Nathanael Morton Jump Program Review 2024 (All Programs)

Nathanael Morton’s Jump Programs – Are They Any Good?

I recently combed through each of Nathanael Morton’s vertical jump programs to see just how good they really are.

I analyzed each program from top to bottom, scrutinizing the programming and periodization, information presentation, and how each program relates to one another.

Before I get into Nathanael’s programs, be sure to check out my full list of the best vertical jump programs of 2024.

I’ve made a series of notes about each of his programs below.

Beyond The Rim 1 (Bodyweight) Program Review

Beyond The Rim 1 is a 20 week bodyweight vertical jump program which I believe is Nathanael Morton’s best program – only you can no longer order it as the sales page doesn’t exist on his website…

While it’s a bodyweight program, Nathanael highly recommends having access to some dumbbells, resistance bands, some chairs/boxes, and a sled if possible.

You’ll also really benefit from having access to a wide open field or basketball court.

Beyond The Rim 1 Has A Solid Structure

This is a 6 day per week program and the structure is as follows.

Each of the workouts in this program are quite quick to complete compared to other programs (I’m looking at you Bounce Kit), so it’s not going to take all day to get through.

The program starts out gradually and builds in difficulty, which is great for athletes of all levels.

Phase Zero Focuses On Knee Health

One cool thing about BTR1 is the 4 week ‘Phase Zero’ which aims at helping you develop knee health so that your joints are ready to take on a full jump program.

This is a unique feature of this program and I believe it is super valuable.

I have no idea why you can no longer purchase the BTR1 program…

Format Is Easy To Understand

The layout of the program is pretty easy to understand, even though it’s just a PDF eBook.

Each of the exercises are hyperlinked to video demonstrations that Nathanael (or someone else) has recorded, so it’s easy to see how to perform each movement.

As you can see, each workout is fairly quick to get through, which is part of Nathanael’s “microdosing” approach which aims at doing the minimum amount of work possible to drive the adaptations we’re looking for.

I’m a big fan of this and I think many programs incorporate too much volume.

Some Exercises Are Too Difficult

One negative of Beyond The Rim 1 is that he uses exercises like pistol squats, which the overwhelming majority of athletes (especially ones doing a bodyweight course) won’t be strong enough to do.

This would be okay if he suggested alternative exercises, but none are supplied.

Upper Body Exercises Included!

This program is the only BTR program which includes upper body exercises baked into it.

BTR2 and 3 don’t include upper body exercises and so Nathanael is essentially forcing you to purchase the Upper Body Athlete program to go alongside it, if you want a comprehensive full body training program.

I suspect this is the reason you can no longer buy the BTR1 program – because he’d rather you spent twice as much money on BTR2/3 and the accompanying Upper Body Athlete program.

Obviously I could be wrong about this, but I can’t see why else he’d remove this program from the site.

Duration Is Too Long & Causes Conflicts With Sport

I think 20 weeks is an unnecessarily long duration as this will cause conflicts with peoples’ sporting seasons, forcing them to spend twice as much money to purchase the Beyond The Rim (In Season) program, just to get some advice on how to manage training during the season.

Understanding how to modify a training program so that you aren’t overtraining during a grueling season is extremely important and there’s absolutely no information about how to do this in the BTR1 program.

If you buy BTR1 and BTR (In Season) you’ll end up paying closer to $150, which then makes this quite an expensive overall choice of jump program(s).

The Vert Code program by PJF Performance has a more detailed guide on managing training in-season and is only $85 and I think this is a much better choice than buying the BTRIS + BTR1 combo.

Solid Programming Overall

As a vertical jump coach, Nathanael clearly understands the components necessary to craft a well designed program.

The exercises are done in the correct order, deload periods are smartly placed, and it progresses over time in a smart way.

Beyond The Rim 2 (Weight Training Edition) Program Review

Beyond The Rim 2 is the next progression from the bodyweight program and now requires a weight room to complete.

