If you want to improve your vertical jump, it will involve heavy recruitment of the leg muscles and so your focus should be on strengthening the leg muscles by training. Movements like squats, Olympic lifts, and deadlifts will be very much beneficial for you because they will work on your leg muscles which are very important for increasing the height to which you can jump vertically.

The following tips will help you to improve your vertical jump and you will be able to jump much higher. Let’s find out what can help you.

1. Remove the knots from your legs

There are muscle knots present in your legs along with other parts of your body and these knots are responsible for restricting the length of your muscle tissue. They can make your muscle tissue short and week. You can use a foam roller to get rid of these spasms. Move it slowly and stop on tender spots until the knots release. Use the roller on your calves. Proof from your ankle to your knee.

Move the roller along your outer thigh. Use it on the quads. From the bottom of your hip to the top of your knee, you need to roll the roller.

2. Practice depth jumps

You can perform a depth jump by stepping off a box and immediately after you land on the ground, explode up. It will activate your lower body muscles and that will help you to increase your air time. You can take a box which is 6-8 inches off the ground. Keep your arms overhead when you jump as high as possible after landing on the floor.

3. Knee to feet jump

This is a plyometric move and it is very helpful when you want to improve your vertical jump. Sit down on your heels and then swing your arms for creating the momentum as you explosively jump up. While jumping up your hips will go forward and the legs and feet will be directly underneath you. While landing, you will be in a squat position and your arms will be out in front of you. Now, by taking down on one knee at a time you can lower back to the kneeling position.

This is an important move because it can improve your lower body power. You will need to club it with a lifting regimen and that will help you to improve your vertical jump.

4. Bulgarian split squats

This is another exercise which will help you by increasing the strength of your legs. If you want to jump higher, you will need more power in your legs. The Bulgarian split squats will increase the strength of your legs and the same time will also improve your balance. You will need to do three sets of eight reps for each like whenever you are doing your lower body workouts.

5. Use your mind power

Using your mind can help you to practically improve your vertical jump. Like in any other sports, your mind can help you to improve your vertical jump. Meditation and mindfulness both can help you by calming your body. You will be able to execute ballistic movements if you have more control over your mind. Visualisation is another mind technique which will help you to see yourself succeeding in improving your vertical jump. If you can see yourself successfully jumping to the desired level, after some time this visualisation will help you to take your vertical jump actually to the level.

References

1. The Bounce Guide
2. Training methods to improve vertical jump performance.
3. Caffeine, Genetic Variation and Athletic Performance (GMC-AP)