If you want to jump higher, you'll need to build muscles, then train them to perform the movements needed for maximal vertical leaps. You'll also want to avoid training methods that will interfere with optimal jumping. Coordinating your workouts and timing your activities correctly will help you perform better in volleyball, basketball, track and field and other activities that require jumping.
Build Leg Muscles
The more muscle you have, the more you can use to help you get off the ground. Build muscle size by performing exercises with your maximum weight capacity in the off season. Target your calves, quadriceps, hamstrings, buttocks and hip flexors. Exercises that work the lower body include deadlifts, squats, lunges, leg presses, calf raises and hamstring curls. Try the 5 X 5 workout to build muscles. Perform five repetitions of an exercise using 60 percent of your maximum weight; five more reps at 80 percent; then three more at 100 percent.
Train Explosive and Reactive Power
Explosive power is your ability to move powerfully in one direction, like football lineman quickly leaving the line at the start of a play. Reactive power is generated by two, coordinated muscle movements, such as the up-and-down movement a basketball player makes with his legs before a slam dunk.
You can peform explosive power exercises with weights or only your body's weight. This type of exercise includes box squats, paused jump squats, box jumps, hurdles, one-leg split-squat jump, clean and snatch variations and a standing broad jump. For box jumps, stand in front of a box or bleacher and jump straight up onto the object. To do a one-leg split-squat jump, stand behind a box or bench and put one leg on the object. Using the leg on the box or bench, push yourself up as high as you can go.
Plyometric exercises include high-knee skips, reactive squats, depth jumps, sprints and vertical jumps. Perform reactive squats with lighter weights, going up and down in a rhythmic motion. To perform a depth jump, jump off a stable box or bench, land on the ground, and immediately jump as high into the air as you can.
Stretch Correctly
Stretching by bending and holding a stretch before a game or match not only does not help improve your performance, it decreases power and vertical jump, according to researchers at Wichita State University. Instead of static stretching, use dynamic stretching, which uses quicker muscle movements like high-knee skipping to simulate game- or race-like movements. While static stretching 30 minutes or less before activity is not a good idea, it is helpful after the activity and can decrease stiffness and soreness later, while improving flexibility.
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