Learning how to increase your vertical jump is a skill you need as a basketball player.
By improving this skill, you will perform better in every game and you’ll have a better chance of becoming the MVP on your team.
The problem is, not everyone is born with a killer natural vertical or the capacity to jump really high like Lebron.
However, almost anyone can increase their vertical by a few inches.
Here are several ways.
1. Focus On the Right Muscles
One extremely effective way to increase your jump is to develop both your core and your lower body strength with strength workouts.
Leaner and stronger legs can be achieved only as long as you are carrying out the right exercises.
This allows you to jump higher while also improving your speed.
Be mindful, though, because too much strength training will most likely hurt your performance and be counterproductive; so do it in moderation.
2. Flexibility and Injury Prevention
Flexibility exercises have also been shown to improve leg strength and speed, as well as boost vertical leap height
The best thing about these exercises is that, while they force you to use major muscle groups, they don’t cause injury.
In fact, these exercises were created by professionals specifically to improve your range of motion and reduce your risk of injury.
When the muscles are too tight, jumping high becomes much more difficult.
Remember that a well-developed and flexible muscle implies greater jumping ability.
This is why you should focus on flexibility to see progress.
Aside from your lower body, the core muscles play an enormous role in jumping high.
To make an explosive leap, your core muscles must send a lot of energy to your lower extremities.
And, like any other major muscle in the body, you must train to strengthen your core muscles.
Part of your exercise routine should be doing one-legged squats and various kinds of planking.
This will not only increase your strength but also your stamina, as strengthening your core and stabilizers makes you more resistant to fatigue.
3. Train All the Variables
There are nine variables that affect vertical jumping.
Using a good vertical leap training program will help ensure that all of the variables are covered.
Going through the whole nine yards will assure your success.
Unfortunately, almost all programs only focus on one or two variables, ignoring other crucial factors like nutrition, etc..
Watch this video to see how important nutrition is.
After thoroughly researching this topic and testing a great deal of vertical jump programs, I can say with full confidence that the most recommended ones nowadays are The Jump Manual and Vert Shock.
Jump Manual is a Jacob Hiller’s program that covers all nine variables with a multi-faceted approach.
Then there’s Vert Shock, a methodical 8-week program by Adam Folker that is becoming more popular. Here’s how it actually works.
And here’s a video on how the Jump Manual works:
If you’re too lazy to watch a 10-minute video explaining the mechanics of jumping, I’ll make things easier for you.
In a nutshell, this video shows the huge impact that plyometrics have on vertical jumping.
Plyometrics teach the muscles to adapt to new movement patterns.
But plyometrics alone, as great as they are, will not cut it if you want to jump high.
There needs to be another important factor in your training – weight training.
For best results, combine plyometrics with weight training and you’ll be on the right track.
To Finish Off
There are only a handful of programs today that combine these two together, and the jump manual is one of them.
The jump manual is the only one that handles it well because there has to be a certain ratio between strength and ploymetrics, and even a slight deviation from it can dramatically reduce your results.
For this reason, if you lack experience, building a multifaceted program for jumping higher on your own is not recommended, as you will not know how to balance it.
Therefore, going with a pre-made program like the ones mentioned above is a much better option.
You’d save yourself a lot of hassle down the road and your path to improving your vert will be much simpler.
Extra Resources
1) Coach Craig Marker – The Science of Strength Training for Vertical Jump and Change of Direction | Breaking Muscle – http://breakingmuscle.com/strength-conditioning/the-science-of-strength-training-for-vertical-jump-and-change-of-direction
2) How to Increase Flexibility for a Vertical Jump by Jen Weir | LIVESTRONG.COM – http://www.livestrong.com/article/111769-increase-flexibility-vertical-jump/
3) Article by Jonathan Williams on how to get in shape and jump higher through stability and core exercises | Muscle & Fitness – http://www.muscleandfitness.com/workouts/workout-routines/jump-your-way-fitness-program
4) Vert Shock discount – should you decide to buy the program, use this discount to get 50% off the original price.
Last Updated on by Matthew Godley
Nice post Matthew.
What would you say is more important in the list of priorities, would it be leg flexibility or core muscle strength? I sometimes just don’t have enough time to complete the stretching part after the workouts or the core exercises. Would it be ok to finish up with just stretching and do the core training on my off days?
What exercises do you think are best for a 14 year old and is it ok to do jump training if I play basketball daily. I’m also doing strength and conditioning training, do you think it will be appropriate for me to insert jump training into my routine?
Hey man, I just finished week 9 of the jump manual and I must admit the results so far are very good. In week 6, I was already dunking easily with one hand and now I’m almost able to dunk with 2 hands. When starting out I could barely throw down a regular one hand dunk and now I don’t need to exert too much force to do that. But I feel like I haven’t made any progress in the last 1.5 weeks. Do you know what the problem might be? I tried emailing Jacob twice about it but I haven’t got a response. Did you have the same problem near the end of the program?