While weights are included in this program, upper body training has been stripped out of it, which I can’t make sense of…

I think Nathanael does this deliberately to encourage you to spend more money on the Upper Body Athlete program, which I’m not a huge fan of.

This is a 22 week program that consists of 6 days training per week, with alternating major and minor workouts…

This setup is quite nice as you’re only really doing 3 difficult workouts per week. The minor workouts are effectively glorified active recovery days.

Having access to the following equipment is highly recommended for the best results.

Tons of Information! Too Much Info!?

Nathanael crams so much info into his programs, that you’ll find yourself scrolling through the document for 40-50 pages before you even get to the workouts!

Some of this info pertains to the principles of vertical jump training, but most of it is off topic.

There’s a full nutrition guide as well as some stuff on inspiration and books to read, which I don’t think need to be included in the program itself (could at least be included at the end as part of an index).

The vertical jump program which does the best job of structuring and organizing the information is the Vert Code programs by PJF Performance…

Nath, if you’re reading this, I’d suggest studying the way information is presented in Vert Code/VCE and look to emulate it in your own products!

In the PJF programs, each of the resources are filed away in a separate (yet easily accessible) folder, as opposed to clogging up the program itself.

1RM Testing Days

One interesting thing about BTR2 and 3 is that they include 1 rep max testing days, usually preceding a deload week.

I think this is somewhat unnecessary, but I actually don’t mind it…

It’s cool to be able to see tangible progress on important metrics (like limit strength) throughout a long program.

Week 8 sees us testing our deadlift 1RM and in week 15 we do our back squat 1RM.

Nath doesn’t really explain why we’re doing this testing or how important it is. In fact we don’t even do a single deadlift for the next 6 weeks after testing our 1RM, so how important is it really?

I think Nathanael should clearly state that 1RM testing is completely optional and give instructions on what to do if you choose not to do this.

Logical Program Progression

Towards the end of the program, we’re doing more concentric focused movements aimed at converting our newfound strength gains into vertical explosiveness.

This means doing more exercises like band accelerated vertical jumps, trap bar deadlifts, and power cleans.

This isn’t exactly rocket science, but it’s good to see thoughtful overall program design.

No Vertical Test!?

So we finally make it to week 22 and what do we do? You would think we’d be testing our vertical around this point to see how much progress we’ve made!

Instead, Nathanael has us resting as well as testing our deadlift and back squat 1RMs again…

It kind of goes without saying that you’d test your max vertical jumps after the program’s finished, but it’s not written in here anywhere.

Decent Program Overall

Aside from Nathanael’s decision to not include upper body training in this program, I think Beyond The Rim 2 is a very solid vertical jump program and a great option for anyone with gym access.

It’s a very logical next step after the bodyweight program and I think you would likely make fantastic progress if you did BTR1+2 over the course of a year.

Beyond The Rim 3 Program Review

This program goes for half a year in duration and unfortunately there’s no information on the sales page as to who it’s for or how it differs from the BTR2 program.

It simply says ‘this program should be done after BTR2’.

Having read through the program, the BTR3 program follows the exact same format as the BTR2 program, only the exercises are a little more advanced.

There’s absolutely no mucking around in this program as we dive straight into some advanced movements on day 1…

Needless to say, this is not a super beginner friendly program.

There’s more giant sets and French contrast training in this program and you can tell that this program is targeted more towards athletes who have already been training for a while (i.e. having done BTR1/2).

Nathanael reaches deep into his bag of tricks for this program and uses some pretty advanced programming.

Joint-Angle Specific Training

One of the techniques you’ll see a lot of focus on in this program is joint-angle specific training, which sees us lifting in a highly jump specific manner.

You also see a ton of this in the Vert Code programs, but rarely in many of the other jump programs, which tells me NM really knows his stuff!

Lacks Alternative Exercises & Original Exercise Demos

Would be nice to see some alternative options for exercises like band accelerated vertical jumps if you don’t have a power rack or anywhere to perform these.

It also seems as though Nathanael got a little bored of recording his own video demonstrations during this BTR3 program as we’re starting to see many exercises link to random videos on YouTube.

