ANYBODY can increase their vertical leap and learn how to jump higher!
The key is learning 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 training, as this varies from one person to another. Giving you exercises just doesn’t cut it if you want real hops…you NEED a cycle based on exercises for your given body type, aiming at your weaknesses. This group of exercises should sequence from Strength to Explosiveness to Plyometrics.
Basic Steps To Get Started
1. Assess your present level of fitness and your expertise with previous types of exercise. The most effective way to experience gains is to construct a totally new strength foundation. Then start utilizing an explosion segment. This will result in further inches.
2. Do Lifts. Total body strength is a key factor for such an athlete and there is no better exercise than the full back squat. This provides you with progressive increases on spinal loading, which provides stabilization under tension, and in addition increases stretch-response of hip muscles and hamstrings.
3. The squat should be the main exercise of your lower body workouts. 6-8 decent 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 secure and efficient manner. Undergo 3-5 week strength cycles for both lower and upper body. Done in the proper manner, perceptible gains of 5+% on each lift should be seen weekly. Following this, you will start to envision how your jump is bound to increase.
5. Correctly use explosive and plyometric training as well as your strength training. These are your “field workouts” and are completed pre-weights. E.g., on Day 1 you start by engaging in a sequence of tempo runs, sprints and low-intensity plyos (after a dynamic warm-up of course). By the time Phase 3 comes about, this will have slowly switched to shorter tempo runs, overspeed (downhill) sprints and high-intensity plyos.
6. Emphasis on the heavier weights should fade as you proceed through the phases.
7. Visualize by closing your eyes, imagining yourself exploding upwards. Visualize yourself with big leg muscles that are tightened like springs, set to propel you higher. Say to yourself “I feel myself getting more powerful and much lighter.” Then jump again. You should notice a marked improvement in your vertical jump. (Sports psychologists have long documented the helpfulness of “mental practice” in increasing athletic performance.)
To get the most out of your vertical jumping exercises, you ought to consider a vertical jump training program. To get more information on Improving Your Vertical Jump, check out these Vertical Jump Program Reviews to see which are rated the best.
