Nathanael Morton: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another video.
My name is Nathanael Morton and I am a vertical jump coach.
I've helped thousands of athletes increase their vertical jump higher and dunk a basketball.
And in today's video, I'm going to be reviewing the Vert Code by PJF Performance.
I've already done a review on Vert Shock.
I've done a review on the Flight System by Overtime Athletes.
And now this was by far the number one requested vertical jump training program that you guys
wanted me to review next.
So here we go.
I've never watched his videos.
I've never seen his program, but I have heard good things.
So I am excited.
So let's jump into it.
Nathanael Morton: Vert Code.
The Vert Code by PJF Performance, $85, it tells you right off the bat how much you're
going to pay.
So Vert Shock was $67.
The Flight System from Overtime Athletes was $134, which also had an upper body athlete
program built into it and had covered all the basis for what you want in a vertical
jump training program.
So the Vert Code is right in the middle for $85.
Nathanael Morton: I also see right away, no equipment required.
So this is a body weight program.
And I want you guys to know.
It is very hard to increase your vertical jump as high as possible.
You can still increase your vertical very high, but if we're talking about maximizing
your potential, you usually need to use weights.
You can get up to a 40 inch vertical even a little bit higher by using body weight.
But if you want to get the highest that you can possibly get, I am so sorry, but you need
to use equipment.
Nathanael Morton: No equipment required.
Step-by-step guidance.
Three month program.
So this is 12 weeks.
And he's not claiming that you're going to gain all kinds of crazy inches.
He's not claiming that you're going to gain three times the amount of inches that you
can gain on Vert Shock in 12 weeks.
So that's a good thing.
Nathanael Morton: It's a red flag when you see people claiming
that you're going to gain all kinds of inches, because you don't know people's prior training,
you don't know their current vertical jump.
What if they have a 48 inch vertical jump?
And you're claiming that they're going to gain 12 inches from your program?
And you're claiming that they're going to gain three inches from your program?
You just don't know what people are stepping up to the table with when they buy your program.
So any program that claims all kinds of inches, red flag.
Nathanael Morton: It's also way easier to buy this program.
He's simple and straight to the point.
Even for Vert Shock, I had to scroll through thousands and thousands of stories and testimonials.
"I increased my vertical by 64 inches by the time I woke up."
I had to scroll through so many even for Overtime Athletes.
It was a little bit harder to find the program than it was for this.
Nathanael Morton: This one is right here.
Get started, 85 bucks.
Sign up or log in to join the Vert Code Bodyweight Group.
So leave a comment down below if he actually has a weight training vertical jump program,
because I don't really know.
He's claiming that it's a body weight program.
So what I'm going to do is sign up right now, buy the program, and then I'll come back to
you.
Nathanael Morton: By the way, if you want a free body weight
vertical jump training program, comment jump, J-U-M-P down below in the comment section
and I will send that to you for free.
Nathanael Morton: Thank you.
You have successfully joined the Vert Code Bodyweight Group.
Welcome to the Vert Code Bodyweight.
Let's get to work.
To learn how to use the platform check out the welcome video.
Should we check this out?
Because I don't really know anything about this, dude.
Let me watch it real quick.
Video: ... to get after it and start getting some
serious results, first, I just want to give you a quick tour of the platform.
Nathanael Morton: This dude looks like he will cross you up.
Let's just move on.
The Vert Code Bodyweight is a 12-week program designed for unleashing your genetic potential
without equipment.
We use four key phases.
Blah, blah, blah.
Multi-directional speed, explosiveness, agility.
So this looks like not only is it a jump program, but it's going to help you become a better
athlete overall.
So if most of you're basketball players watching, it will help you become a better basketball
player overall.
Nathanael Morton: Phase one is two weeks.
Phase two is two weeks.
Phase three is four weeks.
Phase four is four weeks.
And that equals 12 weeks.
Yes, I'm a mathematician.
Vert Code phase one, let's begin.
Notes for week one, day one.
Let's build the base.
I already love this.
Let's build the base.
I have the same thing in my body weight program, where you do some isometrics and you do some
biometrics that aren't as intense as the rest of the phases in the program.
So we need to build the base before we make the gains.
Nathanael Morton: You may need to modify the reps to fit your
current level.
