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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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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