Custom Search

4 Increasing Vertical Leap Exercises

Increasing vertical leap exercises are an essential part of your training regime or jumping program. Form, fitness, strength and power are all a part of what makes a great athlete start jumping higher and a lot of it comes down to exercising the right muscles for the right concepts which of the range of abilities you need strength and power are the keystones.

Strength Exercises

Strength is defined as your maximum lifting ability and high strength athletes typically do a lot of weight lifting to increase muscle size and endurance. The more strength in your core and legs the more potential you can bring to a leap.

Lunges - Lunges are good exercises that target key muscle groups that are essential for jumping higher. You can do this with or without weights but weights help build more strength. By taking a long step forward and then bringing your static leg down to kneeling but do not rest on the knee to keep the muscles straining against the weight. Make sure you keep your back straight and do not lean forward or backwards doing this.
Squats - Squats are great exercises for the legs and you can load on a lot of weight to really increase the strength of your legs. If you do this exercise badly however you will gain no real benefit so follow these rules:
Knees must stay above the feet at all times
Keep your chest out and your back straight
Slight forward lean but not too much
Keep your weight on your heels

Power Exercises

Power is defined as a measure of how quickly you can apply your maximum potential strength to a task. It is like acceleration versus velocity in a car; a big heavy car with a powerful engine can get to a high speed eventually but others might hit that speed quicker and so have more "power". To be able to use all of your strength in a leap to use all your strength you must have good muscular power and this will increase vertical jumping ability as without it all your strength training goes to waste!

Weighted Jumps - By incorporating weights you can use a variation of plyometric exercises to increase vertical leap called box jumps. By holding some weights and repeatedly jumping from the ground onto a raised position you can add some extra difficulty while increasing your power. Again go with fast sets of these it is an explosive exercise not a slow one!
Plyometrics - This is a type of exercise where you practice drills of leaping at high speed and high intensity. You can design your own drills but the simplest method is to simply vertical jump as fast as you can as much as you can to train your explosive power and is one of the best increasing vertical leap exercises

By: Robbie McDermid

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

If you want to know more exercises and training techniques for increasing your jumping ability then click below to find out more information that is used by professionals that make a living out of their vertical leap.

Vertical-Leap.1001-Solutions.info

© 2005-2011 Article Dashboard