Strength Training

The most common exercise you will come across is the squat. This is a great way to build up strength and muscle in your legs and glutes. Will squats make you jump higher if done alone? Yes they actually will but you will see better results if you also do some plyometric exercises. Don’t be fooled with gimmicks like strength training shoes that are supposed to increase your vertical leap. These vertical jump shoes do not actually increase your vertical leap. All they do is strengthen your calves a little bit but I highly advise against them because you shouldn’t be in that position for long periods of time, it will throw off your walking gait.

So where do you get the best vertical jump training? There are a few programs online that you can buy and to be honest the majority of them are not worth the money. This does not mean that they are all scams! I do recommend the Jump Mentor and the Jump Manual. They are the 2 best programs in the market.

Box Jumps
You don’t want a box so high that you can’t bounce right back up once your feet hit the ground. What I mean by this is that you can’t replant in between every jump. You have to bounce right back up between each rep. The whole point of plyometrics is to sync all of your fast twitch golgi tendon reflexes. At the same time you need the boxes high enough to be challenging so that you don’t do really high reps. Keep the reps low when doing plyos.

Calf Raises
These are not a plyometric workout but they are important to do to strengthen your calves before you start a plyo workout. Plyos are very intense and put a lot of stress on your muscles, joint and tendons. You want to make sure that you are strong enough to start plyometrics. This means doing plenty of calf raises to build strong calves.

Hamstring Curls
I can’t stress the importance of calf raises enough. It’s obvious to most people that you need strong calves and quads to jump high but hamstrings are equally important as well as glutes. You need to have strong hamstrings if you want to learn how to improve vertical jump. The highest vertical jump in the world could be held by you if you get really strong hamstrings while training them with plyometrics at the same time.

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What is a plyometric workout?

• Plyometrics are intended to increase your vertical leap by doing exercises that produce more fast twitch muscle fibers in your body.  You have either slow or fast twitch muscles in your body and the way you train will result in more of one or the other.  A long distance runner has a ton of slow twitch because they don’t exhaust as easy and are made for endurance.  You don’t care about endurance you want the muscles that will react fast and explode with power when you jump.

How do I get more fast twitch jumping muscles?

• You train by doing plyos.  When you do plyometrics you want every jump to be done with the most force you can give.  You want to keep the time on the ground as short as possible.  So if you are doing box jumps.  You will step off of one box and then jump onto another one.  You don’t want to reset while on the ground in between the 2 boxes.  You need to act like the ground is hot and you don’t want to touch it for any longer than you have to.  This will make your reaction time faster in your knees and the muscles of your legs.  What happens when you react faster and with more strength?  Your vertical jump increases greatly.

Don’t worry that you haven’t been training correctly, you can get results very quickly now that you know what to do.

What muscles are involved in the jumping process?

• Quads
• Calves
• Hamstrings
• Glutes
• Lower Back
• Stomach
• Front Deltoids

You probably thought that only the legs were involved in vertical jump training but as you can see there are many other muscles that you need to work out.

What one exercise is the best to jump higher?

• There is not one simple exercise that will make you jump high.  You can’t train one muscle and expect to get the same results as training 6.  You will only be able to jump as high as your weakest muscle will allow you so make sure you pin point where you are weak.  If you already know which muscle is holding you back from jumping higher you will be well on your way to increase your vertical leap.

What are Plyometric Exercises?

• They are workouts designed to teach you how to jump higher.  To increase vertical workouts need to train both the strength of the legs and the speed of the legs.  These 2 elements are trained in different ways from one another.

What sports benefit most from plyometrics?

Volleyball and basketball are the 2 sports where jumping is the most important.  Beach volleyball is the sport where jumping is stressed more than any other sport because there are only 2 players on each side and every player jumps multiple times per game.