Top Ways to Jump Higher - Things you Need to Know

No matter which sport you participate in, be it basketball, football, volleyball, or any other, the ability to jump higher will always provide you with a huge advantage. In this article, I'll present you with 5 tips on ways to jump higher so that you can perform at a higher level and see all the benefits of a high vertical leap.

1. Properly Warm Up Before any Sort of Physical Activity - It has been proven that besides reducing the injury risk, which could greatly slow down your progress, your muscles work and explode much better when they are warm than when they're cold and tight.

For example, you wouldn't head out into a basketball court and just start playing without warming up because your performance would suffer. You couldn't run as fast or jump as high as you typically can, and you might even cause an injury. I advise jogging or riding an exercise bike for only 5 minutes to warm up your muscles and raise your heart rate slightly before you start any workout or game.

2. Always Stretch Out Before Physical Activity - Although many people also ignore this tip, it will truly have a negative effect on your progress if it is not practiced properly. Muscles can contract and fire much more powerfully and explosively when they are properly stretched than when they're tight. This also reduces risk for injury. Many people searching for ways to jump higher have noted that when they properly warmup and stretch before beginning their routine, their vertical will improve.

There are certain main muscles in your leg that you want to concentrate on stretching and warming up. These are the quads, hamstrings, calfs, hip flexors, groin, and lower back. I'll bet that if you try this out, you'll see a great improvement in your vertical jump.

3. Proper Diet - This tip is self-explanatory. Eating like crap causes you to look and perform like crap. If you're truly interested in learning ways to jump higher, you won't let the diet hold you back. Although it's one of the harder things to change, it is also one of the most crucial aspects.

What you feed your body is what it runs off of, so obviously, you want to provide it with high quality food and nutrients to help it perform at an optimal level. Feeding your body crap food would be like putting low quality gas in your Lamborghini, and honestly, who would do that?

You should be eating 5-6 times per day, so spread your meals out well. Eat a lot of fish, turkey, chicken, or any other foods rich in clean protein to help build up your muscles. You should eat carbs from whole grain sources, and avoid white bread or pasta. The most important tip, however, is to drink water all day everyday and eat fruits and vegetables.

4. Workout and Training - If you're seeking ways to jump higher, the training is one of the most important roles. You want to find a workout that focuses on building your fast twitch muscle fibers because they allow you to be explosive when doing things like sprinting and jumping.

Plyometrics are the explosive exercises that you should be implementing to build more fast twitch muscle fibers. Some examples of these are box jumps, jump squats, one-leg jumps, and split-squat jumps.

Not only should you do plyometrics, but you still need to concentrate on conventional leg exercises like heavy squats, deadlifts, calf raises, hamstring curls, etc. to build up your leg muscles.

5. Proper Rest and Recovery - With a vigorous workout routine, your body is taking quite a beating. The tips on ways to jump higher provided above will serve no purpose if you're not allowing your body sufficient time to recover and rejuvenate.

A few things you can do include getting 8 hours of sleep per night, and only working out 4 times in one week. The days you stay home from the gym are just as important as the days you go. Working out too much without recovery will only cause you to see negative effects.

Follow those 5 steps on ways to jump higher and you will start to see an increase in your vertical in no time. If you want to learn more in-depth tips on how to jump higher and get a full workout routine developed by a trainer who has helped many college, NBA, and Olympic athletes increase their vertical, check out my site by Clicking Here

Another related article can be seen here: Ways to Jump Higher