ANYBODY can improve their vertical leap and learn how to jump higher!

The key  is understanding the role your body type plays. Age, gender, race e.t.c., are not the deciding factors. You need to assess your own individual response to training, as this varies from person to person. Giving you exercises simply doesn’t cut it if you want real hops…you NEED a cycle based on exercises for your given body type, aiming at your weakness, which cycle from Strength to Explosiveness to Plyometrics.

Some Basic Steps to Get You Started

1. Assess yourself using current strength and your level of experience with previous types of training. The best way to get the most gains is to construct a brand new strength foundation, then performing an explosion phase converting to further inches.
2. Practice Lifts. Total body strength is the key for such an athlete and there is no better exercise than the full back squat. This gives you progressive increases on spinal loading, which increases stabilization under tension, stretch-response of hip muscles and hamstrings etc.
3. Root the squat centrally within most of your lower body workouts. 6-8 decent lifts gets the best strength developments and vertical carryover. For the upper body days, the philosophy is the same, with the central exercises being bench press, overhead press variations, pull-ups and dips. Remember the overlooked muscles towards the end of the workout, such as hip flexors, the shins , transverse abdominals e.t.c.
4. Acquire lifting technique in a safe and effective manner. Undergo 3-5 week strength phase for upper and lower body. Done correctly, visible gains of 5+% on each lift should be seen weekly. Thus you will start to envision how his jump is guaranteed to increase.
5. Correctly exercise explosive and plyometric training varying and relative amount to the heavier strength training. These are your “field workouts” and are completed pre-weights. E.g., on Day 1 you begin by engaging in a series of tempo runs, sprints and low-intensity plyos (after a dynamic warm-up of course). By the time Phase 3 comes around, this will have gradually switched to shorter tempo runs, overspeed (downhill) sprints and high-intensity plyos.
6. Emphasis on the heavier weights should fade as you progess through the phases.
   
7. Visualize by closing your eyes, imagining yourself exploding upwards. Visualize yourself with large leg muscles that are tightened like springs, ready to blast you up into the air. Say to yourself “I feel myself getting more powerful and much lighter.” Then jump again. You should observe a noticeable increase in your vertical jump. (Sports psychologists have long recognized the effectiveness of “mental practice” in improving athletic performance.)

For more detailed information on advanced programs available to help you learn how to jump higher, see our Review of Vertical Jump Programs or go straight to our recommended system…How To Jump Higher!