So chances are you have asked yourself the question, “can I learn how to improve my vertical?” if you are asking yourself this question chances are that you have already done a few things attempting to improve your hops. Well you’re not alone. Quite a few people are trying to increase their vertical but it’s possible that just like them, you have seen little success from all of your efforts. It can be tough when you don’t know exactly what you are doing, you have to chase your own answers and look for what will actually get you results. There is more to improving your vertical then just jumping and doing some lifts. While that is a key part it isn’t everything.

Strength obviously plays a big role on how you can improve your vertical. Just like any other physical exertion the amount of muscles you can recruit to help get you off the ground is only in your advantage. However there are different types of muscles and you really need to know how to train them effectively to get the maximum improvement in your vertical. The amount of muscles you can use and the speed at which they contract will play a key role in how high you can jump.

Catching on to how to improve my vertical? It’s not terribly difficult but you will need to be flexible too. Just being strong as I said before won’t get you game winning hops. You need to have good leverage which is only obtained by stretching and training your legs to be more flexible. A bigger range of motion means your muscles have more time to push against the ground which just means you’ll be flying higher in no time.

Another key aspect of jump training is nutrition. If you play sports, which I assume you do if

you want to increase your vertical, then you probably eat fairly well. But not always, I know plenty of athletes that lack the proper nutrition in their diets. You have to give your body what it needs to perform at its best. Get lots of protein and make sure you eat your fruits and vegetables. Your parents told you it when you were young and they weren’t kidding. Yep… it’s good for you. This was a huge breakthrough for me when I was learning how to improve my vertical performance.

Finally you need to be quick. When you mate pure strength with quickness you end up at explosiveness. Which is the real goal when you are talking about jump training. Explosive power will get you off the ground and keep you there for longer than you could imagine but

you have to have both key parts first. You can train quickness by repeat jumps. It’s a type of plyometric exercise that makes your muscles contract repeatedly in a short time which trains them to use their elasticity to get even more out of your jump.

If you can take these 4 principle rules for increasing your vertical that question of how to increase my vertical, may just be a thing of the past a month from now. Make sure you incorporate all of these things into your workout if you are currently in one. And if not make sure they are part of it when you start one. If you’re not sure where to start make sure you check out the rest of our site and check out all the free information. And if you want a boost read our reviews of some of the best jump programs out there. They can really help you get great gains really fast.

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Let’s touch on why a lot of athletes struggle and fail to increase their vertical explosion. The thing is, you don’t have to struggle, im going to show you a few simple steps you can take which will show you exactly what you can do to increase your vertical in the next few weeks or even less.

Why do they fail?

The first most obvious point is the lack of understanding. They don’t have the knowledge to perform the correct techniques and principles. They don’t know what to do and how to do it correctly. These are huge barriers because without that knowledge you will likely work very hard but see pitiful gains compared to what you could be having. Also some have a lack of discipline and motivation. Things don’t come for free and there is no overnight miracle. You have to work, and often work hard for something you want. Lastly a lack of nutrition is also an issue with many athletes; you have to give your body what it needs to grow.

Why are these problems so common?

Some of the most popular vertical training programs are not actually written by professional trainers. They are often written by marketers and ghostwriters just to turn a profit. Be wary of who you get your information from since much of it can be made up by people who have absolutely no idea about jumping. They just knew that people would buy it if they made up a program and sold it over the internet.

High school and often college sport coaches have the same problem. They just aren’t trained well enough. They do know a good amount about fitness and health. But that doesn’t mean they are experts on jumping. Often they will train you wrong and think they are doing the write thing. But it’s very tricky since often times training for vertical explosiveness is very counterintuitive. So until you really find the correct program that teaches the correct principles it will be very difficult to add inches to your vertical. Luckily they are out there and not as hard to find as you might think. I’ve actually laid out some simple guidelines on picking a quality jump training program if you are interested check out my other articles.

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How To Train fast twitch muscle fibers

You want to focus your workouts on strengthening your fast twitch muscle fibers since these have the most power and will give you the explosive force you need to get off the ground. If you follow these simple guidelines you can make sure that you are training the right types of muscles in the correct fashion to help improve your vertical jump.

When you’re doing resistance training in the gym try to do all of your lifts with more than 60% of your one rep max. Essentially the heavier weight you lift the more muscle fibers you will have to recruit to accomplish the lift. The more muscle fibers you are recruiting the more they will grow and the more explosive force you will develop. develop more explosive force and that is how you jump higher.

