Jump Higher - How to Improve Your Starting and Limit Strength

To begin, I recommend you videotape your vertical jump. While watching it, pause the video at the beginning part of your movement and observe the angles of the ankle, knee, and calf. It is crucial that you strengthen the muscles at these particular points. Resistance training your full range of motion In addition to isometric holds (maximal or supra-maximal) will guarantee that this joint angle is properly strengthened.

Perform the vertical jump from the starting position with no starting counter-movement.
Practice this by moving your body into the starting joint angles, pausing (to remove plyometric aid), and jumping as high as you possibly can.

1. Right after you land, bend your knees until your butt hits the ground and move back into the starting position and pause. You don't want to train your CNS (Central Nervous System) to pause at the starting movement, so go down further, and resume the movement.

2. Practice this movement daily to "grease the groove", so to speak. This allows synaptic facilitation to happen and the movement to be performed with a larger portion of your limit strength.

3. While practicing this movement, perform counter-movement jumps so you can keep yourself from retraining the plyometric stretch reflex.

Perform the movement with resistance, and then without
This is very similar to the training mentioned above, except you will first perform the movement with dumbbells followed by the same movement without the dumbbells. Why? Additional resistance during the jump tells your body to recruit more muscle fiber, but when you eliminate the additional resistance you slowly retrain your CNS to recruit more muscle fiber, which in turn moves with greater velocity.

A note on vertical jump program design:
Starting strength can impede with the plyometric stretch reflex, which is why you want to go all the way down after each repetition, combine counter-movement jumps, and follow a starting strength phase with a plyometric phase.

CONCLUSION:
I know this is not a long list and that there are other ballistic training techniques available to improve your starting strength. But the few techniques above will allow you to recruit more muscle strength at the proper joint angles and with improved movement efficiency. The additional power and velocity at the movement's start will result in a greater finishing velocity and height for your vertical jump.

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