subject: 4 Tips on How to Jump Higher [print this page] There are a lot of factors that go into how high you can jump. No matter what's been holding you back up until this point though, I am going to give you 4 tips on how to jump higher that you can implement right away. If you perform these on a daily basis, you will start to see an increase in your vertical very soon.
1. Always warm up and stretch properly. This is crucial to not only prevent injury, but there has been research that proves that a properly warmed up and stretched muscle will perform much better than a cold, tight muscle.
Start off by jogging, riding a bike, or jump roping for about 5 minutes. You don't want to tire your legs out here at all, you just want to get your blood flowing and your heart rate elevated slightly.
Then, perform all of your stretches for your legs. These include your quads, hamstrings, calfs, hip flexors, groin, and even your lower back. Now you're ready to start your training which leads me to my 2nd out of 4 tips on how to jump higher.
2. Proper Training and Workouts - Jumping is an explosive movement that is powered by your fast twitch muscle fibers. So what you want to really focus on is building up those fast twitch fibers to contract even more explosively which will then lead to an increased vertical leap.
The type of exercises you will be doing are called plyometrics. There are a lot of different plyometrics that you can do but these are my personal favorite and a good starting point: box jumps, jump squats, one-leg jumps, split-squat jumps, and lateral jumps on 1 or both legs. Feel free to switch these up or add your own variation. Make sure you're performing each exercise very explosively and you take off as soon as you hit the ground.
Along with the plyometrics, another one of my tips on how to jump higher is to perform regular leg exercises to help build up the rest of your leg muscles. Focus on squats, deadlifts, hamstring curls, and calf raises. There has been research that performing plyometrics in conjuction with these exercises will make your gains much more profound.
3. Diet and Nutrition - It's critical that when you're training for any certain goal including an increased vertical leap, that you fuel your body with the nutrients that it needs to function at a high level. If you give yourself crap food, your results in the gym will suffer and as a result your vertical leap gains will suffer as well.
Consume a diet rich in protein, good carbs, healthy fats, and lots of fruits and vegetables. Also you should be drinking a lot of water every day. This is one of the most important tips on how to jump higher that you can follow but for some people it's one of the toughest.
4. Rest and Recovery - Along with the actual training, it's just as important that you give your body enough time to recover and rejuvenate itself. If you don't, your gains will start to suffer and could even go in the opposite direction as a result of over training. It happened to me when I first started out and it sucked.
My recommendation is to train no more than 4 times a week and take 3 days off as a recovery period. However you want to split it up is your choice. Also, allow yourself 8 hours of sleep per night since this is the time when you will be recovering the most.
Once you follow those 4 tips on how to jump higher, you should start to see an increased vertical very soon.
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