The Vertical Project Jump Program Review

Written by Jack Woodrup for VerticalJumping.com

The Vertical Project by Luke Lowery was recently updated so we thought it was about time we took another look at this program. If Vertical Mastery is the best vertical jump program available, then the Vertical Project is possibly the worst.

Honestly I didn’t think it could get any worse, but then again when it comes to his vertical jump program you should never underestimate the capacity of Luke Lowery to exaggerate wildly. After all, now he is claiming he was nearly drafted by the Spurs instead of Tony Parker - and if you believe that, well no offence, but you will believe anything.

Warning: This is a Scam

Before I actually review the Vertical Project you should be made aware that this program is a scam. Yes you do get something resembling a jump program, but it comes at a ridiculous cost. And this cost is very well hidden. Watch the video to see how he is ripping people off.

Quite frankly if his program was any good he would not need to resort to such under handed tactics to sell it.

Quality of Information

Where do I start with this? Before I get to the actual training information it is important that we have a look at the creator himself. The smoke and mirrors and outright hype from this guy comes thick and fast here starting with module 1.1 where he describes why despite his claims of being some sort of amazing trainer you have never heard of him. Apparently all his "All Star" clients WANT to sign non-disclosure agreements so that other athletes don’t know that they are working with him.

If you visit his website he makes some even more outrageous claims. Here is my favourite:

“his discovery of the UPN™ algorithm has been hailed "the greatest advance in vertical jumping technology", "the defining point between performance enhancement of yesterday and performance enhancement of tomorrow" and even "worthy of a Nobel prize". A nobel prize for delusional self promotion perhaps.

The program is based on the principles of Escalating Density Training (EDT). This is an inherently flawed method for improving maximum vertical jump as it equates total work done during a workout with an increase in power. Unfortunately this is total BS because it uses AVERAGE power over the entire workout as its measurement. In fact the examples given in the program confirm the flaw as he bases his assumptions on exercises using average power of 2 sets of 10 reps. 2 sets of 10 reps has NOTHING to do with a single effort max vertical jump.

He also talks about cutting back rest time as the single most effect way to increase power in your workouts. Again this is a false statement. What decreasing recovery time does is reduce the quality and intensity of the work which is absolutely a no-no when it comes to improving your vertical jump.

In another section Lowery says “For most athletes, reduction is key – getting rid of unnecessary workload”. He then goes on to prescribe 6 days a weeks of training including 3 days of upper body training. So much for following his own advice.

There is actually some decent training advice in the Vertical Project but it is so weighed down between either pseudo science, exaggerations, or outright falsehoods that it is difficult for the average reader to sort the useful from the crap.

Here is a couple of selections of the really crap though just to give you a taste of how full of sh#t this guy is.

Lowery as the face of crap creatine pill Adenotrex recommends taking more and more Adenotrex for longer periods of time in order to get maximum benefits. Firstly this supplement is complete and utter garbage. Second, as the chief salesman for this product what a surprise he tells you to take lots and lots of it to get a cumulative effect.

Here is a bit of physiology 101 for you folks – your body can only absorb so much of anything. If you drink too much water for example – which your body actually needs to stay live what happens – you go wee wee. So clearly your body is not going to magically store extra Adneotrex which it sure as hell doesn’t need.

In this same section he talks about his 19 athletes with 50 inch verticals. Can anybody name a single person in the entire world with a legitimate 50 inch vertical jump? The closest I have seen is AC Barch who has a mammoth vertical jump but he sure wasn’t trained by Luke Lowery and he certainly doesn’t take Adenotrex. AC for the record got his crazy hops from getting really strong using squats. Which brings me to my next bit of totally rubbish advice from Lowery – don’t do squats.

AC Barch has hops built by Squatting. Obviously not a Lowery client.

Yep, he says squats are really bad for increasing your vertical jump. Instead you should use a device he helped create called the SquatFlex. Slight problem here. Number of world class explosive jumping and sprinting athletes who built their speed and power using squats – ALL OF THEM. Number of world class athletes who have done so using the SquatFlex – ZERO.

If ever there was a gimmicky training device the Squat Flex is it. Look I could continue to go on about how truly god awfully bad the information is in this program. It has been so twisted and contrived to suit an agenda of Luke Lowery selling you stuff that it is actually offensive to read. There is lots of information in this program – but for gods sake, please do not confuse the quantity of information with anything remotely resembling quality.

CUSTOMIZATION

There is very little customization in this program. Everybody does the same exercises regardless of what they need to work on. The only variable is how many reps you do on certain exercises. This is a glorified cookie cutter program at best and really that is being EXTREMELY kind.

VERTICAL PROJECT PACKAGING

The Vertical project comes as a downloadable ebook. It is set up into a number of volumes with plenty of pictures showing the exercises. It does have some links to external web sites for the exercise videos and looks unprofessional. It also doesn't help that some of the links are no longer valid even though he only recently updated it.

Speaking of this all the original photos are still the same blurry, out of focus jobs he was using on the last version. They were obviously taken a while ago because he was still thin in those photos instead of the chubby lard arse he is becoming judging by his recent video. Clearly he doesn’t follow the nutrition advice he preaches in his program.

VERTICAL PROJECT VALUE FOR MONEY

This program previously cost $297 which was a ridiculous price to pay. It is currently selling for anywhere between $1 and $97 which although much cheaper than the usual over inflated price he charges doesn't change the fact that bad information is bad information regardless of the price. The only positive is that wasting less than $100 is better than wasting several hundred dollars. However BUYER BEWARE. His new trick is a WHOPPING $179.95 monthly coaching fee you don't realise you are signing up for when you buy the program.

