To increase the power and height of your vertical leap, use a combination of training strategies that includes jumping to improve your explosive power, weight training to enhance strength and stretching to improve joint flexibility. Plyometric training helps you develop speed and strength, and it utilizes the elastic quality of your muscles to help your muscles develop. Of course, you also need aerobics training to increase your endurance and prepare for the stress on your joints and tendons.
Step 1
Do moderate-intensity aerobic workouts for at least 30 minutes most days of the week to prepare your body for plyometrics.
Step 2
Do weight training to develop strength in your hips, quadriceps, calves, hamstrings and arms, focusing particularly on your quadriceps, the large muscles in the front of the thighs. For example, do squats, dumbbell lunges, standing toe raises, shoulder presses, crunches and leg raises.
Step 3
Do stretching exercises daily, especially before workouts and for a few minutes afterward. Use dynamic stretches, such as arm circles, walking lunges and exaggerated kicks. Include stretches for your legs, ankles, feet, back, shoulders, arms, lower back, hips, groin and hamstring.
Step 4
Jump rope daily -- 10 minutes in the morning and again for 10 minutes at night. Jumping rope builds muscles used in jumping and enhances aerobic fitness.
Step 5
Do plyometric training three to four days per week, alternating with weight training. Plyometric exercises include no-arm jumps; one-leg and two-leg hops; squat jumps; deep knee bend jumps; lunges; one-leg lunges; laundry jumps, in which you jump laterally over a small object; and power skips, in which you skip using exaggerated motions and the box jump, in which you jump off a box or bench to a crouch, then immediately rebound and jump again.
Tips and Warnings
- Start your strength and fitness conditioning at an intensity appropriate given your current fitness level. Do not jump into plyometrics if you are not already in a good state of fitness.
- Consult with a physician before making significant changes to your exercise patterns.
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