Mar 26 2008

Fastest Way To Increase Athletic Power And Improve Vertical Jump

Fastest Way To Increase Athletic Power And Improve Vertical Jump
by Derek Bijnaam
Fastest Way To Increase Athletic Power And Improve Vertical Jump Having a strong vertical leap is essential for increasing your level of play in a sport like basketball. Having that skill enables you to rebound over the bigger guys, avoid having your shots blocked, and get a better look at the rim. And, if you can’t jump you can’t dunk. So, if you want to impress your teammates, opponents, and coaches, you need to commit to a vertical leap program.

The reason why this type of training is so effective is because it forces the body to work in opposition to the vertical plane of gravity. This opposition assists in cutting back the amount of work and time you have to impose on your body in order to achieve results. Whereas you are not met with the same resistance training on the horizontal plane and you would have to put in more energy and time to increase your power output capacity.

To increase your vertical jump, there are plyometric exercises that you can do that will help you build the needed power and strength. Plyometric exercises use explosive movements to develop muscular power and acts on both the musculotendinous and neurological levels to increase an athlete’s performance. These exercises will increase the speed or force of your muscular contractions, which increases the height of a jump or speed of a punch or throw.

Jumps: Squat jumps are a great way to strengthen your thighs and to give you that extra push so you can improve your vertical leap. They start out as a bodyweight squat and transition into a jump upward. Long jumps help to maximize the length of each jump. You can do single repetition long jumps, resting between repetitions but landing quickly and immediately to do another jump. This method focuses more on speed and agility than pure power.

Below the Knee: Your calf muscles are critical in giving you the power you need to reach those new heights. There are many calf muscle exercises that can be easily done at home without weights that include jump roping, toe raises, and rapid stair climbing.

One Leg Hops: This exercise may seem strange at first but its effectiveness will become obvious after some practice. First, stand on one leg, and push off from the standing leg, jumping forward and landing on the same leg. Use the opposite leg as a balance and for forward motion. With each jump, aim to jump higher. One leg hops will increase muscle strength and flexibility in your legs.

When these types of exercises are done correctly and consistently you will see results. However, these exercises, though effective, are just a few of the tools needed to build power in your jump. You also need to strengthen your upper body along with your legs. So if you want to reach your vertical jump goal you may want to invest in a vertical jump program that will increase your vertical strength through a combination of weights, plyometrics, pool training and isometrics to take you to the next level.

If you would like more information on how to increase your vertical jump and reach your goal height, Derek Bijnaam has discovered a powerful training program. He revels it here at http://increasevertjump.blogspot.com/

View more articles from Derek Bijnaam
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Mar 25 2008

Increase your vertical jump… What not to do!


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Mar 25 2008

How to Jump Higher…


How to jump higher? Increasing our vertical leap can give us an edge in our sport of choice. In addition to the advantage of a higher vertical, the same muscles involved in increasing our vertical will also give us better overall quickness. So how is it done? Why are there so many programs and products that seem to have differing methods? When you are out doing your searching for the next training program or the next product you are going to test to increase your vertical there are a few things I recommend that you keep in mind. These few principles can help you understand the underlying principles behind an increased vertical and give you better insight as to what YOU need to do next in order to answer the question… How do I jump higher?

# 1

Is the question how to jump higher or how to increase my jumping endurance?

Probably none of you really ever think about this question… but if you did you would realize that often you are training your jumping endurance and not your jumping explosion. For example.. if you were training to run the 100 yard dash would you train by running 2 miles every day? NO! Why? Because distance running optimizes the muscle fibers that provide endurance.. NOT the muscles that provide speed and power. THIS PRINCIPLE ALONE WILL SAVE COUNTLESS ATHLETES UNTHINKABLE HOURS OF UNAFFECTIVE TRAINING! Just because you are tired, and sweaty, and your legs are sore does not mean you are training correctly. In fact, training your explosive power can be quite counter intuitive. You would be better of doing 3 - 4 sets of 8 very explosive reps that you would doing 3 - 4 sets of 20 - 30 less explosive reps.

Here is another example to illustrate this idea. If your vertical is currently 19 inches and all your training involves repetitious exercises requiring you to jump within the 6 - 12 inch range you will not be working to train your explosion.

How do you jump higher?

BY EMPHASAZING EXPLOSION AND GOING BEYOND OR YOUR CURRENT EXPLOSION CAPABILITIES IN EVERY TRAINING EXCERCIZE.

Absolutely guaranteed. If you train with that kind of intensity, you will notice exposion gains, and vertical increases faster than you ever have before. Does this make sense? I hope it does because it will make the difference between results and excitement about your training and potential burnout because of slow results.

More on principle #2 coming soon…

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