5 Explosive Exercises For Your Vertical Jump
Check out the five explosive exercises for increasing your vertical jump provided by Scott Moody.
Scott Moody is the founder of Athlete Fit. He has trained many elite professional athletes in basketball and soccer.
1. Squat
Whether you are back squatting with the bar, or doing body weight squats, this exercise is an essential part of a vertical jump program. This exercise will build strength in the legs and core, which are key in the landing phases of any plyometric program.
Cues: Start light, and stay rhythmic in the motion. As your form becomes better, start to add speed to the accent (up) phase by attempting to “push your feet into the ground” and “leading with the shoulders” on the way up.
2. Jump Squat
This power movement exercise is vital to improving your vertical jump as it improves your explosiveness and strength in your lower body and core.
As you can see, there are many different views on how to perform a jump squat (weight on the shoulders, weight held low, bar on the back, etc.).
3. Squat Raise to Armpit
We love these exercises, as they are relatively simple to master, but gives you a great way to train explosive movement. So instead of taking months to master a clean or snatch movement, you can start on simpler versions especially if you’re less-skilled in Olympic lifting, with more speed and explosive potential.
This exercise develops strength in the shoulders, while also targeting the jump based motion of the hips (similar to a hang clean).
4. Power Raise
Like the Squat Raise to Armpit, the Power raise mimics Olympic lifting fundamentals, quick jump like motions and upper body pulling actions.
The Power Raise is similar to a snatch or 1 arm dumbbell snatch, but you can use two hands to hold the dumbbell.
Not only is this a great vertical jump exercise, but it also mimics a strong finishing motion for post players and guards that finish in the lane. You should visualize finishing in traffic when performing this exercise, and you should develop the strength to finish shots while taking contact in the lane.
5. Single Legged Exercises
Maybe my favorite exercise for vertical improvement is the single legged box blast or step up jump, but to get to that point we go through a progression of single legged exercises.
Additional Resources
- Athletic Development Program to Improve Speed, Strength and Vertical Jump
- Strength, Conditioning, and Agility Resources for Basketball Players
What do you think? Let us know by leaving your comments, suggestions, and questions. . .
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Facebook (70.4k Likes)
YouTube (42.1k Subscribers)
Twitter (23.4k Followers)
Q&A Forum
Podcasts