Do all of your lifts and movements with maximum speed. No matter what exercise you are doing make sure it is done all out. Jumping, lifting weights, skipping, or throwing all need to be done as fast as you possibly can. If you strive for speed it means that you are applying all the strength you have as fast as you can. Which is exactly what you will want to do when you are jumping

Train Eccentrically. Basically this means you have to emphasize the reactive part of the lift. Or basically the opposite of the explosion. If you are doing a squat and you explode up. Then slowly let the weight back down. Say for a count of 5 or more. This will build your fast twitch fibers faster since it keeps them under stress for longer time.

Plyometrics train your muscles reaction time in essence. Landing and jumping again without letting the muscles relax such as in a depth jump or a altitude landing forces the muscle to go from extended to contracted or likewise very quickly. This training will stimulate those fast twitch muscles to get that quick response. quick response is important because you only have an instant to apply all the force you can so you can jump higher

Contrast Load Training is one of the best training techniques to improve your vertical leap. It is done by doing a set of exercises with a very heavy weight. Usually within 25% of your one rep max. After you have done this you get to rest for a short period usually just a minute or two. You then transition to a lighter exercise like lunges or un-weighted squats. This first heavy lift gets the fast twitch fibers all fired up and they will be ready on the second lift.

Over speed training is basically trying to run faster than your body is used to. This can be done very simply by running down hill and allowing your body to carry. This is great training since the fast twitch fibers are the quick contractors they will be recruited to move your legs since slow twitch would fall behind.

Preparing for your exertion mentally is very important as well. You have to fire up your brain and get it ready to send the message to your muscles. If the brain is sleeping when you try to fire off all your muscles you won’t get nearly the same results. Try preparing for your jump for 10 seconds before you jump and I think you will notice a bit of an improvement in your vertical. You will see better and better results the more you practice.

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When it comes to muscles genetics plays an important role in how you can increase your vertical. Some people purely are born with more muscle fibers than someone else. Also those muscle fibers get divided up between the three types, one type of slow twitch and two types of fast twitch. So if god gave you a high percentage of fast twitch muscle fibers odds are you can jump pretty well already. But regardless of how you were endowed you can always train what you have to give you the great vertical jump you want.

Knowing the different types of muscles and how they work is imperative to your jump training. The knowledge allows you to focus and train specifically to maximize your athletic potential depending on what your goals are.

Muscle fibers break down into more categories than this but for this demonstration this is complex enough. The three types of muscle fibers are

-slow twitch : type 1

-fast twitch : type 2a

-fast twitch : type 2b

Each type of muscle fiber is tailored to a particular type of movement and has its own characteristics.

Type 1 slow twitch fibers are just that, they are slow. They are what are commonly referred to as your endurance muscles. As they can sustain many many contractions without becoming fatigued. These are they types of muscles you would find highly developed on a marathon runner. While these muscles are much less susceptible to fatigue they also cannot produce the power that the fast twitch muscle fibers can.

Type 2a fast twitch fibers are an intermediate type of muscle fiber. They act in between the type 1 and type 2b fibers. They are less susceptible to fatigue than type 2b and more powerful than type 1. there are important for a lot of movements and contribute heavily to jumping. You will want to train these muscle fibers as part of your workout.

Type 2b fast twitch fibers are the most responsive muscle fiber. They contract the fastest and also produce the most force. But they are very easy to tire out. They will fatigue the fastest out of all the muscle types. These are the primary muscle used to increase your vertical jump performance.

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So those of us without a gym are stuck doing bodyweight lifts. You might think that this is a disadvantage or that weights are necessary to get extreme vertical hops. Well to tell you the truth they are really not. There are several lifts you can find on here that will help you get the most out of your training even if you don’t have weights.

One thing you can do to increase your workouts intensity is to in fact make your own weights. I know this is kind of around the point of bodyweight training but if you are at the point where you feel like you need some extra resistance to get the results you want then just use some stuff you have around the house to help you improve your vertical.

Doing lunges and one legged squats with two gallons of water in your hands adds a bit of difficulty. Or if you don’t have a medicine ball find an old worn out basketball and cut it open, fill it with sand and glue it back together. If you have anything you can make a sand bag out of then by all means go ahead. Perhaps a old pillow case or any other ruck sack you have laying around.

Just so you know that other people have done it I would like to share a story about myself. My father and myself are automotive enthusiasts and as such seem to always have a ton of parts laying around the garage and stashed away in piles in the back yard. One day I was in the back yard training and I had started to feel my workout was getting a bit to easy for me. So I picked up an old driveshaft from my old truck and held it in my hands while I did squats. Not only was this added weight it made me compensate for my balance and im sure had some benefit in that respect as well. just to go and show you can use anything to improve your vertical.

That just goes to show you can use anything you want to help you train your vertical. Not having weights doesn’t mean you don’t have weights. Go find some! Use some rocks!

