Increase Vertical
August 1, 2010 by: Adrienne G. WednerIt is common among basketball players to continuously strive to become better in dribbling, jumping, offense, and defense as well as to always improve their agility and speed. One of the most important things that your training exercises would focus on will be to increase vertical.
In your workouts, you must learn to target certain muscles that are vital in increasing your jump. The calf and quadriceps muscles are the ones that must be targeted. Located in front of the thigh, the quadriceps muscles give the power in the jump. And to lift you off the floor is the function of the calf muscles. Therefore, targeting these two muscles during your workouts is very important if you really want to increase your jump.
One of the kinds of exercises that basketball players do is weight training which is for increasing strength. Always remember that strength is important to increase your jump.
In weight training, exercises like wall sits, leg extensions, and leg press workouts enable people to target the quadriceps muscles. Using a leg press machine, you can do the leg press workout. Here, you will be pushing weights upwards or outwards while maintaining control of your body. On the other hand, while sitting flat on a chair or bench, you will do leg extensions. Then, you will lift weights upwards. In the wall sit, you would be using your body weight instead. Start by sitting against the wall until your quadriceps muscles are at a 90-degree angle and are parallel to the floor. Maintain this position until you feel the muscles start to burn. And if you want, you can put additional weights on your lap. These three exercises surely increase the strength of your quadriceps muscles.
In weight training, you could also target your calf muscles by doing the toe raises and running sprints. For the toe raises, begin with standing against the wall and keep your balance. With one foot, lift your body up and down. Remember that your weight should be at the balls of your feet. Continue the toe raises until you start to feel a burning sensation. You could also do running sprints to strengthen your calf muscles. Here, you must also have periods of rest in between sprints. Running sprints are around 400 to 800 yards and for your rest, you will walk in between sprints for around 800 to 1600 yards.
These are only some examples of exercises that you could do to target the essential muscles which can increase your jump. Besides weight training, sportsmen also perform plyometric training. In plyometric training, your strength, agility, speed, and power would be greatly improved. Plyometrics enables your muscles to produce a huge amount of force in a short time. Plyometric training is done by a lot of athletes who want to improve their jump.
You can do various forms of exercises to effectively increase your jump. To help you learn more information on how to increase vertical, get a copy of the Jump Manual. With this manual, I learned about the various effective exercises and how to properly execute them.
Have you been wanting to increase vertical in order to enhance your performance in basketball? Learn about the various exercises that can effectively do that through the Jump Manual.