2 Tips to Increase Your Vertical Jump 8-12 Inches or More

[josh3675]

Hey everyone, I’m relatively new here. I just wanted to give some advice for those who are looking to increase their vertical jump based on what has worked best for me.

How well does it work?

I’ve gained 15 inches on my vertical leap over the years. Here are 2 things you NEED to do to maximize your vertical leap.

#1) Jump

Yup… stupid simple, but it works. The less I practice jumping, the lower I jump. On the flip side, the more I practice, the higher I jump.

Let’s clear something up.

It is true that some athletes are more gifted than others. However, the gap is not as wide as you might believe.

The reason that some players jump so much higher than others is usually that they simply work at it more. They might have started out with slightly better leaping ability than others.

This encouraged them to start jumping more often, and use their athleticism to their advantage. Over time, the gap between them and the ‘less naturally gifted’ athletes widened.

On the other hand, athletes who think they can't jump simply don’t practice it. Instead, they might work on other skills to compensate for their supposed ‘lack of athleticism’.

Basketball is a perfect example of this.

Shooters tend to not jump very high, whereas the better athletes usually don't shoot very well (obviously there are exceptions). The reason is simple-the shooter learns to play the game relying on their shooting ability, whereas the athlete focuses more on their jumping ability.

True, some people simply aren’t as genetically gifted as others. No matter how much you jump, you might never dunk like Lebron James. But you can at least significantly increase your vertical leap simply by jumping more often.

#2) Eat healthy

Boy, I wish I’d done this when I first started out! When I was really gaining inches on my vertical leap, I paid very little attention to what I ate. I can’t imagine how good my results would have been if I had.

Focus on eating LOTS of fruits and vegetables. Most of your diet should be these 2 foods.

Reduce your fat intake. The less fat you consume, the better you will feel… and the higher you will jump. 10% or less of your calories should come from fat.

Eliminate salt. Salt causes you to retain water, and carry around extra body fat—never a good thing when trying to jump higher.

Think about it—how do you feel after eating salty foods? If you are like me, lethargic. Get your sodium naturally, through celery.

The bottom line--if you follow these 2 tips, you will SUBSTANTIALLY increase your jumping ability. It will take effort, but the results are well worth it.

[jono1512]

Awesome article and welcome to bb.com

[bdains]

This is true, but there are A LOT more factors involved.

[Jimbo48]

Sorry but these two tips, while valid, will not give 8-12 inches of vertical improvement. One must squat, deadlift and power clean with heavy weights along with plyos to significantly improve their vertical.

[xboxing]

come on

[Overbeys]

yeah i dont think it will increase your vertical that much.. its a little to big of a gain for not doing that much work...

[highmarketrider]

just measured today. is a 40 inch vertical jump for my size good?

[AA25Mamba]

I have to disagree with your post for the most part. Being a basketball player, I started out being very unathletic. I could barely touch the bottom of a regulation net. I found a book called the Vertical Jump Bible and it was amazing. The main factor of increasing your vertical is how fast you can transfer power into the ground. This is accomplished by leg resistance training, most importantly with the back squat and deadlift. And not only resistance training but training these exercises with moderate and heavy weights while focusing on moving the weight quickly and mimicing a jumping motion.

Jumping does have a place, but as plyometric training with focus on minimizing the length of your jump and applying the force quickly. There are certain exercises here such as depth jumps and reactive jumps that are like the squat and deadlift, king of their own faction of training.

After training my vertical for 4 to 5 years, I reached the point where I could dunk a basketball. And as for the belief that shooters aren't athletic and don't jump high when shooting, that's entirely false. Sometimes shooters don't jump very high during a shot, but that's not a lack of jumping ability sometimes, it's because they elect to shoot more of a set shot to reserve energy. And in terms of basketball, 9 times out of ten the more athletic player doesn't best a more skilled player if the athletic one lacks skill.

[123jimmy]

thanks!

[BurninGoo]

Reduce your fat intake. The less fat you consume, the better you will feel… and the higher you will jump. 10% or less of your calories should come from fat.

Good advice except for this ^^

[neil25quin]

A good read

[blainepat]

Not a bad article. I think there should be a #3 though

#3) FORCE ABSORBTION. "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction" - Sir Isaac Newton. There are four steps to a jump and most people only train for two of the four. There is the run up (which is speed training), the take of point (which is change of direction), the actual take off (which is jump training) and probably the most important the landing (which is force absorbtion training)

The more force you can safely absorb, the more force you will be able to produce. The easiest way to do this type of training is depth drops (also called altitude drops). Start off with a box that is roughly 4 inches lower than your vertical and drop off that box and try to land as soft as possible and hold the landing for 3 seconds. Do about 4 sets of 10 a couple times a week. Then after two weeks of that up the height of the box you drop off of 2-3 inches every week and drop the reps 2 every time you up the height of the box.

My Numbers in case you were wondering
5'10"
205lbs
46 inch vert
315 lb Clean & Jerk
280 lb Snatch

[Ryan_Ford]

#1 is good but #2 is trivial to most athletes who already eat decent food.

[mot1ve]

Welcome to bb forums. Awesome first post considering most first posts from new members suck ass