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When trying to decide how we should do our bodyweight training we have to compare and contrast it will resistance training. Weighted lifts are often far harder than their un-weighted brothers. So for this reason you will often have to increase your reps for the bodyweight exercises. However more reps does not mean to do them forever. You still need to focus on the fact that you are training for explosion and not for power. Doing endless reps will train your endurance and not make you jump higher.

Slightly increasing the reps from say 3-5 to 7-9 will make a good improvement in the workout. Now since there is no weight you must focus on speed. Since we are not greatly improving the amount of strength we have we must focus on applying that strength as quickly as possible to get the result. So when doing squats or lunges you must concentrate on explosion up. Doing these amounts of reps with a explosion on each rep will make for a pretty rigorous workout.

With bodyweight exercises you need to police yourself when it comes to calling it quits. When you are resistance training it is usually failure to complete the rep that signals the end of the set. When you cant do any more your done. But with bodyweight lifts you can go for a much longer time and will need to focus on your form and explosion. When either of these start to falter it is usually a good sign you should move on to something else.

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No weights? Well that’s ok, you can actually get a great vertical workout and get some awesome gains to your vertical without ever stepping into a weight room. While weights are recommended if you can get access to them, they are not the one stop shop for adding inches to your vertical. You should be doing some simple body weight training as well. Here are a few things you can do without any equipment that can tack on some gains to your vertical

No Weights, No Problem

While having some access to a gym would be preferable it is not absolutely necessary especially when starting. You will have to get into a weight room at some point as you progress with your vertical jump improvement. However when just starting your workouts we can get substantial gains by using plyometrics and some challenging bodyweight lifts.

The one most effective bodyweight lift is called the single leg pistol squat. Like wise it is also the hardest. This and other single leg lifts focus on the primary jumping muscles and are what you should focus o

n to get the most benefit out of your lifts. Other workouts such as singl leg squats, high step ups, and lunges are just a few that will benefit you. However the pistol squat should be your priority and should be mastered before moving on to other lifts.

The easier verision of the lift is called the pistol box squat. For this you simply stand on one leg and squat holding your other leg out in front of you and you arms parallel to the floor out in front of you. As you go down you will want to have a suitable platform to sit on about 3 feet or so off the ground. This will act as your box so that you can progress to a lower and lower stance.

Once box squats have become easy get rid of the box and do the pistol squat going as low as you can untill you can go all the way down to rock bottom before coming back up. These are excellent for balance and your quads and hamstrings will show great improvements in strength

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While we all love box jumps, power skipping, squats and dead lifts there is one exercise that will always be a step ahead of the others when it comes to how to improve your vertical jump. This exercise is extremely well rounded and works and strengthens just about every attribute required for jumping higher. And is one of the best exercises for increasing movement efficiency. Also, if you’re working on your hops for your sport, then this is the most sports tailored jumping you can do.

So what is it you might ask? Well it’s quite simple, it’s practicing jumping. Yep, shocking I know, but just like most things in life, practice makes perfect and the best way to get better at jumping, is to jump. If you are practicing for your sports specific goal. You should simply practice just as you would if you were playing your sport. If you are trying to jump higher in basketball, then go find an empty hoop and practice jumping for the rim. Depending on how high you can jump already you might just be touching net or you might be able to grab the rim already.

Wherever you start all you have to focus on is trying to get higher. If you can just touch rim, work your way up until you can grab it. After that you can work up until you can get as much of your hand above the rim as possible. If you can get your wrist over the rim, chances are you can dunk off a lob. And this makes practicing a bit more entertaining.

Proper jumping technique is often overlooked when practicing to jump higher. The focus is often put on extensive workouts or special weight training equipment or fancy programs but in reality the basic art of simply jumping will have a profound impact on your vertical jump.

Make sure you spend some time focusing on just improving your jumping technique. You will recall notice a difference since it is important to helping you jump higher in several ways. The first thing practicing will do for you is it will improve your movement efficiency. This is huge if you want to be able to jump since it requires you to fire all your muscles in the correct order to create a powerful explosion off the ground. If you can’t do this you’ll look

a little janky and won’t go very high either.

The second benefit to increasing your movement efficiency is that it will help you create explosive strength and reactive strength in a manner that is very similar to jumping. Box squats and power cleans are similar and will increase your explosion but they are merely similar to jumping. What you are doing IS jumping, so you can’t get much more actuate replication than that.

Whenever you workout or try to build muscle on your body you do it in one way. It is called adaptive response and it means that your body reacts to the environment you put it in. if you force it to lift heavy weights, it builds muscle to survive that lifting. Only exposing the body to continually heavier loads will make it stronger. So likewise if you would like to be able to jump higher you need to go out and continuously attempt to jump higher. This will tell the body that it must adapt to those conditions.

