subject: Ways to Jump Higher - 5 Tips you Need to Know [print this page] Whether you play basketball, football, volleyball, or any other sport, being able to jump higher than your opponents gives you a tremendous advantage. I am going to give you 5 tips on ways to jump higher so you can start performing at a higher level and reap the rewards of a high vertical.
1. Properly Warm Up Before any Sort of Physical Activity - Not only does this reduce your risk for injury which could set you back months in your progress, but it's been proven that your muscles work and fire much better when they are properly warmed up.
If you went out onto a basketball court for example and just started playing without warming up, your performance would suffer. You wouldn't be as fast, you wouldn't jump as high as you normally could, and you may hurt yourself. I recommend doing a 5 minute jog or ride an exercise bike to get your muscles warmed up and your heart rate slightly elevated before you jump into a workout or a game.
2. Always Stretch Out Before Physical Activity - Just like warming up, this is another area that a lot of people neglect and it can have a really negative effect on your progress. A properly stretched muscle will contract and fire more powerful and explosive than a tight muscle. Plus you reduce your risk for injury. A lot of people looking for ways to jump higher will notice that after a proper warmup and stretch routine, their vertical will increase.
The main muscles you want to focus on are your quads, hamstrings, calfs, hip flexors, groin, and your lower back. Try this out if you're not already and I bet you will see some improvement in your vertical leap.
3. Proper Diet - This one is simple. If you eat like crap, you will look and perform like crap. The diet is one of the hardest things to change for some people but if you're serious about learning ways to jump higher, this is one of the most important aspects you can change.
Your body runs off what you put into it so it makes sense that to make it run at an optimal level, you want to give yourself high quality food and nutrients. You wouldn't put cheap, low quality gas in your Lamborghini would you?
Spread your meals out so you're eating 5-6 times a day. Consume a lot of protein from clean sources such as fish, turkey, and chicken to help build up your muscles. Also feed yourself good quality carbs from whole grain sources. No white bread or pasta. And of course, the most important of all, drink tons of water and eat a lot of fruits and vegetables.
4. Workouts and Training - When looking for ways to jump higher, your training plays a critical role. You want to be focusing on building up your fast twitch muscle fibers. These are the fibers that allow you to be more explosive such as when sprinting and jumping and other power movements.
To build more fast twitch fibers, you should be performing explosive exercises called plyometrics. A few good examples are box jumps, jump squats, one-leg jumps, and split-squat jumps.
You also want to be focusing on normal leg exercises to build up the muscles such as heavy squats, deadlifts, calf raises, hamstring curls, etc.
5. Proper Rest and Recovery - If you're following an intense workout routine, your body is taking a lot of abuse. All of the above tips I gave you on ways to jump higher will become much less effective if you don't give your body enough time to recover and rejuvenate itself.
A few tips are to get at least 8 hours of sleep a night and don't workout more than 4 times in a week. Your days off from the gym are just as important as the days you go. If you workout too much and don't let your body recover, you will start to see negative effects.
Follow those 5 steps on ways to jump higher and you will start to see an increase in your vertical in no time. If you want to learn more in-depth tips on how to jump higher and get a full workout routine developed by a trainer who has helped many college, NBA, and Olympic athletes increase their vertical, check out my site by Clicking Here.