Always listen to your body and never push past joint pain, i.e., knee pain, back pain,
ankle pain, et cetera.
That is so important.
Do not work through pain.
If your knees are screaming at you that they hurt, if your ankles hurt, if your lower back
hurts, if your body hurts and you continue to play basketball and you continue to do
vertical jump training, you will get worse.
I'm telling you from me to you, from your coach to the supporter, you will get worse
if you continue to go past pain and train with pain.
Nathanael Morton: Keep in mind that vertical jump training is
not endurance training.
We ain't running no marathons here, which means you do not need to rush your sets.
I love that.
Use the rest tool on the app.
Okay.
So he has an app as well.
So already, I'm not sure if Overtime Athletes has an app.
I didn't see it when I was in there.
Vert Shock might have an app, and just by downloading it, you'll probably gain a couple
inches.
Also, we aren't chasing the burn.
This isn't time under tension hypertrophy, trying to get like Arnold Schwarzenegger.
We're trying to jump like Jordan, or your favorite player.
Nathanael Morton: If we scroll a little lower, this gets into
the program.
And as Overtime Athletes has, as I have, as Vert Shock doesn't have, you can click the
exercises right here and you can go to a video demonstration of that exercise.
So I'm just going to click on one, Standing Jump.
And here it is.
It shows you how to do a standing jump.
So we've got a dynamic warmup.
You guys know how I feel about that.
You got to be doing your warmup.
Mechanics primer.
What is that?
Okay.
So he's having you practice the mechanics of the arm swing.
Oh, dang.
All right.
So he has you go through the mechanics of a vertical jump and a two-step approach jump.
Wow.
This is something I've never seen.
And I do not have this included in my program.
Yeah.
So that is really good.
Nathanael Morton: Honestly, guys, this is something that I never
seen before.
So you're working on your technique right away.
For me, even personally, I might steal this because for me, you work on your technique
simply during your jump days.
For this, he has you prime probably every single workout working on your technique.
Okay.
So he has a lot of force absorption, deceleration.
He has a lot that's going to prepare you to jump before you even jumped, which is so important,
especially if you're a beginner.
If you just go out and you just start jumping and doing all this stuff without preparing
to jump, without teaching your body how to decelerate, how to absorb the force, then
you're going to get hurt.
Nathanael Morton: He has calves in there.
You guys know how I feel about calves.
You've got to build yourself from the ankle to the knee to the hip.
You just do hip extension and get such a powerful hip extension and a powerful posterior chain.
But you neglect the ankle joint and the knee joint and the muscles that make those joints
strong and hold those together and stop you from getting pain.
Then you're going to get pain.
Nathanael Morton: This dude got breathing techniques?
Video: ... for 7-11 breathing, what we're going to
do is just lay down on our back- Nathanael Morton:
He has some bounds in here, some plyometric jumps.
So as I stated, this first day is really focused on force absorption.
It's focused on mechanics.
It's focused on everything that you should be focused on to prepare for jumping, which
makes a lot of sense.
So very impressed by this so far.
Nathanael Morton: Notes for week one, day two.
We have a pretty short, efficient workout focused on core and mobility.
Okay, we've got some core exercises, got some mobility exercises.
Remember, the difference between flexibility and mobility is that flexibility is referring
to range of motion in the muscles.
Mobility is talking about range of motion in the joints.
And if either of those are lacking, if your flexibility is lacking, which mine is to be
completely honest.
If your mobility is lacking, then it causes unnecessary friction which causes pain and
does not let you fulfill your full athletic potential.
So you don't want tight muscles and you don't want joints that can't move through the full
range.
Nathanael Morton: Moving on to day three.
This is extremely similar, if not the same exact workout as day one, which is okay.
If you follow my free body weight vertical jump training program, you understand that
I have three days, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, which are all the same.
So this is okay.
Day four is the same as day two.
It's just core and mobility again.
And day five is exactly the same workout as day one and day three, which is not a bad
thing.
This is set up exactly as my body weight jump training program is, except he adds in mobility
on Tuesday and Thursday.
Nathanael Morton: So his program is actually one-upping my program
at this current time.
Now, I also don't have any jump mechanics in my free body weight vertical jump training
program.
So right now he is beating me on those two things.
I can't say so far that his program will help you increase your vertical more than mine
will because these are just the beginning exercises.
