Exercises On How To Jump Higher

Many exercises on how to jump higher exist, but one effective method is to perform a combination of workouts from the following 3 exercise categories:

1. Get your limit strength exercises heavier. Limit strength exercises increase the force or strength producing capabilities of your muscles.
2. Get your explosive strength exercises faster. Explosive strength exercises focus on developing maximal starting and explosive strength, without much involvement of the reflexive stretch-shortening cycle (reactive strength).
3. Get your reactive strength exercises higher. Reactive strength exercises will boost your reactive/reflexive capabilities by increasing your body’s ability to absorb force, stabilize force, and reflexively react to that force.

Limit Strength Exercises

• Full Back Squat – This is a classic exercise, but make sure you descend down to parallel or below knee level. This exercise works all the major muscle groups we need for speed and leaping ability. Perform for 3-8 repetitions per set.
• Deadlift – Load up an Olympic bar and bend down, grab the bar, and pick it up while keeping your back straight and using the power of your glutes and hamstrings to initiate the movement. Deadlifts are a superior strengthening exercise for the glutes and hamstrings and also develop whole body power through their influence on the traps, grip, and upper back. Perform 3-8 repetitions per set.
• Split Squats – This is basically a single leg squat, with the non-working leg elevated on a bench behind you. Perform this exercise by holding a dumbell in each hand, descend until the back knee touches the floor and then explode back up to the start position. Perform 5-15 repetions per set.

Explosive Strength Exercises

• Box Squat – This movement is just like the full-back squat except you will be using a wide stance while sitting back on a box just below parallel and pausing before each repetition. Use a load equivalent to 50-60% of your maximum full-back squat lift and explode up trying to use your hips and hamstrings.
• Jump Shrug – This is a lead in to a clean or snatch movement. Starting from either the floor, explode up initiating the movement with your legs and hips. As you extend your hips and start to leave the floor follow through by shrugging your shoulders up. Perform 3-6 repetitions per set.
• Clean and Snatch – These movements are explosive by nature and in order to perform them correctly you must instantly be able to develop maximum force. They also heavily involve the hip extensors, which are key for speed and jumping ability. Perform 2-5 reps per set.

Reactive Strength Exercises

• Ankle Jumps – jump off of the ground in rhythm by just springing off your ankles. While you’re in the air you want to pull your toes up. You also must prevent your heels from ever touching the ground. The key to this exercise lies in your ability to keep your knees locked while jumping and landing on and off the ground, as well as spending the least amount of time on the ground as possible. Perform 20 reps per set.
• Shock Jumps – Find a box equivalent to about the height of your best vertical jump. Next, step off the box and upon contact instantly try to absorb the impact without any movement and without letting your heels touch the ground. You want to land in a powerful, yet soft manner. You can continue to increase the height of the box until you can no longer land smooth and quiet. You can perform these by landing in a slight knees bent position, or by landing in a deeper squat position. The more knee bend the more the hamstrings and glutes are involved. Perform 3 reps per set.
• Reverse Hyperextension – This movement works hip extension hitting the hamstrings, glutes, and spinal erectors all during the course of one rep. If you don’t have a reverse hyper device you can get backwards in a back raise or glute-ham machine and apply load by placing a rope or chains strung through weights around your ankles. To initiate the movement raise your legs up to parallel. You should feel a strong contraction in your glutes and hamstrings. Next, quickly allow your legs and the weight to fall and then about 2/3 of the way down regather tension and explode back up. This creates a reactive contraction in the hip extensors. Perform 8-15 reps per set.

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