Posts Tagged ‘increase vertical’

Beginning Exercises to Assist Your Vertical Leap

Sunday, November 15th, 2009

So you want to learn a few good vertical jumping exercises? There are several to pick from. There are a few in particular that can improve your capacity and help you learn how to jump higher. Here are some fundamental ones that are an excellent place to start your training. Ensure that you follow the movements correctly. Many people perform the right exercises, but they don’t do them correctly. Add these three exercises to your vertical training and you will be well on your way to adding major inches to your vertical.

You may think the only muscles you need to work on throughout your vertical jumping workouts are your leg muscles, but that’s not the case. The muscles in the back and waist are also exceptionally vital. Many of the back muscles are heavily involved and need strengthening as well. Vertical jumping exercises should include working on this area. So let’s get started with our first exercise.

Dead Lifts

Dead lifts are great. Remembering to try to keep you back as erect as possible, bend your knees and grasp down and grab the barbell. Bring the barbell up until you are standing erect with the barbell hanging across your thighs. Slowly lower the weight back down. The first 3 sets of 6-8 reps should be done swiftly but steadily to avoid injury. {Take a rest.|Take a brief rest after these first 3 sets.} Do one last set in a much slower fashion this time.

Leg Presses

One more good exercise is leg presses. Choose a weight on the leg press machine that is near the higher end of your range, but not the maximum you can lift. Place your feet about shoulder breadth apart. Drop the weight until your thighs nearly contact your chest. Then thrust the weight back up in an explosive manner. You don’t jump in slow motion, so you don’t want to exercise in slow motion. You need to practice the explosive move to get the most out of the muscles you will use when jumping. Repeat this exercise six times – and perform five sets. Take a brief pause between each set.

Medicine Ball

For our last exercise we will use a medicine ball instead of a basketball. Act as if you are going to slam dunk, but don’t actually throw the ball! Embellish the movements and reach for the rim. This will help improve all the muscles you will be using when you slam dunk for real. As with the leg presses, make certain to be explosive when you complete this exercise.

These three exercises are just three of scores that can help improve your vertical jump. As you improve, include additional exercises to your routine. Don’t fail to remember to use the correct form while performing these exercises. It can help you avoid injury.

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