Remember, we're building the base.
So as of now, mine would get you a higher vertical, but I haven't even jumped into his.
So his might continue to rise above mine.
And then you should get this program.
Nathanael Morton: So guys, week two, day one is exactly the
same as week one, day one.
Week one, day three and week one, day five.
This is not a bad thing.
As I told you in another video, I can't remember what video it was, but I said, you can do
the same exercises over and over and over.
Just make sure that you are progressive overloading.
Nathanael Morton: Okay.
So week one and week two are exactly the same.
You're working on deceleration.
You're working on force absorption.
You're working on mechanics.
You're working on mobility.
So this is getting you ready to jump.
So weeks one and week two, the first phase is getting you ready for jumping.
Now let's jump into the jumping.
Nathanael Morton: All right, so we are in the Vert Code phase
two.
Week one, day one of phase two, we are working on loading and redirecting.
So our ability to load and absorb force rapidly.
So a little bit more forced absorption.
Okay, we've got a dynamic warmup, some penultimate jumps, power skips, approach jumps, single
leg eccentric box steps down.
So we actually have some strengthening.
Nathanael Morton: Remember, how I said that Vert Shock, there
was virtually zero strengthening.
In order to increase your vertical jump as much as possible, you need to get stronger,
you need to get faster and more explosive.
So this, just like my body weight program, he has strengthening and he has explosive.
He actually, I'm going to be honest right now, this dude knows more than I know about
vertical jump training.
I can just tell right off the bat that I need to study and watch all these videos to see
why he does all of this so that I can learn more so that I can make my programs better
for my athletes.
But I'm telling you, this guy knows what he's doing.
Nathanael Morton: Week two, day five.
Yes.
See, this is all the same thing.
So Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, you do the same exact workout in his program, which is
the same as my body weight vertical jump training program.
And then Tuesday and Thursday, you got core mobility and it's the same throughout the
first four weeks of the program.
So far very impressed.
He obviously knows what he's doing.
He has strengthening and he has a lot of stuff.
He has force absorption.
He has deceleration.
He has jump mechanics.
He has eccentric strengthening.
So he is getting ready.
He is priming you to jump.
Nathanael Morton: The Vert Code phase three, which is four weeks
long.
This is actually a de-load week.
So we train for four weeks, and now he has us doing a de-load week, which a de-load week
just means a week of less intense exercise.
Some people take a de-load week to actually rest.
That ain't a de-load week.
That's a full rest week.
A de-load week is less reps, less sets, less weight if you're actually using weight.
But it's just less intensity on your body so that you can rest and recover and build
back bigger, stronger, faster, more explosive.
Nathanael Morton: All right.
So his de-load week isn't actually a de-load week.
It's only two days of de-load.
What he wants you to do is go, get a massage or foam roll or some myofascial release so
that you're ready for the rest of the program.
So let's get into the rest of the program.
Nathanael Morton: Day three, we've got some plyos, we've got
some hamstrings, achilles.
Yeah guys.
So listen.
He hits everything.
He hits everything that you need to hit to increase your vertical jump and dunk on anybody.
Day four is mobility.
Day five is some plyos.
Week three is the same.
And week four is the same.
We've got some penultimate hurdles jumps.
That sounds like it will be a lot of fun.
Nathanael Morton: The Vert Code phase four.
So this is the last phase of the program.
I'll go through this very quickly.
And then I'll give you my ultimate conclusions and where I think this program stacks up compared
to Vert Shock and compared to Overtime Athletes and compared to my body weight training program.
Nathanael Morton: Okay.
We've got some agility.
That's fun.
We've got bounds.
We've got consecutive hurdle jump.
So guys, consecutive hurdle jump.
So meaning you set up hurdles and you jump over them consecutively.
If you were just a beginner and you just went out and did consecutive hurdle jumps, your
body might not be ready for that.
So in the previous phases, he had you working on deceleration.
He had you working on jump mechanics.
He had you working on force absorption, on eccentric loading.
So all of that stuff is going to get you ready for the vertical jumps in this phase, which
are most intense.
Nathanael Morton: Day two is core and mobility.
It's different though.
Day three is the same as day one.
Week two, the exercises are the same as week one.
Week three is the same.
And week four is the same.
