Tips For Improving Your Vertical Jump
If I were to poll the country, what percentage of people wouldn’t want to jump higher? It’s as universal as pepperoni pizza.. Men and women.. Kids and former kids - nobody would mind being able to leave the ground for a longer amount of time before gravity prevailed. Want to dunk a basketball, spike a volleyball, do a backflip, scale buildings, or reenact super Mario for Halloween; a higher vertical leap will assist your endeavor. To bridge your desire with this reality will take improving your power to weight ratio, so let’s begin with power.
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What Is Power
A vertical jump is you taking your body straight up and down. It’s you traveling in the air from a standing position.
Regardless of how you choose to slice it: diagonally, vertically, horizontally, or with a protractor.. Jumping equates to how much power you can muster.
“The physics definition of power is (force x distance) / time. In other words, power measures how quickly work is performed (work = force x distance). The different ways to increase power are to increase the force (ex: weight), increase the resisted distance (ex: up if force is due to gravity) or to decrease the time (ex: move faster).” [1]
Power is also equivalent to force x speed (velocity).
Get stronger, get faster, get both, or maintain strength and speed while decreasing body weight.. Then you’ll increase distance leading to more power and in this case more hops.
Inversely, the more you weigh the more power you’ll need to perform a certain amount of work, for you have extra resistance to account for.
If you’ve been in or around athletics enough.. High school, college, and beyond you’ve probably hit the weights with people of all shapes and sizes. You’ve probably noticed a thing or two, as well. Like person a with the same height and weight as person b, with greater strength, but still lacked the ability to jump as high as person b. In this case person b had greater velocity.
This reason is why the whole formula of power is to be accounted for: how much weight you can move is good, but how much velocity can you put on it?
What Muscles Help You Jump
A good vertical jump, even a bad one, reflects the activation of fast twitch muscle fibers.
Slow twitch muscle fibers push you through continuous movements like distance running or walking, but the fast twitch fibers propel you through explosive movements IE an all-out jump.
Note: each of us have a varying combination of slow and fast twitch muscle fibers riddled throughout our musculature. Look at an Olympic sprinter’s body type versus an Olympic long distance runner’s body type and you’ll see a real world example of being fast twitch muscle dominant compared to slow twitch muscle dominant.
The muscles involved in a jump are:
Core: namely the lower back, transverse abdominis, and multifidus
Glutes
Hamstrings
Quadriceps
Hips
Later we’ll get into ways to strengthen each muscle, but this blend is what gets the job done. Hips are a dark horse and we’ll get into that now: we need good jumping form.
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How To Jump
Every movement can get a boost by simply improving mechanics: running, bench pressing, shooting a basketball, squatting, and the jump is no exception.
When it comes to jumping, put every applicant to work. Some muscles have no choice, but to chip in, yet you can make intentional adjustments to bring in added help like using arm momentum, glute activation AKA conscious use, and further hip engagement.
Steps to executing a jump:
1. Stand with your feet about hip width apart and engage your core by contracting your transverse abdominis. To contract, bring your belly button toward your spine as if to slide between the wall and your washing machine to grab that missing sock you’ve been looking for.
2a. While pushing your knees outward for hip activation quickly drop into a partial squat by bending at the knees, ankles, and hips simultaneously.
2b. While step 2a is underway you’ll throw both hands backward as if you were on a sprint relay team reaching for two batons.
3. Explosively pop up like you’re trying to see the flag on the moon. You’ll continue pushing your hips outward during this ascension, your arms will violently swing above your head as your feet leave the ground to complete this aggressive version of a squat.
4. Lastly you’ll land with a slight bend in your knees to reduce impact.
Note: if putting your jump to use in an unpredictable environment, IE a volleyball game, your conditions to jump won’t always be perfect, which is why variant training is an assistant. Regardless having these steps executed enough to become second nature will teach your body to find a “center” that is as close to perfect conditions as possible when in the throws of competition.
Another note: remember velocity is part of power, so a quick descent and ascent adds to power, not only in pure speed, but with utilizing your muscles elastic energy. Elastic energy is potential energy released when an object, or muscle in this case, is deformed (stretched). The more force, IE a quick descent, that’s applied for deformation the more potential energy is created and released [2].
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How To Measure A Vertical Jump
To track progress as you build on how close your feet can take you to the stars, you should document your maximum jump.
Your numerical vertical is the difference between your hands stretched upright while standing still and your hands stretched upright at the peak of your jump.