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Tip 10: always warm up before you exercise, never overwork your muscles before they are properly warmed up or you can easily cause your self serious injury. Jump rope or jog before lifting any heavy weights

Tip 9: a good exercise to build large amounts of quad muscle is the squat. Start with very little weight and slowly increase your repetitions and weight as you become more advanced. Move slowly as this will build more of the explosive power you want for jumping.

Tip 8: make sure to have separate days on your workout schedule for weight training days and speed/plyo days. Most studies agree that mixing these types of workouts can really hamper your results

Tip7: Jump Rope, even though many people may look down on jumping rope it is a fantastic cardio workout as well as a very basic plyo workout. It will strengthen your legs and get your lungs in great shape too. That’s good for whatever sport you’re playing.

Tip 6: work 100% of the time, while you can’t be in the gym 24/7 you can always be working out a little bit. Walk around on your toes or heels and stand with your legs slightly or half bent when your doing things around the house or at work. All of these little things will strengthen your legs over a long period of time

Tip 5: exercise your calfs, while they are a smaller muscle than your quads they are very important in jumping. Calf raises are the best way to build muscle and you can do that anywhere. If you can put your toes on a ledge this will allow you to bring your heels down below your toes for an even better workout. You can add weight to make this more challenging.

Tip 4: don’t work to hard. Your muscles need some time to rest and if you are constantly working them they don’t have time to heal themselves. You actually tear your muscles just a little bit when you work them really hard. Especially when you are weight training. That light workout or a day of rest gives them time to repair those minute tears so that they are ready to go again and grow even bigger.

Tip 3: focus on your jump and use your entire body. Also make sure you are trying for your maximum height. Just jumping for the sake of jumping won’t get you nearly as good of results as actually focusing on each jump

Tip 2: be patient when you are training. You cont build muscle over night and you wont see 3 inches tacked on to your vertical either. It takes time and effort and the proper workout to put inches on your jump. Don’t give up and don’t let your determination and motivation float away. Keep at it and you can see results faster than you ever thought

Tip 1: Plyometric Exercises are one of the best ways to train your jumping muscles and whip them into shape. They are tough and demanding but that is because they work the largest muscles in your legs and they do it efficiently. Jumping as high as you can and bringing yourself down into a crouching position when you land and then immediately jumping back up is the best way to strain your leg muscles.

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So you want to increase your vertical jump? Well you came to the right place, because I have a few very simple exercises that will show you how to increase vertical height fast. Here is a simple workout program that will get you well on your way to jumping higher and improving your vertical.

1.The first step is to warm-up properly. You have to give your muscles a chance to warm up if you want to see the most return on your effort from your workout. Doing extensive leg stretches and going for a 5-10 minute jog is often the best way to do this.

2.Jumping rope should be part of you workout if it isn’t already. It is excellent for conditioning your lungs and heart and is an important step in how to increase vertical explosiveness.

3.Make sure you are incorporating sprints in your workout sessions. They will strengthen your legs which will add to your vertical jump

4.Running stairs is one of the best workouts you can get for you legs. First fun up a single flight of stairs one step at a time. Then walk back down the same flight and run up skipping a step or going two steps at a time. This may be lengthened to include several flights of steps in one trip up if you are looking for more of a cardio workout as well. Do this as many times as you can manage.

5.Sets of elevated jumps (next section)

6.Sets of Explosive jumps (later section)

7.Sets of Double jumps(later section)

8.You have to rest your muscles for them to grow. If you do this workout every day you wont see the results you are looking for. A good rule of thumb is one day on and one day off. However if you want to do it more than that make sure you take atleast 2 days off per week or you wont get the improvement to your vertical jump your looking for.

Elevated Jumps
1.Start by placing a platform or step bench on the ground, most gyms or fitness centers will have these available to you.

2.Start standing on the platform and jump backward to the ground. Concentrate on making the landing as soft as you can.

3.Immediately jump back up onto the platform with a bouncing motion

4.You should do 10 reps per set and 3-4 sets depending on your fitness level. There is a potential for injury as fatigue sets in so be careful jumping backwards. Ask a trainer to spot you if you feel its necessary.

Explosive Leg Jumps and double Jumps
1.Place your foot up on a secure platform, the higher it is the more difficult this will be so you can tailor the difficulty depending on your level. Just experiment to see what works best for you.

2.Jump and concentrate on exploding off the leg that is raised on the platform. While you are in the air scissor your legs so that you will come down on the opposite leg. Collect your balance and then repeat now that you have switched legs.

3.Once again do 3-4 sets of 10 reps.

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