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If you’re looking to increase your vertical jump, either as a sports player or someone interested in jumping higher, then weight training is going to be an essential part of helping you achieve that goal.
With weight training, specifically vertical jump weight training, you build strength, a component of jumping that dictates how much power you can generate.
Another component of your vertical is the speed at which you generate that power. To build our speed, we use plyometric exercises that involve more explosive movements.
Your strength and speed, when put together, decide how high you can jump, so it’s essential to focus on both equally.
In this article, we’re going to be focusing specifically on the weight training exercises that are the most effective at building strength in your legs and core while simultaneously incorporation explosive movements to increase vertical jump.
Without sufficient strength in your lower and upper body, regardless of how quickly you can move, you won’t be generating much force, and your jump will suffer because of that.
A lot of speed can’t compensate for a weak body, same as how a healthy body won’t amount to much if it’s sluggish and slow.
Instead, learn to strike a balance between the exercises you perform, such as weight training and bodyweight workouts, and this way, you maximize your potential results.
Now that we understand the importance of building strength let’s look at the top 5 weight training exercises that will prove most efficient in helping you increase your vertical jump.
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5 Best Weight Training Exercises To Increase Vertical
Something to keep in mind with many of these exercises is that you want to gradually add more resistance over time so that your body grows stronger and adapts to the increase in resistance.
Find a range that adds heaviness to the exercise, causing you to exert more pressure while still allowing you to perform the explosive movements safely.
While performing each of these exercises, make sure you consistently maintain proper form to avoid incurring injuries.
You may think this isn’t all too important, but because you are using heavy weights and progressively increasing the load, you are much more susceptible to injuries and, as such, should take the necessary precautions.
Our goal is to use weight training to jump higher; to do so, we need to make our safety a priority as we expose our bodies to resistance.
Make sure that at all times, you have a partner or professional trainer that is spotting you during an exercise; this will make your weight training sessions much safer, and fun and is a necessity when working with equipment.
1. Squats
Squats are a compound exercise that focuses on developing strength in the lower body to improve your leap by incorporating the legs, glutes, and lower back in one full workout.
This is, by far, one of the best exercises to include in any vertical jump weight training regimens (excluding the box jump, but that’s mainly a plyometric exercise)!
Weighted squats strengthen the quads, glutes, and hamstrings
Step 1. To perform squats, start in a standing position with your back straight and your feet spread about shoulder-width apart.
From here, you may see a difference as to the equipment used when adding resistance, whether it be a barbell held over the shoulders or dumbbells held at the sides.
The general difference between the equipment is:
– Barbells can add much more resistance to the exercise, but they lock you in position, making it more difficult to bail from the activity if something were to go wrong.
– Dumbbells, while not being able to provide as much resistance, are safer, especially for people with bad wrists/shoulders, as they allow for an easy bail by releasing your grip and dropping the dumbbells.
In both variations, it is crucial to focus on the technique; with either barbells or dumbbells, you want to have a firm grip and a strong stance so that you can maintain a proper form throughout the exercise.
This will help with balancing yourself and make the action much more comfortable, as well as reduce the risk of injury.
For barbells, you want to have them positioned above the shoulders and behind the neck with a firm grip that is spread slightly more than shoulder-width. For dumbbells, you can hold them in a neutral position with your arms at the sides and the hands in a neutral grip.
Step 2. From standing, come down into a near squatting position and then back up to your starting position, completing one repetition.
Due to the simplicity of this exercise, you can repeat it quickly while maintaining proper form and progressively adding weight to shock your muscles into activation.
To make squats more explosive, transfer over to toe squats, where you come up from the squat onto the balls of your feet before coming back down to the starting position.
As you adapt yourself to the extension of your ankle, you will elevate the rate at which you generate force, and eventually work your way up to jumping squats with dumbbells or barbells as you become more comfortable with the rapid extension of your lower body.
Squat Variation: Knee Squats
A variation of the squat that is very good at training your jumping ability is the knee squat, which isolates hip extension by having the knees on the ground and pushing the weight up from there.
This variation does not need to be performed explosively, mainly since it uses isolation to achieve the same effect.
