ANYBODY can improve their vertical leap and learn how to jump higher!
The key is learning the role your body type plays. Age, sex, race e.t.c., are not the deciding factors. You need to assess your body’s individual response to certain exercise routines, as this changes from person to person. Just assigning you exercises simply doesn’t cut it if you want to really jump higher…you NEED a sequence based on exercises for your given body type, aiming at your weaknesses. This group of exercises ought to cycle from Strength to Explosiveness to Plyometrics.
Basic Steps To Get Started
1. Assess your current strength and your level of experience with prior methods of training. The best way to get gains is to build a totally new strength foundation. After this start performing an explosion phase. This will result in further inches.
2. Perform Lifts. Total body conditioning is the key for such an athlete and there is no better exercise than the full back squat. This gives you progressive increases on spinal loading, which provides stabilization under tension, and as well increases stretch-response of hip muscles and hamstrings.
3. The squat should be the main exercise 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 the workout - muscles such as hip flexors, the shins , transverse abdominals e.t.c.
4. Ensure that you use a lifting technique in a secure and effective manner. Undergo 3-5 week strength cycles for both lower and upper body. Done in the proper manner, you ought to see gains of 5% each week. Following this, you will be able to see how your jump is bound to increase.
5. Properly utilize explosive and plyometric training as well as your strength training. These are your “field workouts” and are finished pre-weights. E.g., on Day 1 you begin by using a sequence of tempo runs, sprints and low-intensity plyos (after a dynamic warm-up of course). By the time Phase 3 comes around, this will have gradually lessened to shorter tempo runs, overspeed (downhill) sprints and high-intensity plyometrics.
6. Concentration on the heavier weights should fade as you move forward through the phases.
7. Visualize by closing your eyes, imagining yourself exploding upwards. Picture 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 once more. You should notice a marked improvement in your vertical leap. (Sports psychologists have long recognized the usefulness of “mental practice” in improving athletic performance.)
One final thought - the core of improving performance in any sport is the core (center) of your body…your midsection. To improve your midsection check out this information on how to get a six pack.
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