I had always worked out my upper body with weights but I never really focused on my legs because I didn’t care how they looked.  Well, now I still didn’t care how they looked, I just cared about how they performed.  So I started doing squats and after a little while I was squatting 225 pounds while I only weighed 135 pounds.

So for sure now that I was squatting so much more weight I would be able to dunk.  But what surprised me is that there was practically no increase in my vertical jump height. Why would I not increase my vertical leap after gaining so much strength in my legs?

Well I didn’t find out the answer until years later when I was studying for my biomechanics class in college. I was only focusing on one aspect of jumping-strength. I was completely ignoring the other half of the equation-speed.

To train the speed of your legs you need to do plyometric training. This was completely foreign to me and the concept took some getting used to because I had always studied muscle growth and everything was to be done with slow controlled movements. So to train with speed and to increase performance rather than focus on building muscle mass was very hard to comprehend.

I knew I couldn’t figure out all of this stuff on my own, so I tried a vertical jump training program, to see it-Click Here.

This program gave me results in 2 weeks than I could get from training for 3 months on my own. I was sold! I started making goals for myself that I had given up on years ago. I thought I was just not made to be a good jumper but I was just training incorrectly.

Click Here to check out the jump program that got me 2 inches on my vertical in the first 2 weeks.

Before I started college I had a goal to touch the rim and I thought that all I would have to do was increase my leg strength and I would be dunking in no time. I didn’t realize that using a jump program would have made all the difference in the world. My reach is 36 inches away from 10 feet and I am not a natural jumper so I had a long way to go.

So I naturally started doing squats to see how much of an improvement I could make on my vertical jump. I only weighed 135 pounds at the time so I started out squatting the bar with a 45 pound plate on each side which was exactly my weight.

I quickly moved up to squatting 225 ten times in a matter of weeks but I still couldn’t touch the rim. I was devastated, I began to think that jumping might not be for me. How is it that I could increase my leg strength by 90 pounds and see almost no improvement in vertical leap height? It didn’t make any sense to me.

Well, a couple years into my college classes I took a biomechanics class which studies kinesiology. We covered a section known as jumping mechanics and it looked at many factors involved in plyometric training in order to increase vertical jumping ability.

It turned out that learning how to jump higher took a well designed jump program that would combine strength and speed. The only thing I had been training was the strength.

Vertical jump training will increase vertical leaping ability better than squatting 3 times your body weight ever would.

So I read everything I could and found all of the free vertical training information I could and even bought some books and read collegiate studies that had been done to increase vertical jump height.

After all of the research I did I finally understood the keys to a great jumping program and found a great program that incorporated all of the important factors.

Click here to see the best jump program I have ever come across.

Jump training for volleyball is probably more important than learning how to increase your vertical for any other sport. Basketball and volleyball are the 2 sports that put the most emphasis on vertical jumping. To increase vertical you need to do plyometrics along weight lifting but not only the legs but other muscles involved with jumping. Some other important jumping muscles are the lower back, stomach and shoulders. Why would the lower back be important to strengthen if you want to learn how to jump higher? Well when you jump all of that momentum you have has to pass through your lower back and stomach which is known as your core. A jumping program will have exercises that hit all aspects of the body that will increase vertical.
Jump Training for Volleyball
When you practice basketball drills you have to incorporate a basketball in your hands while you do your jumping. But doing vertical training for volleyball doesn’t require you to have anything in your hands. Volleyball training is great because you can focus on jumping without thinking of anything else except jumping high. There are many free jumping exercises on the internet but you need a well designed jump program that will produce results. Don’t be fooled by many of the scam products, a review of the Jump Manual exercises revealed that it is the most effective jump training program on the market. Click here to see the Jump Manual now. If you want to take your volleyball skills to the next level you will need to learn to jump higher. Volleyball drills can only get you so far in the game, if you don’t have the height you must make up for it with your vertical leaping ability. See more about how to jump higher in beach volleyball here and check out the post “Jump Manual Review-Is it a scam.”

In order to increase vertical workouts need to be well designed.  You can increase vertical jump by following the suggestions made in this article.

Are you a competitive athlete who wants to jump higher? You can increase your vertical leap a lot faster than you may think and I will show you 2 exercises that help you do just that.

Some people can naturally jump higher than others but both natural jumpers and non-jumpers alike can benefit from a plyometric exercise routine. Let’s look at the first exercise that will help you increase your vert.

Squats- These aren’t normal squats of 3 sets of 10. These are designed to produce more power in your legs to make you jump higher not to get big legs. So to produce speed and strength you have to train them differently. This means you will be lowering the reps to 6 and increasing the speed with which you do them. You will notice that they become much harder to do but they are teaching your legs speed and you need fast muscles to jump higher.

Box Jumps- These are very important for training you legs to have powerful reflexes. When it boils down to it, jumping is all about reflexology. When you bend you knees before you jump your reflexes react and cause you legs to strengthen. You want this to occur as quickly as possible and with as much power as possible. What causes it to react with more power? Having all your muscles fire at the exact same time will produce more power. Jumping onto boxes will train the muscle fibers to fire in unison. These will also be done in sets of low reps from 6 to 8. You want to jump higher not longer, so stay away from the high rep exercises.

Do you want to learn how to increase vertical leap? Well look no further, I have studied jumping for years now and I can teach you a thing or two about jumping.

Jumping is not all about having big strong leg muscles. You will notice that many great jumpers have pretty little legs, but this doesn’t mean their legs don’t have power. Power is a combination of strength and speed. You have to match the two up perfectly to jump high. If your legs are too big and muscular you will be sacrificing some muscle fibers that could be fast twitch with big slow twitch muscles. If you have pure small fast twitch muscle fibers in your legs you will lack the strength needed to explode.

How to Jump Higher Fast

So how do you get the perfect combination of speed and strength? You have to follow the perfect plyometric/strength training program.

What are plyometrics? They are exercises designed to produce more fast twitch fibers in your legs that will allow all the muscles to fire at the same time. Box jump are a great exercise to teach your legs how to react.

What type of strength training program should you follow? Well let’s think about this one for a second, do you want to jump as high as possible or for as long as possible? I am assuming you answered as high as possible. This is why you need to train with low reps and give your all for each and every rep, jumping your highest. Don’t do super high reps while jumping at minimal heights because that will teach you to jump more but not higher.

You aren’t going to be able jump 40 plus inches without following plyometric exercises.  Some people can naturally jump higher than others but everyone can benefit from proper training.

You need the best vertical leap program that you can find if you are going to succeed in your jumping goals.  There are many on the internet to choose from I will post a review page of the most popular ones on this site soon so look for that in the days to come.

In order to improve vertical jump you have to train consistently.  This doesn’t mean that results aren’t attainable in a short amount of time because they are.  You can start to see results in as little as one week.  To increase vertical workouts must be followed and you have to allow yourself proper time to rest in between training sessions.

Learning how to increase your vertical is only the first step you have to have the desire to get great hops and do the work that is required of you to get there.

If you have ever wondered how to jump higher plyometric exercises are your answer.  Plyos are designed with one ultimate purpose- to make you jump higher.