Learn How To Jump Higher

ANYONE can improve their vertical leap and learn how to jump higher!

The key to increasing you vertical jump is understanding the role your body type plays. Age, gender, race e.t.c., are not the deciding factors. You need to assess your body's individual response to training, as this changes from one person to another. just assigning you exercises simply doesnt cut it if you want real hopsyou NEED a cycle based on exercises for your given body type, aiming at your weaknesses. This group of exercises should cycle from Strength to Explosiveness to Plyometrics.

Some Basic Steps To Get You Started

1. Assess your current strength and your level of experience with previous types of training. The best way to experience gains is to build a brand new strength foundation. After this start utilizing an explosion phase. This will result in further inches.

2. Practice Lifts. Total body strength is a key factor for such an athlete and there is no better exercise than the full back squat. This provides you with progressive increases on spinal loading, which provides stabilization under tension, and also improves 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. On the days of your upper body workouts, use the same philosophy, with the central exercises being bench press, overhead press variations, pull-ups and dips. Remember the overlooked muscles towards the end of the workout - muscles such as hip flexors, the shins , transverse abdominals e.t.c.

4. Make sure to use a lifting technique in a safe and effective manner. Undergo 3-5 week strength cycles for upper and lower body. Done correctly, visible gains of 5+% on each lift should be seen weekly. Following this, you will be able to see how your jump is bound to increase.

5. Correctly utilize explosive and plyometric training as well as your strength training. These are your "field workouts" and are completed before your weight exercises. E.g., on Day 1 you begin by engaging in a series 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 progress through the phases.

7. Visualize by closing your eyes, imagining yourself exploding upwards. Picture yourself with large leg muscles that are tightened like springs, ready to propel you higher. Say to yourself "I feel myself getting more powerful and much lighter." Then jump again. You should notice a marked increase in your vertical leap. (Sports psychologists have long recognized the effectiveness of "mental practice" in improving one's performance in sports.)

For more information on learning how to jump higher, visit Vertical Jump Program Reviews