Topic Of Interest

ANYONE can improve their vertical jump and learn how to jump higher!

The key to increasing you vertical jump is understanding the role your body type plays. Age, sex, race e.t.c., are not as important as most people think. You need to do an assessment of your own individual response to certain exercise routines, as this varies from one person to another. Just assigning you exercises simply doesn't cut it if you want real hops...you NEED a cycle based on exercises for your given body type, concentrated on your weaknesses. These exercises should cycle from Strength to Explosiveness to Plyometrics.

Fundamental Steps To Get Started

1. Assess your existing level of fitness and your level of experience with earlier methods of training. The most effective way to observe gains is to construct a totally new strength foundation. Then start performing an explosion phase. This will result in even more inches.

2. Practice Lifts. Total body strength is important for such an athlete and there is no better exercise than the full back squat. This gives you progressive increases on spinal loading, which , in turn, stabilizes you under tension, and in addition increases stretch-response of hip muscles and hamstrings.

3. Root the squat centrally within most of your lower body workouts. 6-8 decent lifts gets the best strength developments and vertical carryover. For the upper body days, the philosophy is the same, with the central exercises being bench press, overhead press variations, pull-ups and dips. Keep in mind to work often overlooked muscles at the end of your workout - muscles such as hip flexors, the shins , transverse abdominals e.t.c.

4. Make sure to use a lifting technique in a safe and effective manner. Undergo 3-5 week strength phases for both lower and upper body. Done correctly, you ought to see gains of 5% each week. Following this, you will be able to see how your jump is guaranteed to increase.

5. Properly utilize explosive and plyometric training as well as your strength training. These are your "field workouts" and are completed prior to your weight exercises. That is, on Day 1 you begin by engaging in a sequence of tempo runs, sprints and low-intensity plyometrics (after the proper warm-up of course). By the time Phase 3 comes around, this will have steadily lessened to shorter tempo runs, overspeed (downhill) sprints and high-intensity plyometrics.

6. Concentration on the heavier weights will decrease as you proceed through the phases.

7. Visualize by closing your eyes, imagining yourself exploding upwards. Visualize yourself with large leg muscles that are tightened like springs, set to blast you up into the air. Say to yourself "I feel myself getting more strong and much lighter." After that jump another time. You should observe a noticeable |increase in your vertical jump. (Sports psychologists have long recognized the helpfulness of "mental practice" in improving athletic performance.)