There are a lot of programs out there to show you how to increase vertical explosion and power. by just looking at them it can be hard to tell which one is the best. but let me tell you once you buy one, then you can really tell what its made of.

not all programs are created equal and some are much better than others at showing you how to increase vertical explosion. i tried a few  different programs and they really did nothing for

me. as a pretty tall guy i was expected to be able to out rebound and out jump almost anyone that was on the court with me. but the sad part was that i wasn’t even close. i am 6′3 and i would get out jumped by kids atleast 5 inches shorter than me. that was discouraging and really got me down about my skills on the court

i knew i needed to increase my vertical but it just wasn’t that easy. i was hitting the gym and lifting alot but i never saw much improvement in my vertical jump. i started with about a 22in vertical a

nd through all my hard work for months worked my way up to about 26in. that took me months just to get my vertical to that point. but sadly it only helped a little bit. i was still getting dominated by the big guys on the court and i still couldn’t dunk. i did get up to where i could grab rim consistently though

this is when i decided i needed to get some help, i knew there were people out there with 40+ inch verticals and there must be something they did special because they way i was training in knew i would never improve my vertical that much. thats when i ventured on line and found a few programs that all promised me the world. well it never happened. i gained a half an inch a month at best. with both programs i tried. just so you know i would steer clear of vertical explosion training and air alert. i had terrible results with them. then i tried the jump manual and i was astounded at what happened. they had some really unique workouts that i had never done before. and i gained 4 inches my first month! it was awesome.

now  i feel so confidant on the court, my vertical is up to 36in right now and i can still add about 1-2 inches per month with this workout. i can 360 dunk and straight jump over people when they get between me and the hoop. i love it and it gave me a new love for the game. if you are in a similar position i was in then i would definitely recommend the jump manual.

So I get asked the question all the time, how do I improve verticle performance? Well it’s a pretty simple answer for all of you out there that are asking yourself the same question. Exercise and practice will give you sizeable gains in your vertical jump before you know it. If you are serious about knowing how to improve verticle jump then you have come to the right place. And the best news I have for you is that you cont have to do it all by yourself.

Starting from scratch and trying to go through all the trial and error to figure out the best ways to learn to jump is simply to much effort. There are tons of people that have studied how to improve verticle performance for years and years, they no doubt have gotten results from all of there work. So why not make use of all of there research and learn the best ways to improve your verticle in a lot shorter time with less effort and wasted time. On this website you can find lots of information on training your verticle and how you can do it for free. Also there are a ton of reviews of popular training programs that will take you all the way from a- z on how to start jumping higher fast. Improving your verticle can be done and reasonably quickly if you have the right trainings and information. Arm yourself and start dominating the court today.

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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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Avoiding injury is an important factor that you should look for in your jump training program. After all you want to use your hops on the court right? Not much use if you’re sitting on the bench nursing your legs. Thankfully there are a few things you can do to help prevent your injuries.

ICE: ice any part of your body that starts to get sore… when it gets sore. Don’t wait as playing on sore damaged joints will only make the situation worse. I know since I started icing my knees regularly my workouts and practices feel a whole lot better. At first I shied away from icing since it took so much time out of my day. I mean

45 minutes every day is a lot of time to sit doing nothing. But one thing that really helped me was finding these ice packs that I got a Wal-Mart. They allow me to come home from a practice and just pull it out of the freezer and

strap it to my leg. Since it holds its self there I’m free to do other things. And it doesn’t melt and make a mess either. I would highly suggest getting some if you have troubles with any part of your body after a workout. It can keep you going strong all through the week, which is important if you are going to keep on increasing your vertical

Stay Hydrated: our bodies are more water than anything else. I believe it’s a staggering 95% or so. So that makes sense that you should drink enough water to keep your body happy. A good rule of thumb is if your urine is clear you’re hydrated. So try and keep it that way as much as possible.

Take Your Vitamins: most of us don’t live the healthiest lifestyles. And even though you may be on a nutritional diet for your workouts… which I would strongly recommend. You still might not be getting all your fruits and veggies every single day. For that reason it is a good idea to take a multivitamin every day. That will make sure you get all the crucial ingredients to keep your body nice a strong and make sure it has what it needs to take care of its self. If you’re going to work your body hard you need to give it what it needs so it can keep doing that over and over again.

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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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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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There are lots of jump higher programs out there and it can be tough to sort through all of them to try and find one that is quality and also a great value. I hope this article can give you some simple steps to follow that will show you how to pick the best jump higher program to make sure you get the results you are looking for. Many of the programs out there are excellent and some are complete garbage… here’s what to watch for:

1. Who created the product? Obviously it is important to know who you are getting your information from. Some are created by professional jump coaches that work with professional athletes. Others are created by the

athletes themselves. If the program comes from some average Joe who you don’t know and can’t find any information on, then you probably don’t want to be taking his advice. Look for someone reputable behind your jump higher program.

2. Does the system have everything you need? There are programs out there with varying amounts of information. Some come with a pdf ebook while others have instructional videos and I know of one that even comes with its own supplements. Make sure the program has what you need to learn from it. However is best for you.

3. Is it reasonably priced? Obviously many of the programs will be priced differently. I know of some ranging from $40 up to over $200. And they all bring something different to the table. It all depends on you budget and which product fits your needs best. Remember thought that you don’t always get what you pay for… jump higher programs are not all created equal!

4. Does it offer a guarantee? Most Jump higher programs out there these days offer a guarantee so that you can tray the product and if you don’t get the results you were looking for simply refund it. This is an important qualifier that proves the vendor is serious about their product and has confidence that it will work for you.

5. Does it need extra gadgets to work? This goes somewhat with the system being complete, but again make sure that everything you need is included. You should not buy the program and find out you need to get some special shoes or plyo boxes. Out side of your basic jump rope you shouldn’t have to get a thing.

6. What kind of Feedback can you find? It’s important to look for reviews and customer feedback on you jump higher program. If other people are raving about it that it worked for them that can give you some confidence that it is a good product and worth your investment. Make sure the reviews are genuine though. If they sound fabricated you might want to steer clear of it since it is most likely just a marketing ploy.

Hopefully this article has helped you on your quest to find the system that is right for you and will get you the results you are looking for. If you follow the guidelines in this article im sure you will end up with the best quality jump higher program out there.

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