ANYONE can improve their vertical leap and learn how to jump higher!
The key to jumping higher is understanding how your body type affects this. Age, sex, race e.t.c., are not the deciding factors. You need to do an assessment of your own individual reaction to certain exercise routines, as this varies from one person to another. Giving you a list of exercises simply doesn’t cut it if you want to really jump higher…you NEED a sequence based on exercises for your given body type, concentrated on your weaknesses. This group of exercises should sequence from Strength to Explosiveness to Plyometrics.
Some Basic Steps To Get You Started
1. Assess your current strength and your expertise with earlier methods of training. The best way to get gains is to construct a totally new strength foundation. Then start utilizing an explosion segment. This will result in even more inches.
2. Do Lifts. Entire body strength is the key for such an athlete and there is no better exercise than the full back squat. This gives you progressive increases on spinal loading, which, in turn, stabilizes you under tension, and additionally increases stretch-response of hip muscles and hamstrings.
3. Root the squat centrally within most of your lower body workouts. 6-8 quality lifts gets the best strength developments and vertical carryover. On the days of your upper body workouts, the philosophy is the same, with the central exercises being bench press, overhead press variations, pull-ups and dips. Keep in mind to work often overlooked muscles at the end of the workout – muscles such as hip flexors, the shins , transverse abdominals e.t.c.
4. Ensure that you use a lifting technique in a safe and effective style. Undergo 3-5 week strength phases for both lower and upper body. Done correctly, you should see gains of 5% each week. Following this, you will be able to see how your jump is guaranteed to increase.
5. Properly use explosive and plyometric training as well as your strength training. These are your “field workouts” and are completed ahead of your weight exercises. E.g., on Day 1 you begin by engaging in a sequence of tempo runs, sprints and low-intensity plyometrics (after the proper warm-up of course). By the time Phase 3 comes about, this will have steadily switched to shorter tempo runs, overspeed (downhill) sprints and high-intensity plyos.
6. Emphasis on the heavier weights will decrease as you progress through the phases.
7. Visualization is important – imagine yourself exploding upwards. Picture yourself with large leg muscles that are tightened like springs, set to blast you up into the air. Say to yourself “I feel myself getting more strong and much lighter.” After that jump another time. You ought to observe a noticeable increase in your vertical leap. (Sports psychologists have long documented the usefulness of “mental practice” in improving one’s performance in sports.)
One final thought – the core of improving performance in any sport is the core (center) of your body…your midsection. To improve your midsection check out this information on how to get a six pack.
