ANYONE can increase their vertical leap and learn how to jump higher!
The key to increasing you vertical jump is learning the role your body type plays. Age, sex, race e.t.c., do not play as important a role. You need to do an assessment of your own individual reaction to training, as this changes from one person to another. Giving you exercises simply doesn’t cut it if you want real hops…you NEED a cycle based on exercises for your given body type, concentrating on your weaknesses. This group of exercises ought to cycle from Strength to Explosiveness to Plyometrics.
Fundamental Steps To Get Started
1. Assess your present level of fitness and your level of experience with prior types of training. The best way to get gains is to construct a totally new strength foundation. Then start utilizing an explosion phase. This will result in further inches.
2. Perform Lifts. Total body conditioning is a key factor for such an athlete and there is no superior exercise than the full back squat. This gives you progressive increases on spinal loading, which provides stabilization under tension, and also improves stretch-response of hip muscles and hamstrings.
3. Make the squat the core exercise of your lower body workouts. 6-8 quality lifts gets the best strength improvements and vertical carryover. On the days of your upper body workouts, use the same philosophy, with the central exercises being bench press, overhead press variations, pull-ups and dips. Keep in mind the overlooked muscles towards the end of your workout – muscles such as hip flexors, the shins , transverse abdominals e.t.c.
4. Make sure to use a lifting technique in a secure and efficient style. Undergo 3-5 week strength phases for both lower and upper body. Done correctly, observable gains of 5+% on each lift should be seen weekly. Following this, you will start to envision how your jump is guaranteed to increase.
5. Correctly use explosive and plyometric training as well as your strength training. These are your “field workouts” and are completed ahead of your weight exercises. That is, on Day 1 you begin by engaging in a sequence of tempo runs, sprints and low-intensity plyos (after the proper warm-up of course). By the time Phase 3 comes around, this will have slowly switched to shorter tempo runs, overspeed (downhill) sprints and high-intensity plyos.
6. Concentration on the heavier weights will decrease as you move forward through the phases.
7. Visualize by closing your eyes, imagining yourself exploding upwards. Picture yourself with big leg muscles that are tightened like springs, set to blast you up into the air. Say to yourself “I feel myself getting more powerful and much lighter.” Then jump once more. You should notice a marked increase in your vertical jump. (Sports psychologists have long documented the usefulness of “mental practice” in increasing athletic performance.)
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.
