I am currently doing AA3 and was wondering if it is safe or not. If it is should i still lift regularly?
Don’t do air alert. It is an unproductive program at best, in my eyes.
Any program that has up to 50 reps of jumping activity is useless. THere principal is “habitual jump training” it will do little help because of high rep plyometrics and many useless exercises that can sometimes go for hundreds of reps.
I think the air alert programs will give the biggest gains to very young teenagers who have never done a lot of jumping and are still growing. It is very possible this kind of program could get someone from a 15 inch vertical to a 25 inch vertical but very unlikely it will get anyone from a 30 inch vertical to a 40 inch vertical.
What the guys are saying is right… too many reps. With that much volume, the reps get sloppy and then you’re developing endurance not explosive power. In addition, many people get knee pain and problems from the air alert programs (even the slightly scaled down aa3). Your knees will thank you for going another route.
But you can keep lifting and do a more sane plyometrics program 1-3 times per week focusing on quality reps. I think that will do more good for your knees and your vertical.
-Erik
You bring a good point with beginner athletes, the training in Air Alert does develop a foundatiion, however as one approaches the later weeks where jumps go into the hundreds then it becomes useless and power output goes way down, thus improving just about nothing. Unfortunately the mass marketing Air Alert has done over the year has made teenagers believing that it is the best way to train in order to dunk a basketball.
It has way too many reps and I would be interested to hear about the number of stress fractures caused to young people who are dumb enough to do this program. It will work for people who have never done anything in their life, but it won’t be optimal. A good general strength, weights, and sprint program would be MUCH more valuable for a younger athlete.
its a terrible program, the high reps and constant pounding of the knees is bad, and the program even says that it is only designed to strengthen you quads and calves…why would u isolate those two muscles for your entire program when the vertical jump involves so many other muscle groups?
Because those are the muscles that have been “marketed” essentially to be considered the best in vertical development. The average person doesn’t know about the posterior chain, and would rather do calf raises then heavy deadlifts any day.
yeah, drop air alert.
just wondering though, is there any merit/potential in the “habitual jumping/movement” concept at all? or just going through the motions will do the same thing.
im very against “habitual jumping” if it was a different habitual movement then maybe but definitley not jumping…the concept is muscle memory, that after repeating it hundreds of times jumping will become habitual, but hundreds of landings over and over arent good on the knees, and it no longer is explosive, and a max height jump is very explosive…not to mention that the quick landing and take-off (at least for me) totally eliminated the eccentric portion of the jump making it totally concnetric and further worsening the program to the pile of crap that it is 
i’m talking more about the “habitual” thing in general, not how air alert attempts to apply it. or maybe i’m wrong. thanks though
Is Air Alert safe, or weight training? Drop that b.s. and hit that chain.
for basketball “habitual” jump shooting or “habitual” ball handling is great…for skill components of skill related sports it can be good (but isnt always)…for gaining explosivenss its terrible imo
Smitty makes a good point here. Muscle memory in the development of maximal power output will never happen, unlike repetition in a certain skill like shooting or dribbling. I still dont understand the concept air alert went through this whole time, habitual jumping could improve technique, but how can you increase overall power with such high repetitions, well its answered that you can’t. If only proper programs were well advertised in magazines just like AA3 does.
The reason good programs are not advertised is good coaches realize you can’t put out a one size fits all jump program. I’ve had coaches and athletes both request our jump training program after seeing our athletes practice and compete, and my answer is always a resounding NO!! It wouldn’t be ethical for me to expect these coaches or athletes to just see what we have on paper and be able to make the adjustments and improvements on technique that I make. You want a good jump program find a good coach and listen to him (for more on listening, search here for: The Full Cup Syndrome). The answer to a high vertical is simple if you’re listening. Good Luck…
good points, i dont think that “commercial” programs in general are the way to go…what works for one wont work for all so y not get a program tailor fitted 2 u?
I do think that a good program can work for everyone. You will just have to start different athletes at different places and emphasize their specific weaknesses.
But doesn’t that mean you’re individualizing it? It’s not that a good program can’t work for everyone, it is the adjustment that changes a picasso from a paint by numbers.