Increase Vertical Workouts

People are always asking me what exercises increase vertical jump the most. So I will make a list of some great workouts you can do to increase your vertical.

1. Cleans
This exercise is great for building explosive strength in your legs and as a bonus you develop some upper body strength as well. Cleans are performed by lifting a barbell from the ground up to resting on your upper chest. When starting you want to make sure your back stays straight and that you are bending at the knees and not from the back. When you jump you have to have a strong a core because all movement must pass through the core. Cleans will strengthen your back which will help you jump higher.

2. Hamstring Curls
Some knee pain is caused by weak hamstrings and can be fixed by simply strengthening the muscle. Knee pain should not be felt while doing hamstring curls like you might feel during squats. I would recommend you go heavy but not too heavy. You need to be able to bring the weight all the way so that your heels touch your butt. Stay in the low rep range and be prepared to be sore after the first time.

3. Calf Raises
Your calves act as the last little boost that you can give yourself before take off. Most of the time when you are jumping your body weight is already on it’s way up as your calves flex, so this means that you want the calves to be able to explode as quickly as possible with a little less weight than your body. So doing calf raises without any extra weight is fine. I recommend doing some calf raises with heavy weight and doing some jumping exercises where you only use your calves to do the jumping.

4. Box Jumps
If you want to increase your vertical jump you have to train with plyometrics as well as with strength gaining exercises that we have discussed. Plyos are jumping exercises that will train the golgi tendon reflexes to react with more precision. Do not do plyos on the same day that you train the big leg muscles. Plyometrics and weight training should be done on different days. The goal with plyometric exercises is not to tire the muscle from high rep activity but to make it more explosive for maximum jump height. Take a plyo box that is high enough to wear it scares you to jump on and then do low reps. If you can do 15 reps on a box, it is not high enough. You can do box jumps on lower boxes but you should not reset before jumping each time. This means as soon as your feet touch the ground you will explode back up on the box. This will train your fibers to fire with more precision.

Click Here to see a video on jump training does and dont’s.

Tags: Increase Vertical Exercises // Add Comment »