What can you expect by increasing your vertical jump? The answer lies in the sport you play and if it’s required to outperform other players. In basketball, your capabilities of strong vertical jumping is everything in relation to your jump shots, blocks, and rebounds. You can be an underdog if you cannot reach up and above competitors for rebounds because rebounds determine the success of a game. Defensive players must block out opponents when creating a solid position; point guards must have a straight vertical in order to get shots over taller players. The world of basketball depends on your vertical jumping; in this article, you’re going to learn three tips to help increase vertical jumps today.
1. Plyometric Training and Weight Lifting
Plyometrics are categorized by their amazing ability to increase reactive strength and jumping skill and coordination. Plyometric exercises are able to increase the number of fast-twitch muscle fibers in a certain muscle group. Consistent plyometric training will result in enhanced sports performance, improved vertical jumping abilities, and faster sprinting times.
To clear a myth up, plyometric exercises are not made for improving conditioning or endurance. They are specifically designed for improving reactive and explosive strength. Plyometric training offer a wide array of benefits ranging from improve vertical jump, improved sprinting speed, better explosiveness, improved ability to absorb force, and better agility. Plyometrics are meant to be performed very fast, attempting to reach maximum and with long rest periods in between sets. Too often you see athletes trying to do 5 sets of 10 depth jumps with 1 minute of rest in between. This may help develop endurance, but not explosiveness, which is needed to increase vertical or jump higher.
2. Sprints, Intervals, and Agility Drills
Strong jumps require stability, flexibility, and frequency in monitoring the twitch fibers of your legs and core. The core muscles (upper abdominal, lower back, and lower abs) experience a crunch when you have to move into the air. If you’ve ever paid attention to great jumpers, their core muscles are quite tight. They are able to move in a flexible motion by increasing vertical reaction times to jumps.
Sprints and intervals are perfect supplements to increase vertical because they improve the reaction time of muscles. Your legs build a quick fiber muscle between the hamstrings, quadriceps, and calves that are pulled during jumps. Seems interesting? Strong jumpers are also fast runners because they integrate timed sprints (100 yards, suicides, and agility drills) that create a scheduled reaction to their reflexes.
3. Decrease Your Body Weight
Common sense tells us that excess weight can make it more challenging to jump higher. Besides putting extra stress on your ankles and knees, excess fat on your body will weigh you down. Simply by changing your diet, reducing sugars, and junk food will assist your body in losing the excess fat thus making you seem to “fly” ever higher. Good nutrition is vital for those desiring to improve vertical and jump higher.