Simple Tips for Increasing Your Vertical

Jumping is important in many sports such as basketball, volleyball, martial arts and gymnastics. Anyone who participates in these sports needs an edge, they need a way to increase their vertical jump. Some people just have it made with good genetics, some people are just going to have to work really hard for it. There are a few basic principles involved in increasing your vertical jump. Intensity, diet, and healing are the most critical components of increasing your vertical jump. When you begin a routine to increase your vertical jump you have to do more than just practice jumping, intensity is a key element. What we're trying to accomplish is to build fast twitch muscles which are used for sprinting and jumping as opposed to slow twitch muscles that are used more for pushing and lifting heavy weight.

The first principle of increasing your vertical jump is going to be the level of intensity in which you work out. Making as many microscopic tears in the fast twitch muscle fibers as possible, this can be done in a number of ways. Box jumps, sprints, and resistance jumping are the most important common exercises used for increasing your vertical jump.

Box jumps are an exercise that you can do almost anywhere, start off by jumping on objects that are not too high off the ground until you begin to become familiar with how high you can jump. When doing box jumps to increase your vertical leap you want to jump on top of the object and quickly spring back off of it. After doing a quick warm-up and getting the blood flowing to your calves you should begin by jumping on the highest objects that you can find and slowly working your way back down in order to prevent injury. Stairs are a good place to start, one good thing about stairs is that you can leap up three or four stairs and continue going upward; this regiment will really wear out your calves, it might be a good idea to wear shin guards in case you make a mistake. There's nothing more painful than skinning up your calves.

After doing a good amount of stair jumping you might want to try some sprints. Try and be as explosive as possible, sprints are not only good for developing fast twitch muscles they are also good for increasing your cardiovascular health. You shouldn't sprint more than about 50 yards at a time, walking in between each sprint will lower your heart rate which is good for you. Increasing and decreasing your heart rate is a very good way to make your heart stronger and increase your metabolism. When trying to increase your vertical jump sprints can be an important tool for increasing your stamina for whatever particular sport that you participate in. When trying to increase your vertical jump you do not want to do long distance running in your routine because your calves and other muscles will begin to create muscle memory for non explosive movements.

After doing your sprinting routine you should try doing resistance jumping, this can be achieved by using ankle weights, a weight vest, and free weights that you hold in your hands or wrist weights. It is not a good idea to attempt to do box jumping or stair jumping with ankle weights or a weight vest on, instead you should find a good hill with a steep incline and jump up that. Every time you jump as soon as you hit the ground you should spring back up again with as much force as possible and try and increase the distance or height that you are jumping on the hill. If you live near a beach or you have some place that you can go where there is sand this is a good place to work on weighted resistance jumping because your calves will have much more movement up and down in the sand, the more flexibility and movement that you can increase in your calves the more leverage you will have when you attempt to jump. Plyometric shoes (such as jump soles) are also a very useful tool in increasing your vertical jump, however you should get used to jumping over a period of time so that you build stabilizer muscles that will be critical around your knees and ankles. Plyometric shoes are very good at what they do by increasing the distance that your heel moves up and down giving you more leverage after you heal when you jump again. There is a downfall to wearing plyometric shoes, plyometric shoes are known for causing injury to people whose lower extremities are not use to this kind of shock. When using plyometric shoes you should start out slowly and eventually work your way up to a full routine, at the first sign of fatigue you should take off the shoes because your potential for injury increases with the more your muscles are fatigued. You should only wear while plyometric shoes about twice a week to get the most gains, wearing them more often than this will actually hurt your vertical jump by not allowing you to heal.

Healing is a critical component of increasing your vertical jump, you should not work on plyometric drills more than twice a week if you are using extreme intensity in your routines. When doing plyometric drills it's important to be constantly changing your routine so that your muscles do not develop muscle memory. Changing your weight vest or the weight of your ankle weights is a good way to not develop muscle memory. It is a wise idea to work on plyometrics after you have already done your regular workout routine, plyometric should be the last thing that you do because it is the most damaging to your muscles. You should not do workouts that increase your vertical jump when your muscles are still sore this will only hinder your efforts and make you go backwards in your pursuit of increasing your vertical jump.

Your diet will also play a key role in increasing your vertical jump. Before and after workouts you should take in as much protein and water as possible, however you do not want to take in extra calories that could potentially increase your body weight. Eat lean meats, egg whites, and fish such as tuna or sardines. If you follow these simple steps you will be on your way to having a great vertical jump.