30 Tips To Improve Your Vertical Now
© AthleticAdvantage-Online.com
So you want to blow your vertical through the roof. Great, now where do you look for the know how to
get the results you need? Right here! This short report is designed specifically to skim the surface of 30 different
areas, exercises, tools, habits or mind sets that you can change or adopt that will give your vertical leap the
booster shot it needs so badly.
The truth is that there are hundreds of individual things that you can do to improve your vertical but
we’ve narrowed the list down to just 30 which will give you the most bang for your buck when applied to your
lifestyle and training habits. Just as a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, the improvement
of your vertical by a foot or more begins by incorporating these 30 tips and strategies one at a time until you’ve
made each one a habit. Then you won’t even have to think about improvement, it will just happen naturally.
As with any information given, take each piece and try it out, see if it works for you. If it does, great! If
it doesn’t, don’t use it anymore. Simple as that! When you have tried out all 30 of these tips you will find that
your entire outlook on vertical jump training will be changed and you will no doubt be a more focused, enthusiastic
athlete in whatever sport you compete in.
THE TOP 10
1. CUT THE CRAP (SWEETS AND FATS AND ALCOHOL) - Often times we put a lot of crap into our
bodies that can actually have a lessening effect on your athletic performace. Eating a diet too high in fat or sugars
leads to an increase in body fat and a decrease in your capacity to train or play hard for extended periods of
time. Drinking excessive amounts of alcohol actually puts your muscle recovery system on hold and increases
the rate of muscle breakdown. What good does it do you to have an amazing vertical if you’re too tired to use it
or too fat to get off the ground quickly? Cut out the sweets, fats and alcohol to increase your vertical.
2. SUPPLEMENT, SUPPLEMENT, SUPPLEMENT! - Even though you can get all of the nutrients, vitamins
and mineral your body will need from a properly balanced diet, it is sometimes hard to plan ahead. Taking
suppliments can guarantee your body is getting the needed nutrients exactly when it needs them most. A quick
list of supplements that can help you increase your performance are glucosamine and chondroitin, antioxidants
such as Vitamins C and E, Vitamin B Complex, conservative use of Whey Protein and Glutamine, and Creatine.
Follow recommended dosing and watch your vertical creep up by the week!
3. ECCENTRIC TRAINING - One factor in increasing your vertical is building the capacity of your jumping
muscles to move your body as quickly as possible. Eccentric training uses the concept of controlling the
megative or downward motion of a lift with weights that are greater than your 1 Rep Max for a given lift and is
known to increase muscle strength by large amounts in short timeframes. If you want to boost your vertical try
4 weeks of 3 a week training doing 3 sets of 5 reps at 110% - 120% of your 1 rep max controlling the downward
motion for a count of 3 to 4. Always have a partner spot you and help you lift the weight after each repetition.
4. TRUE PLYOMETRICS - The reason you jump higher when you take a drop step than when standing still
is because of your bodies utilization of something called the stretch shorten cycle within your muscles. It allows
you to store and get back the energy from stretching a muscle directly before contracting it and can increase
muscle contractile strength by up to 200% - 700%. True plyometrics such as ankle jumps, depth jumps,
altitude drops, clap push ups and even sprinting are all examples of drills that require a quick stretch of the
driving muscles before primary contraction. Adding these to your training will improve your body’s efficiency
using the stretch shorten cycle and will add inches to your vertical.
5. PRACTICE GOOD JUMPING FORM - Sometimes the simple act of practicing good jumping form can
yield improvements of a couple inches in a relatively short timeframe. This is simply because unless you have
had a good amount of practice jumping correctly, your body may not have the coordination down perfectly and
it could be costing you as much as 3 inches in your vertical.
30 Tips To Improve Your Vertical Now
© AthleticAdvantage-Online.com
6. EXPLOSIVE SHOULDER EXERCISES - Many athletes become preoccupied with complicated workouts
involving their lower body jumping muscles but multiple studies have shown that your upper body, namely your
arm swing and shoulder shrug can account for as much as 10% - 15% of your vertical jump. Don’t believe us,
stand still and jump using a generous arm swing. Now stand with your arms stretched high over your head and
jump again? Was there a difference? Yeah, we thought so! Doing explosive shoulder raises with 5 to 15 lb
dumbells in sets of 8 to 12 can improve your upper body’s explosive capacity greatly.
7. TIME YOUR EATING AFTER A WORKOUT - Experts in the field of recovery and nutrition have in the
last few years have made some ground breaking discoveries. Your body’s ability to recover quickly from an intense
workout is vitally linked to the nutritional input within the first 2 hours after training. Your improvements
in explosive capacity are determined by your body’s ability to fully recover between training sessions. Internal
recovery processes can be improved by a factor of up to 3 with proper nutrition scheduling. To take advantage
of this make sure to eat a snack of quickly digested carbohydrates and protein in a 4 to 1 ratio within the first 1
hour of training. Then have a good meal about 3 hours after training which contains slowly digested carbohydrates,
protein and fats in a 60/15/25 ratio. Drinking a sports drink with a carbohydrate to protein ratio of 4 to 1
and drinking plenty of water after workouts is absolutely a must if you want to reap the benefits of timed eating.
8. HAMSTRING OVERTIME - The most common muscle tear injury among athletes in the jumps and
sprinting sports is the hamstring pull. This is not suprising when it also happens to be the most under trained
muscle group in relation to its opposing muscle group the thigh or quadriceps. In single leg jumping and to a
lesser extent in double leg jumping, the hamstring muscle is the easiest and most efficient muscle to train if you
want to increase your vertical. Doing exercises such as low-back hypers, glute-ham raises and single leg exercise
ball hamstring curls can greatly increase the safety and explosive strength of these workhorse muscles and
boost your vert in only a few weeks.
9. POWER CLEANS - Power cleans are an olympic lift which has been part of the vertical jumpers arsenal
for some time now in high level college and pro athletic programs. It directly simulates a deep two legged jump
and increases the stability and control of your entire body through the full range of a jump, all in one convenient
exercise. To incorporate this exercise into your workouts, stand with feet shoulder width apart in front of
a weighted barbell. Squat down and grab the bar with both hands, overhand grip, at just farther than shoulder
width. Using good lifting form (back up and straight) use your legs to lift the bar to your hips, continue to lift
the bar by shrugging your shoulders and then flip your elbows under the bar so you end in a front squat position.
10. GET IN, GET OUT, GET RESULTS! - Often times the biggest mistake an athlete will make is to confuse
quality with quantity when training. It is not as important to do a hundred repetitions of an exercise as it is to
perfectly execute a perfectly weigthed drill a few times. Overdoing it can lead to muscle pulls and plateaued
results from overtraining. Your best bet is to concentrate on high intensity, high set, low rep, perfectly executed
drills. Then get out of the gym and do some proactive recovery so you’re ready for the next workout. This will
give you the best results and help you blow by and over your competition.