Gain 2 Inches on Your Vertical Leap in One Week

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Increasing your vertical leap can be achieved in a number of ways. You can do a lot of squats, calf rises and lunges with and without weights. You can also go through 4-8 week plyometric programs to gain 4-6 inches on your vertical. While these methods are proven to be successful you can gain 2 inches on your vertical leap in as little as a week by applying these two simple techniques to your jumping exercises

Technique # 1: Emphasize the arm swinging motion.

When you do plyometrics workouts you are primarily doing box jumps, and other body weight dominant jumping drills. In these drills you are using your arms to gain extra height when you jump. Over waving the arm swinging motion will enhance your ability to jump higher immediately due to the weight of your arms pulling you higher into the air. To test this technique, grab a marker and go up to a flat wall that you can make markings on. Stand flat footed in front of the wall then jump up and make a mark at the peak of your jump. Next, do the same exercise, but swing your arms back as far as you can then jump. Make a mark at the peak of that jump. You will notice that the second mark is at least an inch higher than the first one. That's a one inch gain on your vert in under 5 minutes!

Technique # 2: Focus on landing

You can only jump as high as the height you can land from. Granted you can jump off a one story building and land without seriously injuring yourself, but this concept applies to landing on your feet only, without any assistance from your hands. When you jump off of something onto the ground your body is heavier. This added weight from gravity causes your muscles to work harder to absorb the impact of the landing. When you land you strengthen your jumping muscles more due to the added weight of gravity pulling you down. This makes jumping a lot easier because the same muscles that absorb your landing only have to push half of the weight off the ground. A technique to strengthening your landing muscles is to jump from higher heights on to the ground and immediately spring back up into the air (depth jumps). The easiest way to incorporate this technique into your jump routine is to jump off a plyo box during box jumps then focus on landing safely (not landing straight legged, and bending your knees on impact to absorb the landing). Aim to gain as much height as you can handle. Do not jump too high if you are not comfortable with landing from that height. Add this technique in to your routine for a week and you will notice that you can jump higher during box jumps instantly.

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