By Jack Woodrup, Vertical Jumping.com.

A common question I get asked about my Vertical Mastery jump training system is “how many inches can I expect to gain?” Now as much as I would love to be able to say something specific like “9 inches in 8 weeks”, the truth is there are so many variables outside of the workouts themselves that can have an impact on the results making such predictions is actually impossible (and to be blunt about this – people who do make such claims about specific results are lying to you).

You see, when it comes to athletic training each person IS different. Here is a list of just some of the things outside of the actual training program that can, and indeed do impact how much an athlete improves:

Age

Gender

Body type

Genetics

Training history

Diet

Sleep habits

Life stress (exams, job, relationship, money etc)

Other sporting commitments (games, training, other sports)

Climate they live in

Lifestyle choices (smoking, drinking, drugs etc)

Custom Training: Sometimes the need for a custom training plan is rather obvious.

As many of you know my belief about ANY form of training is that from an actual programming point of view having a customized workout based on the individuals needs as they relate to a specific goal is the fastest way to get results. This isn’t a great revelation by the way, most good coaches and trainers would agree with this view. But even with a custom training program there are still all those other outside factors at play. The question this raises is how then do you account for them in building and designing workouts?

Heart Rate Variability Training To Rescue

This is where Heart Rate Variability (HRV) training comes in! What exactly is HRV? In really simple terms HRV is the variability in the time between our heart beats. If there is a high level of variability in those times it essentially means that the parasympathetic nervous system is more active. If the variability is low it means that the sympathetic nervous system is more active.

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