How To Increase Jumping Ability: Out-Jump The Competition

When you are jumping you create a downward force or push, which creates a reactive force in your muscles that propels you upwards. So, why is this important? Well, understanding this simple principal allows us to come to the conclusion that if we can create more downward force then we can jump higher! With more strength you can push off harder, allowing you to create more reactive tension propelling you higher!

Understanding speed also plays a huge role in learning how to increase jumping ability! The faster your muscle can contract and release, the higher you'll be able to jump - faster reactive speed will help you utilize muscle strength.

There is far more science that goes into jumping, but I think that will do for now!

We already learned that speed and strength will help us increase vertical jumping ability, so how do we go about increasing strength then? The most efficient way is to get a good workout program. To increase your vertical you want a weights program that includes squats, jumping squats, deadlifts and power cleans. These exercises, when done correctly, will add amazing amounts of strength to your legs. Stronger legs will help you get the "ups" you need to compete.

I mentioned "exercises, when done correctly" and here's what I meant by that. The heavier you lift, the slower you get. This doesn't mean you don't want to lift heavy, though. You're still going to lift heavy, but focus on slow negatives and fast, explosive positives. An example would be squats - slow the the way down (negative) and fast, explosion on the way up (positive). This will allow you to lift fairly heavy while maintaining explosive speed and power!

Need help putting together a workout plan? I recommend having a look at the Jump Manual - lots of great step by step workouts that will teach you how to increase jumping ability!

Speed is the second factor in our jumping equation, you'll never create amazing jumping power with slow cumbersome muscles! I've found the best way to increase that reactive muscle explosion you need to jump high is to do plyometrics. Training something like jumping ability is about quality, not quantity.

Focusing on doing each rep of each exercise properly is far more important that doing crappy reps over and over! I like to focus on a 8-10 rep range. This allows you to get solid reps that really add to your jumping power! Over training is never a good idea, but with plyometrics it becomes very counterproductive.

Once you're warmed up do your plyometrics before you do anything else. Plyometrics are very demanding so you want get them out of the way first!

An example of a couple of good plyometric exercises:

Rapid Jumps - pick a spot at the top of your jump, jump to that spot and hit it with your hand, land and immediately jump again.
No Hands Jumping Squats - place your hands on your head and perform a jumping squat, land softly and immediately jump again.

Feeling lost? Need a hand? Want some step by step instructions? Videos? How does a free month of one on one coaching sound? Click and find out more!

Hopefully this info has helped you learn how to increase jumping ability so you can get the insane jumps you need to compete!

Take care and good luck!