, the elastic coefficient is the braking forces. So what Rolf found is that there are guys that can't accelerate past a certain point. Right? Like, for example, let's say that my eccentric qualities and repositioning abilities to my lens can go up to I could run 13 meters per second upright.

If you can't accelerate to 13 meters per second

That's like a one guy.

It's like Christian Taylor. Christian Taylor's like that. So he can ex he can run physically he is physically capable without braking. Because some people can do it, but they're braking every step. So you'll see big spikes in the braking forces.

That's how you so the resistance sprints would bridge the gap. So you could either do a light acceleration, or you could do the resistance sprints. The hard part is we're doing unresisted sprints. Like, for example, let's say Christian Taylor without a resist without assistance can get up to 11 meters per second. There's a two meter per second gap between him and, you know, what he can run upright.

Right? There's you know? So you can't it's very hard to bridge that gap, the the 11 meters per second to 13. Yes, technically, can handle it being accelerated, but he can't accelerate on his own to 13 meters per second. He could maintain it.

He could maintain that. He could reposition his limbs. He has the eccentric qualities. He's like a super bouncy ball, but he physically can't do it.

Has a like, wheels can spin that fast, but the engine can't get it to that speed.

And then one other thing you can do with a ten eighty sprint is set the variable. So can

go more early You

can go more over. Say, let let's say, for example, you can set it at twelve kilos. As soon as you hit two meters per second, it drops to 10. As soon as you hit 2.5 or three meters per second, it drops to eight. So the quicker you move it, the lighter it will be gone.

Yeah. So this this slows, and then obviously you've got the over speed Yeah. Which, yeah, sort of redefined

it. Here's the problem.

You need make a two foot jumping version of this device. It's

that's what

That's what you got for the Quantum.

So the Quantum is

The Quantum is the two foot.

Yeah. No. I'm saying, like, you go out and jump.

And it's it's like you could do it. You could actually do it with the ten eighty. You could have it resist you early, and then later, it would drop off the resistance as you got faster into the plant. So you could have it resist you on the early run-in or on the better yet, the penultimate step. You could have it put 24 kilos on the penultimate step, and you accelerate as hard as you can, then as soon as you get past four meters per second, it drops off to zero.

So you get you get an overloaded acceleration on it.

Coming to the no flying way.

Yeah. Exactly. Anyways, that's the podcast, guys. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope this was, what would you call this, informative and Stimulating.

Stimulating for you. That would be good. Yeah. And very interesting coaching, goteachbstrength.com. Thanks for watching,

guys.

See you next

crazy, bro. Ten eighty