This has been a question that has been on my mind for the past couple of weeks now and I’ve come across a variety of different answers throughout my time researching, but have ultimately come to the conclusion (backed by studies) that yes, olympic lifts do in fact increase your vertical jump.

For most people familiar with olympic weightlifting this may seem like a dumb question since they would say of course these lifts will increase your vertical, however although it does seem obvious I still wanted to know for sure and by how much.

Just so we’re clear:

Olympic Lifts: Snatch, Clean & Jerk, Power Clean, Hang Clean, Split Jerk, etc.

Below is a collection of excerpts that I have recorded throughout my research proving through data that the Olympic lifts are great for improving the vertical jump of an athlete at any level.

RESEARCH

From Just Fly Sports:

“An Olympic lifting squat is superior to a power lifting squat, due to its emphasis combining strength with hip mobility. There is always balance present. An athlete will never build strength out of proportion with mobility while doing this type of squatting. On top of mobility, research has shown that the deeper the squat, the greater the contribution of the knee extensors (as opposed to the back) becomes (Bryanton 2012), and thus improves any athletic feat which requires leg strength. Super-secret facet of athletic training: jumping relies heavily on knee extension. Squat deeper = jump higher.”

From AthleticLab:

“This study examined 32 men and divided them into different groups. There was a control group that resistance trained, a VJ group that did vertical jump exercises and resistance training, and a WL group that included Olympic Weightlifting along with resistance training. The results indicated that adding Olympic weightlifting to your already existing workouts help an athlete improve jumping ability more as well as improving other test that relate to sport movements.

Another study was performed using a group of football players. One group participated in power lifting and the other participated in Olympic weightlifting. The article states that, “after a 15 week study was over the Olympic weightlifting group had a significant improvement in the vertical jump and 40 meter sprint over the power lifting group.”

“In order to have a high vertical jump, you must have the ability to:

1. Squat heavy weights (either front squat or back squat).

2. Power-clean heavy weights.

By simply having those two skills, you automatically will have a high vertical jump. Here’s why…

The Olympic-lifts teach the CNS how to quickly “fire” a maximum amount of motor-units in the shortest possible time. They (snatch and clean) are the ultimate “power-building” exercises, and many experts will agree!

When you are executing the power-clean and are at the top position, you are essentially “jumping” with an added resistance that provides an even better stimulus than plyometric workouts themselves.”

“Pound for pound, Olympic weightlifters have a greater level of speed-strength than any other class of athlete in all of sports.” – Frederick Hatfield, three-time world powerlifting champion and the Co-Founder and President of The International Sports Sciences Association.”

From ResearchGate:

“Three studies compared OW versus control; four studies compared OW versus traditional resistance training; and three studies compared OW versus plyometric training. Meta-analyses indicated OW improved VJ height by 7.7% (95% CI 3.4 to 5.4 cm) compared to control (ES=0.62, p=0.03) and by 5.1% (95% CI 2.2 to 3.0 cm) compared to traditional resistance training (ES=0.64 p=0.00004). Change in VJ height was not different for OW versus plyometric training. Conclusions: OW is an effective training method to improve VJ height.”

From SportsScience:

“This study was done on high school boys for 8 weeks (the results are similar for professional football players[2]). Below is an image comparing the exercises done by the two groups, and the results they achieved.[3]”

“The results on the right are quite clear. The control group lost vertical jump height since they stopped training, the regular weight training group improved a little, and the Olympic lifting group improved the most. The above chart is showing absolute improvements, but in percentage terms, the weight lifting group increased their vertical jump by 2.3% and the Olympic lifting group improved by 4.5%, almost double.”

From USA Basketball:

“There are no better exercises to train for power than the Olympic lifts.”

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If olympic weightlifting is your sport you may not care so much about improving your vertical as long as your weights continue to go up, but if you are an athlete looking to develop more power and explosiveness for your sport, especially in the vertical jump, then olympic lifting needs to be in your weekly training.

Get yourself a pair of weightlifting shoes and get to work.

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