Beginning Exercises to Help Your Vertical Leap
Do you need to know which exercises to start with that will improve your vertical jump? There are quite a few out there. Here are some fundamental ones that are an excellent place to start your training. You must make sure that you follow them closely. You can perform the right exercises, but if you don’t do them in the proper manner, you won’t get the results you desire. 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 believe the only muscles you need to work on during your vertical jumping workouts are your leg muscles, but that’s not the case. Your lower back and erector muscles need to be strong too. The erector muscles are the strongest muscles in the back and take on the most work. Your program should include exercises for the back and waist areas as well. Which brings us to our opening exercise.
Dead Lifts
A good exercise to start with is the dead lift. Remembering to strive to keep you back as vertical as possible, bend your knees and grasp down and grab the barbell. Bring the barbell up until you are standing upright with the barbell hanging across your thighs. Gradually lower the weight back down. Execute three sets of 6-8 repetitions. To avoid injury, do not jerk the bar, but carry out the exercise quickly and steadily. Take a rest. Execute one additional set taking your time and being more intentional.
Leg Presses
A subsequent exercise that can help develop your vertical jump is leg presses. Load a leg press machine with weights. Set your feet high and away from you. Allow the weight to come down as far as you can and then, pretending like you are jumping, push the weight back up quickly. You don’t leap in slow motion, so you don’t want to train 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 break between each set.
Medicine Ball
Lastly, use a heavy medicine ball in place of a basketball. Imagine you are going to slam dunk, but don’t really throw the ball! Make certain to extend your reach and try to get the ball as high as you are able to. Practicing this exercise helps all the muscles necessary for this movement to become strong. As with the leg presses, make sure to be explosive when you carry out this exercise.
While these are simply three exercises, they can be a good beginning to improving your vertical jump. As you move forward, insert further exercises to your schedule. Make sure you do them properly, though.