One of the most simplistic ways to not-so-officially estimate your vertical jump is with a basketball goal. Leap into the air and gauge how high you can reach with the hoops already equipped markers: where on the net, backboard, and/or rim did you make it to?
A more official way to self-measure is by first standing flatfooted facing a wall. Not just any wall, a big wall because you’re about to get up there in due time.
A. Take a piece of tape or use chalk to mark how high your arms reach while standing flatfooted.
B. Use another piece of tape or chalk to mark the wall at the highest point of your jump.
Subtract the difference between each mark and that’s your vertical leap.
Note: no running start and no step. Straight up and down if you’re testing a pure vertical.
Another note: at the beginning of your “jump higher” training journey measure your vertical, so you can reassess later and see how well it’s going.
Another ‘nother note: if your vertical is to be documented as a test of your athleticism to consider you for a competitive team IE NFL combine.. At the peak of your jump reach one hand higher than the other to stretch out an extra inch or two. You’ll land more awkwardly, but that extra inch could be the difference between getting a team’s attention and them scrolling by.
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How To Train To Improve Your Vertical Jump
You got the bread, now you need to butter it: training. This is where you make the last leaps of improvement.
There are endless ways to work on your vertical, but again they all must position you to accumulate power.
To promote power you’ll work on your total speed in movement as a collective unit, as well as muscles individually (isolation) and the strength of your involved muscles as a collective unit, plus individually.
This calls for a combination attack of strength-based resistance training and explosive plyometrics.
Starting with strength, high rep training won’t do a lot for you. Keep yourself in the 1-6 rep range for each set. This maximal and near maximal training will increase your power, especially if your reps are concentrically explosive.
Lower body resistance training exercises to augment your jump:
Squat
Traditional deadlift
Sumo deadlift
Romanian deadlift
Standing calf raise
Seated calf raise
Lunge
Reverse lunge
Side lunge (hip focus)
Clean variations
Snatch variations
Deadlift high pull
Kettlebell swing
Hip bridge
Glute bridge
Leg extension
Hamstring curl
Hip abduction
Deep core training isn’t as “spectacular” still it brings results. Some good moves to implement are, but are not limited to:
Plank pike
Plank
Reverse plank
Side plank
Hollow hold
Dragon flag
Vacuum
Ab rollout
Strict toes to bar
V-up
Back extension
Plyometrics will certainly involve you gaining speed and real world form through training, however if you push explosively enough you’ll get a little strength involvement, especially if you add resistance IE bands, weighted vests, etc..
Step up jump
Lunge jump
Squat jump
Half squat jump
Wall tap
Burpee
Burpee tuck
Burpee pike
Broad jump
Reverse broad jump
Side broad jump
Jump over
Box jump
Double under
Depth jump
Bulgarian split squat jump
Rower machine
Vertical jump
One step jump
Explosive step up with knee raise
Sprint
Note: unilateral versions of many of these resistance training and plyometric moves are an option, as well.
Another note: training frequency is to be monitored to avoid overtraining, which is when your ability to recover is outpaced by your workload. Lower body strength focus is a 1-3 times weekly deal. Plyometrics fall in the high intensity cardio realm, so they can occur more often, but bodily awareness is key, especially when combined with your other non-jump related forms of training.
Another ‘nother note: before your workouts knockout a dynamic warm up. Not only will it prepare you for maximal effort.. It’ll assist in maintaining/improving range of motion which bodes well for a good vertical leap.
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My Thoughts
I didn’t spend time on diet, but stay up on your protein. Refinements rely on training, but without the tools, namely protein along with total calories to fuel recovery, your body won’t adapt to a greater state than before.. You’ll just train to a stalemate.
Range of motion, mobility, and injury prevention should be included in this battle. Those are buffered with daily static stretching after working out or at some point during the day other than pre workout. It would also behoove you to do some self-myofascial release 2-3 times weekly, thank me later.
Another notable is balance. Often slept on, yet key in getting the most out of your body. Record and evaluate your jumping form from a mechanical and distributive standpoint. Do you evenly allot your weight when jumping? Or are you dominant on a particular side? A strong tell is whether your feet land simultaneously or one before the other.
Jump training is heavy on the quadricep work. When you put too much on quads and not enough on hamstrings injuries tend to occur. Keep training hamstrings to stay healthy.
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So, It’s About That Time
There you have it, how to jump correctly and how to work your way to a higher vertical. Practice your form, perfect your balance, use every muscle that’ll help, and document it all. Limits are only those little things in your mind. Jump over expectations by putting those muscles to use, Be Great.
Sources:
[1] Nesta: Personal Fitness Training Manual