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.

Technorati Tags: bodyweight training, jump higher, learn to dunk, muscle fibers, vertical training, vertical workout

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.

Technorati Tags: build muscles, how to improve your vertical, jump higher, jumping instruction, jumping muscles, muscle types, vertical workout

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!

Technorati Tags: best vertical workout, excercises for jumping, sports training, vertical workout

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

Technorati Tags: how to improve your vertical, how to jump higher, improve vertical, vertical workout

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.

Technorati Tags: best vertical workout, improve vertical, increase vertical, learn to jump, sports training, vertical workout