How to increase your vertical jump with the French Contrast Method

The French Contrast Method is a sequence of four exercises done back to back: a heavy movement, a plyometric one, a loaded explosive one and an assisted plyometric one. The idea is to use post-activation potentiation: after a maximal effort the nervous system stays switched on for a few minutes, and inside that window the explosive movement comes out better. It isn't a beginner method and you don't run it all year.

The method comes out of the French school of strength and conditioning and became popular in the English-speaking world as the French Contrast Method. Here's how it's built, how you run it and who it's actually for.

Why strength alone isn't enough

As the level goes up, what separates one athlete from another is almost never strength itself: it's how fast they can express it. In a jump you have a little over two tenths of a second. An athlete can squat more than a teammate and jump less, because it takes too long to get that strength out.

Power training exists to close exactly that gap: take the strength you already have and make it available fast.

How post-activation potentiation works

After a very intense contraction, the muscle stays in a state of heightened readiness for a while: fibre recruitment goes up and the response to a following stimulus is quicker. That's the phenomenon called post-activation potentiation, or PAP.

Contrast is how you take advantage of it: you alternate a heavy, slow exercise with a light, fast one, so the second lands inside the window where the nervous system is still "warm". That window isn't the same for everyone, which is why rest times have to be tuned to the athlete.

The 4-exercise sequence

The circuit runs in this order:

1. Heavy compound lift — back squat, deadlift, hex bar. Few reps, heavy load.
2. Plyometric exercise — bodyweight vertical jump, broad jump, box jump. Maximum intensity, few contacts.
3. Loaded power movement — squat jump with a light barbell, hex bar jump. Here you train explosive drive under slight fatigue.
4. Assisted plyometrics — pogo jumps or jumps with bands that unload some bodyweight, to work at speeds higher than you'd reach on your own.

The logic is to cover the whole force-velocity curve in a single sequence: from maximum load at low speed all the way to maximum speed at negative load.

Two practical combinations

Vertical chain (push)

1. Barbell back squat
2. Bodyweight vertical jump
3. Squat jump with a light barbell
4. Pogo jumps with a band

Horizontal chain (pull)

1. Barbell deadlift
2. Bodyweight broad jump
3. Hex bar jump
4. Band-assisted broad jump

How to run it

• Put the circuit at the start of training, when you're fresh. Never at the end of a session.
• Short rest between one exercise and the next inside the sequence: around 20-30 seconds, the time it takes to move.
• Repeat the circuit for 3 sets.
• Rest 5 minutes or more between sets, depending on the load you used in the first exercise.
• In the second half of the session you can work on accessory muscle groups and prevention.

Who it's for and who it isn't

Let's be clear: this method is built for athletes with at least a year of serious barbell work behind them. It asks a lot of the nervous system and assumes you can already squat and deadlift meaningful loads with clean technique.

If you're still learning the movement, or you don't have a strength base, contrast adds nothing and exposes you to pointless risk. Better to build strength and landing capacity first.

Two more rules: don't run it all year, run it in blocks; and don't put it in your busiest match weeks.

Measure first, train, then measure again

Contrast is a demanding method, and that's exactly why it makes sense to check it against a number instead of a feeling. Take the measurement before the block, run the whole block, measure again under the same conditions.

The jump test is free: you upload a two-second video, get the height in centimeters calculated from flight time, and the video stays on your device.

The JHP contrast program

The JHP Contrast Method (€90) pulls the contrast training and PAP work into a structured plan, with the sequences already built and video for every execution.

If the strength base still needs building, the step before is JHP Gym Edition: 16 weeks in the weight room on maximal strength and power, €60. Both are included in the JHP subscription (€99/year, 13 programs, WhatsApp support, cancel anytime), along with the rest of the JHP courses.

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