This is problematic because if the owner of those videos deletes them or makes them private, you’ll have to hunt around for demos and hope that the video you find does a decent job of explaining the movement.

No Upper Body

We’re still not seeing any upper body exercises in this program which I think is pretty bad, considering it’s a half-year long program.

You’ll end up looking like this guy if you just do BTR2+3 for a year…

Neither of the sales pages for BTR2/3 tell you that upper body training is not included in the program, nor do they even suggest you should pair them with the Upper Body Athlete programs.

This is pretty poor form in my opinion.

If you’re not going to provide upper body training, at least be up front about that in the description of the product!

If you actually want a full workout program which includes lower and upper body training, you need to purchase Upper Body Athlete 3 which is the sister program for BTR3.

I don’t have issue with doing things this way, but the sales copy needs to be more clear about what you do and don’t get in each program.

Beyond The Rim (In Season) Program Review

Knowing how to balance your vertical jump training with a full basketball/volleyball/other season is really difficult and most athletes end up massively overdoing it.

Most athletes exist in a constant state of fatigue and aren’t jumping anywhere near as high as they should be because they’re overtraining without even knowing it.

There is a huge need for athletes to understand how to get this right, especially when we’re talking about 20+ week vertical jump programs that are bound to conflict with other sporting commitments.

Some Good Information But Misses Certain Important Concepts

Nathanael does a solid job of explaining what things we need to do differently in-season, such as reducing plyometric volume and focusing primarily on high intensity strength training.

I would however have liked to see him discuss the value of heavily focusing on concentric movements, particularly on game day.

Concentric movements tend to do significantly less damage to our muscle tissue but still stimulate our central nervous system just enough for us to maintain/increase strength…

Instead he uses movements like RDLs and SL RDLs which are super eccentrically taxing… I think his exercise selection could be improved somewhat.

While Nath does a good job of cutting out extensive plyometrics, and including some high intensity strength work, he seems to have forgotten to include any ‘max intent plyometrics’.

Something like the occasional box jump would be FANTASTIC as it’s a purely concentric movement, low impact, yet still checks the box in terms of ‘max intent plyos’.

Even just a few depth jumps scattered throughout the program would help us cover all our bases here!

Program Includes Upper Body Movements

Interestingly, Nathanael has decided to include upper body stuff in this program, despite not doing so in his BTR2/3 programs.

Intensity Is Too Low?

I could be wrong about this, but I don’t see the point in doing 5×3 reps at 50% 1RM…

The idea of strength training in-season is for us to maintain high intensity while keeping the volume low.

Nath prescribes back squats varying in intensity from 50%-65% of 1RM, and I think this is simply not going to accomplish much.

I would much rather see us lifting at closer to 65-75% 1RM here in order to drive the strength adaptations we’re after.

Is An Entire Program Really Necessary?

I think a simple guide on in-season training would have been sufficient, as opposed to a full ~20 week program.

Nathanael already has 3 other vertical jump training programs that span for 20+ weeks, so are you supposed to just stop in the middle of BTR2/3 when your season starts and switch over to the BTRIS program?

It would make a lot more sense to simply provide a list of principles on how to modify your existing program to ensure you get through your season without your knees turning to dust!

The PJF Performance Vert Code programs do a great job of summarizing everything you need to know about jump training in-season in a single 15 minute video.

It’s also quite a bit more comprehensive than the principles outlined by Nath at the start of the BTRIS program too.

Indestructible Knees Program Review

I could tell from Phase 0 of Beyond The Rim 1 that Nathanael knows his stuff when it comes to knee health.

Clearly a disciple of Ben Patrick, Nathanael Morton has put together some great information regarding reducing and eliminating knee pain.

It’s a 5 phase program which requires you to pass a knee ability test in order to progress from one phase to the next one.

This program is well structured and would be a great starting point for anyone suffering with patellar tendinitis.

I wonder if the Beyond The Rim 1 program was discontinued because it includes a similar knee strengthening program that NM has essentially transferred into its own program?