What to Do to Jump Higher

What is it you can do to make big improvements in your vertical training? Easy, just work hard and don't give up. Give yourself plenty of time to recover from your workouts so you can go hard at it again. It's is up to you, how bad do you want to succeed at your goal?

As far as what is the best exercises to do, its those that will build strength and give you explosive power. To start off you need to be doing the basic squats and dead lifts because these exercises will give you the best overall workout and really target your thighs. These two exercises are the best foundation builders you can use. In addition do the other variations of the squat so you get all around development and strength.

You need to strengthen your core for stability. You mid section is the stabilizer and support for your body. Every time you twist, turn and bend your mid section is in action. Do a variety of abdominal workouts to target all areas of the abs. Strengthen your lower back also, this will help balance out the muscle development in the mid section.

For obtaining that explosive strength, you will need to do Plyometrics. This is where you get that strength to propel you off the floor when you jump. Before you start taking Plyometrics serious be sure to have developed your base strength. These types of exercises are stressful to the body so only do them 2 or 3 times per week and don't over do them each session.

This is the basics for what exercises need to be done for your vertical jump training. You should have a coach or a guide to follow so you can focus on doing it the right way and not just trying things and hoping for the best.

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Do You Think You are a Natural at Vertical Jumping?

So many want to increase their vertical jump in basketball or volleyball but just can't seem to achieve their goal. You must understand just because one person can add 10 inches to their vertical for example, does not mean everyone can do it too, we are all made up different. Who knows, you may be able to do better or maybe not, everyone is different.

Some people seem to have a natural gift to be able to dunk a basketball or jump high at the volleyball net to spike the ball. When we are born some of us start off with all the right stuff and grow up having that natural ability. The rest of us have to work harder to get those physical abilities.

Here we are, now we want to be able to jump higher, those of us that need to work extra hard and those with the natural ability. To reach that goal we all need to use the same techniques.
A good coach or a good vertical jump program would be the way to go. Some of us may only be able to add a couple inches to our jump and others will add much more.

It will take strengthening the legs, developing explosive strength and even learning the correct technique to jump. Even proper diet plays a roll, if the body weight is too high reduce it; extra weight can help hold you down. Do not try to workout everyday, 4 or 5 times a week is enough. The body needs time to recover and avoid burn out or injury.

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Some Box Jump Examples



These are some good examples of box jumps. Jumps of this type are less stressful to your legs because you are only jumping up then stepping back down. Good for helping your explosive strength.

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Use Low Impact Workout Routines


What is a low impact workout and when should it be used? If you are just starting your jump training and you do not have a base of strength in your legs from doing workouts such as squats and dead lifts, you do not want to start any plyometric workouts. Spend the time developing strength first, weak legs will not get you very high off the ground.

Once you get stronger you may start to do plyometric exercises to develop explosive strength, but maybe start with a low impact workout first for a few weeks. It will give you a start at plyometrics with less negative impact on your body. An example of one exercise would be box jumps where you would jump up onto a box or platform then step back down. You would get great benefit from the explosive jump upward but not get the impact from jumping down onto a hard surface. Another workout could be stair jumps or bounding up stairs. Jumping down onto soft surfaces such as sand or grass would absorb some of the impact.

Another reason to use low impact workouts would be during the season when you might want to maintain your leg strength without putting to much stress on your body. You can also mix up your regular plyometric training with low impact type training to occasionally give you're body a rest during your regular training cycle. And if you are recovering from an injury these types of workouts would be good to use during rehabilitation.

In general, these workouts are a great way to keep from over training when you mix it with your regular workout so you can give your body a break, and is a good way for getting back into working out after an injury. Do a little research online and you can find many leg exercises that would be considered low impact and give some a try.

You need to check out "Increase Strength for Vertical Jumping!" to discover how to improve your verical jump ability.