Instead, aim for high intensity as you perform the exercise without taking a break, reducing the pace at which you perform the action if needed to accommodate fatigue. This will impact your leap much better by maximizing results through high-intensity training.
Squat Variation
Step 1. To perform knee squats, first, find a soft surface such as a mat or something similar to avoid hurting your lower body while in this position. Your starting position will involve you on your shins and knees with your thighs and upper body above them.
Step 2. For resistance, you can use barbells or dumbbells, and the equipment itself is used much the same, which makes the transition to this variation easy as the positioning remains consistent for both exercises.
The key lies in the movement; from the starting position, you have added resistance to yourself as you bend the knees and extend the hip to bring yourself up onto your knees.
Step 3. From this position, you come back down to the starting position to continue performing further repetitions. While performing this exercise, the main goal is to work the core as much as possible while maintaining proper form throughout the workout.
2. Deadlifts
Deadlifts are another fundamental exercise when it comes to the development of your jumping abilities, as it works the hamstrings and glutes just as good as the squat, if not better.
It’s also a fantastic exercise due to the variations it has to make the workout more challenging or more manageable, allowing itself to adjust to the level of the person training.
Deadlifts are a go-to weight training exercises
Step 1. When performing the barbell deadlift, you first come down into a squatting position, grabbing the bar with your hands spread slightly farther than your knees.
If you are new to deadlifting and haven’t developed the flexibility to grab the barbell from the ground, I recommend starting from an elevated surface and slowly progressing to a lower starting position.
When gripping the bar, you have various grips, but we’ll focus on either the overhand grip or mixed grip.
- The overhand grip is the safest but is more dependent on grip strength, which can be a limiting factor as you increase the load.
- The mixed grip, which involves your hands in alternate positions, is less dependent on grip strength, but has a greater chance of injury and can also lead to muscle imbalances if you do not switch hand positions on alternate sets.
Step 2. From the squatting position, push with your legs to stand wholly vertical and maintain your arms extended as you carry the barbell, having it hang.
Step 3. From standing, you come back down into the squatting position with your arms extended and the barbell resting on the floor or elevated surface.
You can then continue to perform this action for additional repetitions, remembering to maintain proper form. With this exercise, you can progressively act quicker to capture the explosive, stimulating nature of the activity.
A fascinating aspect of deadlifts is the variations it has, such as the trap bar, which can be a much more accessible point of entry for beginners in weight training as it incorporates a neutral grip at a higher elevation and has you at the center of the equipment.
The trap bar allows for a neutral grip that incorporates the back and biceps
When using the trap bar, pay close attention to your balance, as being at the center of the bar can lead to a decrease in composure and proper form since there are more directions of the equipment that can influence your stance while training.
Deadlift Variation: Romanian Deadlifts
A powerful variation of the average deadlift is the Romanian deadlift, which centralizes on the development of the hamstrings, which is a vital component of your vertical jump. The exercise is also performed much quicker, allowing for a high-intensity workout.
Romanian deadlifts target the hamstrings
Step 1. To perform the Romanian deadlift, step up to the barbell with your leg touching the bar, and grab the bar with an overhand grip that is shoulder-width apart. Deadlift the barbell to a standing position, as this will be your starting position.
Step 2. From here, push your hip back to bring the barbell down, all the while keeping your legs as neutral as you can by having a minimal bend at the knees.
Step 3. This is the main component that makes this exercise unique; you are not caving your knees in, but instead, you are trying to maintain them in that neutral position as you lower the barbell.
Much like the standing toe touch stretch, you are going as far as you can to stretch the hamstrings, and once you reach your maximum distance, you come back up into the starting position by pushing your hips forward.
By utilizing the stretch of the hamstring, you aren’t going all the way down to the ground, and such the distance traveled is reduced, making the exercise fast and repetitive.
You are, however, performing a stretch, so throughout the exercise, be sure to maintain proper form and ease into the stretch as you reach your maximum.
3. Hang Cleans
The clean is a very complex full-body exercise that involves bringing a barbell up in an explosive action. This exercise has many variations, all of which are great, and we’ll be focusing on the hang clean, which involves holding the bar in a hanging position when starting.
