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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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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