You have to look very hard to find it (see the video) and you would never know what it was until you saw it appear on your credit card statement, but it is there. Good luck trying to get him to stop billng your card. Total scam!

The Vertical Project comes with a number of useless bonuses none of which are worth anywhere near the inflated values Lowery has given them so ignore the alledged value you are getting for the purchase price.

For example take Lukes "famous 50 inch vertical report". So famous that nobody has ever heard of it. The $1000 Masterclass - if ever there was an example of price not reflecting value this is it. $1000 to hear Luke Lowery rambling for 13 hours. Please spare yourself the pain. Actually perhaps the Top Secret Instant Vertical exercise Luke gives to his pros priced at $99 is actually the proof that price doesn't reflect value. The exercise is single leg hyper extensions by the way. There you go $99 bucks saved!

And don't even get me started on the "free" bottles of Adenotrex!

One Last Thing About The Vertical Project - You Can't Trust This Guy

We can't really review the Vertical Project without first addressing a few issues we have with its author. Firstly, he is a salesman and marketer. There is nothing wrong with that in itself, but you should be warned. He is the Don King of the jump training world. Great at self promotion (usually by making outrageous and BS claims), but somehow always leaves you with a bad taste in his mouth. Hilariously he often claims in his videos that he isn't a marketing guy but everyone else is. If that was the case then:

• if he wasn't just a marketer why then would he claim he makes $7.2M per year (which would make him the highest paid sports coach in the world by some margin) and as such doesn't need your money, yet every single time he makes a video or send san email he is trying to sell you something.
• if he wasn't just a marketer why does he use every known marketing trick in the book to get you to buy his stuff such as fake countdowns, impending price rises, and ridiculous claims such as it is worthy of a Nobel prize? Then again they did give Al Gore one, maybe a Nobel prize isn't worth anything these days.
• if he wasn't just a marketer why does he claim EVERY single athlete he supposedly works with INSISTS that he sign a non disclosure agreement. Surely if Michael Jordan didn't care that people knew his coach was Tim Grover you would think that at least ONE of his "athletes" wouldn't care if people know Luke Lowery was their coach. Maybe they are all just too ashamed about wasting their money.
• if he wasn't just a marketer why does he send out emails such as the one I received on October 19, 2009 where he said that he had agreed to sell the Vertical Project and as such now was your last chance ever to buy the Vertical Project?

Clearly he was lying about this last one because I am still getting emails and it is still available. Makes you wonder about how much other stuff he is lying about doesn't it.

Who is Luke Lowery's Personal Stalker?

Here is another one of his lies (maybe). He recently sent out a video stating that he had, wait for it, a personal stalker! He of course couldn't name names (does he ever?) because of "pending criminal charges in Australia", but he could say that the person was an Australian (I am Australian), that person wrote all sorts of lies about him (I don't write lies about him, unless of course questioning his own outrageous claims is lying), and also that the stalker is well known in the vertical jump world (I am very well known amongst vertical jump coaches).

Now while he didn't name names so there is a chance it might be someone else, given that there aren't too many well known Australian jump coaches making the effort I do to expose his claims for what they are, and given the flood of emails I have received, lots of people certainly seem to think he meant me, lets just for a moment pretend that if he was referring to me when he spoke about his alleged stalker, what would that say about him?

For one thing, it would again make him a LIAR. There are no criminal charges. He would be lying about that.

Secondly, how can anyone be stalked by someone who lives not only thousands of miles away, but in another country and across the Pacific ocean for gods sake? If you think about it for one second you realise how ridiculous it becomes

Thirdly, if he does have a personal stalker and he was pressing stalking charges wouldn't that mean someone would have had to have been following him around and acting in a threatening manner?

If Luke Lowery feels so frightened by someone who lives on the other side of the Pacific ocean he must really be, well, for want of a better word, a pussy. Of course, the fact that his alleged stalker is thousands of miles away would also make those imaginary charges really, really hard to stick.

If you went into a police station in downtown LA and told them you were being stalked by a person thousands of miles away in Australia and wanted to press charges they would take one look at you and laugh you out the door. And when you next get one of his emails where he talks about the millions he gets from coaching unnamed players, laugh him out the door is exactly what you should do. The guy is a joke.

Conclusion

I honestly cannot say anything good about this program. Luke Lowery really just is in it to try and get your money any way he can. Previously it was by having a high sales price. Now his new con is to get you to unwittingly sign up to his ridiculously priced monthly coaching club for $179.95 per month. It is a total scam. His program on the surface looks ok, but if you read it carefully it has so many flaws and so much psuedo science, it is just a really bad purchase. DO NOT BUY THIS PROGRAM.

Honestly I would not trust this guy as far as I could throw him. Every product he seems to be involved with, whether it be Adenotrex, SquatFlex, some dodgy weight loss pill he is peddling in Japan, or his vertical jump program, seems to me to be over-hyped, under delivering crap. Seriously, give this man your money at your own risk.

COMPARISON TO VERTICAL MASTERY

CATEGORY	Vertical Project
Quality of Information	His secret maths based system is a flawed version of Escalating Density Training. Total rubbish.	Outstanding. The FREE Vertical Mastery guide is a MUST read.
Customization	Minimal Customization. Vertical Project is a one size fits all program with a few minor tweaks to make it seem better than it is.	Fully customized programs target your specific needs for maximum results
Presentation	Ebook	Fully Interactive Software Program
Value for Money	Forget the purchase price - the real sting is the hidden $179.95 PER MONTH recurring fee. Terrible.	Vertical Mastery is a bargain. $67 for unlimited custom programs and support.
Overall	Avoid this program at all costs. Luke Lowery does not care about your ability to jump high just how much money he can make off you.	Vertical Mastery is the Best Program in the market by a clear margin.
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