How To Effectively Take Your Jumping Ability To The Next Level

When people seek to get fit, there may be a level of jumping involved. It could be viewed as a part of an overall fitness regime, or be a focus for a specific sport. Such games as volleyball and basketball instantly come to mind.

When a person wants to improve their jumping ability, there may be some serious work ahead. Trainers often use the phrase ‘explosive movement,’ and this requires people with powerful core strength and well developed glutes and hamstrings. You may need to jump with one or both legs, and there are different techniques for each. Perhaps you are on this path and need some extra guidance. If so, you can read more here.

Access Quality Programmes

Rather than doing this alone, you may be able to afford a personal trainer. They can advise you on the best exercises to do, and assess your progress. When people are looking for a high quality vertical leap program, they often visit websites that provide basketball workout tips. It’s possible to compare the different strategies and to watch video clips. The pro’s and con’s of each program are often discussed, and there are related blogs too: They may cover such things as the benefits of wearing strength shoes and jump soles.

Check Out Youtube

It’s very limited if a person only reads a book or looks at photos. Youtube enables people to watch trainers in action as they do their exercises and jumps.

There are free videos on such subjects as doing one leg jumps, or leaps for mountain bikers. People can also discover how to train quickly and safely or to exercise at home without any sports’ equipment.

Understand Your Body

It’s important to know yourself and to respect your limitations. If you’re five feet tall you may not become a world class basketball player.

Whilst you can’t change your genetics, you can change your weight. Find out what is the correct Body Mass Index for your size. If you are overweight, you will obviously reduce your jumping capacity. Men should have 9-11% body fat, and women 14-16%.

Traditional And Dynamic Weight Training

As with any gym training, it’s important to begin with warm up exercises. They can help your limbs and muscles loosen up. You could start by doing some walking lunges.

It’s possible to do traditional lunge leg presses, toe raises, squats and barbell squats. The key thing is to maintain your speed while you exercise. Be wary of lifting heavy weights that make the process slow and nonrepetitive. If you merely become strong and muscular it will slow your jumps down.

Dynamic weight training should involve fast and repetitive activities using  lighter weights. People are also able to increase their effectiveness by performing jump squats at the same time.

Plyometric Training

Such things as plyometric box jumping can be beneficial because they combine strong muscles with swift responses. Because you will need to dip and crouch before you jump, check out lengthening and strengthening exercises followed by shortening exercises.

You’d also be well advised to research countermovement jumps, hopping and depth jumps too.

Martial Arts And Jump Ropes 

We mentioned explosive jumping earlier, and jumping scissor kicks are great for developing this. People often incorporate four into their workout and even add weighted vests to increase the resistance. Keep dumbbells and barbells away from this exercise, however.

Jump ropes are highly portable and inexpensive. They are great for cardiovascular training too. If you use one in two minute sessions this will help your leg tendons to become stiff. In turn this will benefit you when you reach up to jump. Should you experience stiff ankle muscles at any point, it’s important to do exercises that are tailor-made for them. Statistics say that people can lose 16% of their jumping power if the issue is unresolved.

Watch Or Be Watched

Either film yourself performing your exercises or ask someone to observe. Then your posture can be reviewed, and any areas for improvement can be identified.

As we have now discovered, different exercises need to be combined in order to maximize your vertical lifts. They include some traditional, dynamic and plyometric training. Do it twice a week (and never on two consecutive days).

If you need extra help, go online for courses or Youtube videos. Your exercises will help reduce the risk of injury when you jump, and increase your speed and strength. Whether it’s in general sports or when playing basketball, there will soon be a marked improvement.