Thursday, November 5, 2009

Training For a 40 Inch Vertical - How To Improve Your Vertical Leap

By Brayden Fisher

So you want a 40 inch vertical leap? I'm not going to lie to you, it doesn't come easy. If it did everyone would be jumping high and dunking the basketball. The good news is that YOU CAN increase your vertical leap if you are willing to put in some serious hard work and implement the right training routine.

I can say this from experience because I personally increased my vertical jump from 31 to 43 inches! Now this didn't happen overnight, in fact it took me 7 months to hit that mark. Unfortunately there is not a magic pill that you can take to help you increase your vertical. (At least that I know of, if you find one please let me know :)

If you understand the way your body works and WHY you are perfoming each exercise, you will get better results from your training. So we need to learn some basic principles before we start our 40 inch vertical training:


Principle #1 - You Need To Focus on Quality Over Quantity

A common mistake people make is doing way too many sets and reps. They spend hours in the gym doing drills. The bad part is that they probably think they are on the right track because their legs and calves are really burning. Unfortunately, they are not getting the results they desire. Why is this?

Well, this type of training focuses on your muscle endurance rather than your jumping strength. This individual may be training very hard but he is training the wrong way. QUALITY not quantity and INTENSITY not repetition are the proper characteristics of effective explosion training.

Everytime you workout, INTENSITY needs to be your main focus. You will not see the vertical leap gains that you desire if you are pacing yourself during your workout sessions. Do fewer reps and bump up the intensity instead.



Principle # 2 - Overload Your Muscles

There are three main muscles involved when a person jumps.....the quads, hamstrings, and calves. If we want to increase our vertical leap we must create more EXPLOSION and POWER with these muscle groups. Working out with VERY HEAVY weights with low reps is the answer to our problem. Training this way will overload the muscles and make our muscle fibers stronger. Stronger muscle fibers will contract with greater force and give us more EXPLOSION which is what we need. Understanding this principle is very important when training for a 40 inch vertical leap.



Principle #3 - Complex Explosion Training

Complex training is the combination of plyometrics and weight training. There is ABSOLUTELY no other training method that will increase your vertical jump better than the correct implementation of these two techniques. Stop looking for the perfect gadget or gizmo to help you achieve that 40 inch vertical jump that you are looking for they don't exist. Nothing beats hard work.

For suggestions and examples of some of my favorite exercises to help increase your vertical jump check out the links I have below. You can find several exercises that I recommend that are VERY effective at helping you increase your vertical.

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