Are You Ready For Vertical Jump Training Program?
In order to jump higher and increase your vertical jump training, you must do the right exercises and know what you are doing. Some athletes are not ready to enter an intense program until they have achieved some basic fitness levels.
Your fitness level can only improve if you overload your body, which is pushing your body beyond what you are already doing. You should have some cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, good nutritious diet, muscle endurance, along with flexibility. After that, you can challenge your body with more advance fitness exercises to increase your vertical. When you reached an adequate fitness level, your will be ready for an intense vertical jump training program.
Training To Improve Your Fitness Level
1) Cardiovascular (or Aerobic) Exercises
Aerobic exercise (which is repetitive movement of large muscle groups over an extended period of time) will produce cardiovascular endurance. Examples of aerobic exercises include swimming, rope jumping, jogging, and playing basketball.
2) Enhance Muscle Strength
By applying resistance to a muscle group, you can increase muscle strength. Lifting weights is a good way of increasing muscle strength. Squats, lunges, calf exercises, are some examples in increasing strength for jumping higher.
3) Boost Muscle Endurance
Muscle endurance improves in conjunction with muscle strength. Muscle endurance is the ability of the muscle to repeat that movement over a period of time. With regular exercise, your muscles burn energy more efficiently and endure overloading for longer time. Rope jumping, and long distance running, are some examples for building endurance
4) Improve Joint Flexibility
Joint flexibility refers to the range of motions (ROM) the joint can undergo as limited by the joint’s structure and surrounding connective tissues. Warming up and then stretching your calves, hamstring and quad muscles are important activity in preventing injuries and increasing your fitness level. Joint flexibility can also give dramatic increases in vertical leap height.
5) Proper Nutritious Diet
A healthy diet means faster recovery time. Your body needs a chance to repair itself after going through the workouts. Therefore, avoid junk food and eat nutritiously. Drink plenty of water and good carbohydrates such as fruit and vegetables. Protein found in meats or whey protein shakes are important in building and repairing your muscles.
6) Reduce Your Body Fat
If your body fat index is less than 10%, you can increase your potential in jumping higher. You need to concentrate on building muscle and limit your caloric intake. A nutritionalist will be able to design the proper diet that makes sense for you specific needs. Vigorous exercises like running will also help you to lose those extra pounds and condition your lungs.
Remember, these steps is only the beginning for your vertical jump program. After you have reached a good fitness level, you can increase your vertical explosion by doing plyometric exercises. Plyometric training will develop quick twitch muscle fibers needed to increase your vertical. Many athletes omit these exercises, resulting in them not drastically increasing their vertical jump.