Hang Clean is very complex, be sure to practice beforehand
Step 1. To perform the hang clean, hold the barbell with a double overhand grip that is spread shoulder-width apart.
Your starting position will be a slight bend at the knees with your back slightly forward as you have the barbell hanging around the middle to the upper section of the thighs.
Step 2. From this position, you will generate an explosive force to bring the barbell up by extending the lower body and flexing the arms.
Step 3. As the bar comes up, your goal is to get your arms under the bar to hold it on your chest and shoulders with your hands slightly relaxed.
Simultaneously, once you have bent down far enough to secure the barbell, you will continue bending further to perform a deep squat, from which you will then come up into a standing position while holding the barbell.
Step 4. You are now standing as the barbell is aligned with your chest and shoulders; from here, grab hold of the bar and allow it to roll off to continue to perform additional repetitions.
The motion of the clean itself can be broken down into steps, going from a quarter squat as you hold the bar, to pulling the bar up, then going into a deep squat, and coming up to a standing position.
When you incorporate a hang with the clean, you make for a great workout that will train your vertical jump efficiently.
4. Kettlebell Swings
Kettle-bell swings are a great exercise to increase vertical jump, as they target the essential muscles in a jump by mimicking the same action done while jumping, such as the extension of the legs and hips as well as the movement of the arms.
Kettlebell swings mimic the triple extension motion that occurs when jumping
Step 1. To perform kettlebell swings, stand straight with your feet spread about shoulder-width apart, and your hands extended outwards in front of you as they both lock onto the handle of the kettlebell.
For beginners, start with 12 kg, and slowly make your way up as you progress to 24 kg, which is about as heavy as you need to go.
Step 2. From this position, swing the kettlebell down and through the gap in between your legs until you reach a hip hinge position, which is a soft bend of the hip until your back runs near to parallel with the ground. At the same time, you have a minimum bend occurring at the knees.
Step 3. In the hip hinge position, you swing the kettlebell back through the gap in between the legs and up to your starting position. Kettle-bell swings are very explosive and highly intense, capturing the motion of a vertical jump while offering repetition and resistance.
Throughout this exercise, there is fantastic activation of the glutes and hip, as well as the rest of the body, during the entire movement. While performing the swing, avoid squatting or bending too far down, as this disrupts the proper form of the workout.
5. Lunges
A beneficial lower body exercise, lunges are all-around fantastic for building muscle in the lower body and getting you to jump much higher.
Don’t worry about wobbling while performing lunges, that goes away over time as you build stability
Step 1. To perform lunges, stand straight with a neutral spine and keep your feet spread about shoulder-width apart. With dumbbells, hold them at the sides with a neutral grip and keep your arms straight.
With a barbell, lock it in place behind your neck so that it aligns with the shoulders as you firmly grip it with an overhand grip.
Step 2. From standing position, step forward with one foot, drive into the heel and create a near to 90-degree angle with the thigh and calf of the front leg as you dropdown.
Simultaneously, the opposite foot will hold its position on its toes, and the knee of your back leg will be located somewhat behind your back, about an inch off the ground.
As you step out, be sure to maintain the knee of your front leg behind the toes of the foot to avoid unnecessary pressure on the knee. Your upper body is kept upright the entire time as you support the weights, and you’re head is facing forwards.
Step 3. From here, push off the ground with the foot in front of you to bring yourself back up to your starting position. You may then alternate between legs while performing the same action so that you work both sides evenly.
A common concern with lunges is a sense of wobbliness and lack of balance when performing the exercise.
Something that helps to counteract this problem is widening your stance, although over time, as you develop the lower body, that lack of poise will naturally go away with the strengthening of your legs.
Conclusion
These were all five weight training exercises along with a few variations thrown in, all of which are efficient exercises to increase vertical jump.
These exercises, combined with more plyometric oriented exercises, make for a killer workout that can quickly increase your jump by a few inches.
Regardless of which ones you choose, they are all great workouts to increase your vertical jump, and as such, they all work either separately or in unison to help you achieve your goal, whether that be to learn how to dunk a basketball or even break some vertical jump records.
Hopefully, with these recommendations, you’ll find at least one or two exercises you can incorporate into your routine that’ll get you jumping a few inches higher.