So guys, here are the conclusions that I've come to and here is where Vert Code by PJF
Performance stacks up to my body weight program, to Vert Shock, and to Overtime Athletes program.
Nathanael Morton: Let's start with Vert Shock.
My cat did Vert Shock.
Became a lion.
Okay, no.
In all seriousness, Vert Shock has zero strengthening.
Okay?
If you have zero strengthening, you're automatically going to go to the bottom.
Okay?
Because there's only two things you need to do to increase your vertical jump, and Vert
Shock is missing one of them.
So that's 50%.
What if you got 50% on a test?
Mommy's going to be mad.
So Vert Shock is way at the bottom.
Okay.
Nathanael Morton: So which program would be next?
I hate to admit this.
I 100% hate to admit this, but I'm going to go on the record right now and say that Vert
Code by PJF Performance, his body weight program is better than my body weight program.
It's just set up better.
It sets you up to go from zero, from somebody who has no idea what they're doing and properly
load yourself, which I do the same, but not to the extent that he does.
He goes so far out of his way to make sure that you properly load yourself.
You do deceleration.
You do force absorption.
You do eccentric loading.
You literally, all his Ts are crossed.
All his Is are dotted.
Nathanael Morton: So will you gain more inches with his program
than with my program?
It's very hard to tell.
People gain a lot of inches with my program.
But I'm going to go on the record and say that his body weight program is better than
my body weight program.
It's also $85.
But pay $85 and get the better program.
So I'm honestly going to go to my body weight program after this and make some changes because
that's just the level you have to play it.
This dude is obviously at a very high level.
This dude obviously knows what he's talking about and shows me that I have a lot to learn.
Nathanael Morton: I'm a very good vertical jump coach, but I'm
not going to sit here and be mad at somebody else who's a better vertical jump coach than
me.
I want to learn from you because I will surpass all of you.
Knees Over Toes Guy, PJF Performance, Overtime Athletes.
I am coming because I am a learning machine.
I'm not mad that this dude's program is better than mine.
Now I have more knowledge to make my program better for my athletes.
Let's go.
I'm fired up.
Nathanael Morton: But is it better than Overtime Athletes program?
Will it help you gain more inches on your vertical than Overtime Athletes?
What's it called?
The Flight System.
No, I don't think it will because Overtime Athletes uses weights.
Now, they are geared for two different populations.
The Vert Code is body weight.
The Flight System is weight training.
So right away, weight training, if you have to increase your strength and increase your
speed to increase your vertical, you can increase your strength more with weights than you can
with body weight.
It's very hard to increase your maximum strength with body weight.
So if you're a beginner and you need a lot of force absorption work and you need a lot
of deceleration work and you need to get that mobility, well, you always need mobility,
but if you need the beginning phases that you need of a vertical jump training program,
then PJF Performance would probably be for you.
Nathanael Morton: But if we're talking about overall, how many
inches are you going to gain, then Overtime Athletes, the Flight System, because it uses
weights, because it really takes you to the next level.
That would be the program.
The Flight System would be the program to take you to the highest vertical possible.
But it's also geared towards athletes who have already been training, who have already
gone through all that force absorption and deceleration and all that type of stuff.
So they're really geared towards two different populations, but in the raw fact of who's
going to help you gain more inches, it is going to be the Flight System with Overtime
Athletes.
Nathanael Morton: One other thing that I would like to mention
is that even though the Vert Code is body weight, I would still gain inches on my vertical.
There's a lot of stuff in the Vert Code that I have never done before.
There's even some stuff that I've never seen before.
So I would gain inches by going through the body weight program, the Vert Code.
Nathanael Morton: If we look at another body weight program
like Vert Shock, I would gain zero inches.
I might even go down a few inches if I did Vert Shock.
But PJF Performance, the Vert Code, completely fire, just like the Flight System from Overtime
Athletes.
Nathanael Morton: There's obviously people out there who know
a lot more than me, so I need to study all of these programs that I'm buying.
I'm going to go broke.
I need to study all of this information so that I can get better, so that I can get more
knowledgeable, so that I can give you more videos and more knowledge so that you get
better and take your athletic potential to the next level.
But that is my review.
Like, comment, subscribe, and make sure that you tell me who to review next down in the
comment section.
Peace.
Nathanael Morton: (singing)