If you’re 5’8″ in a world of 6’+ players, your vertical is everything. A massive vert will help you put up intimidating blocks and slam the ball down the other team’s throats. I’m going to provide you 3 easy steps that you can do to start improving your vertical leap TODAY.

3 steps to increasing vert today

Dynamic stretch everything The one static stretch you should do Strength train properly

Dynamic Stretching

Most volleyball and basketball teams follow the same warm up routine: Jog a few laps around the court, then sit in a circle and start STATIC STRETCHING. (Example of static stretching: reaching forward to touch your toes and holding the stretch for about a minute). In the past these were thought to prevent injuries, but recent research shows that they make no difference at all! This is possibly the worst move you could make if you want your players to be EXPLOSIVE. Static stretching relaxes the muscles and elongates them making them weaker.

Dynamic stretching maintains the elasticity of the muscles while priming them to handle stresses of practice or a game. Research has shown that dynamic stretching prevents injury just as well while keeping your muscles strong.

My favorite dynamic stretches are leg swings. I got them from my high school track team and I found they cover the major muscle groups most effectively. I do 10 of each swing on each leg followed by some calisthenics (side shuffles, high knees, butt kicks, etc.).

Static Stretching

Now I’m going to contradict what I just said in the previous section but ONE static stretch can help you jump higher when performed before a game: The hip flexor stretch. You may be asking, “Why would I want my hip flexors to be relaxed?”. When jumping, the glutes, quads, and hamstrings are the main movers. The hip flexors actually OPPOSE the hip extension necessary for maximum power output. Thus, by elongating them, you can temporarily increase your vertical.

When doing this stretch, make sure you don’t irritate your kneecaps by putting too much pressure on them against the ground. Feel free to put a towel or sweater on the ground under your knee to prevent other complications.

Proper Strength Training

A great vert is a phenomenon where great SPEED is married with great STRENGTH resulting in massive power output. Most people hear “strength training” and hit the gym doing 3 x 10 squats every other day with 3 x 12 lunges on leg day. With this traditional lifting approach you may see some visual gains, but you need more force to propel yourself upward. If you keep your body weight low and increase your power, you’ll become a more efficient jumper.

How to Do It

You can get myofibrillar hypertrophy by doing 5-8 sets of no more than 5 reps. Take a 2-3 minute rest between warm up sets, between work sets you’ll want full recovery. Feel free to do unrelated lifts during these long break times to stay warm. Keep your lifts limited to compound movements such as squats, deadlifts, lunges, etc rather than things like hamstring curls or quad kicks. Doing compound movements helps your muscles work in unison to prepare for a complex movement like jumping.

If you count the number of people you know who are strength training properly for vertical (if at all) the numbers would be very slim. This third step is often overlooked but will pay the greatest dividends when it comes to transforming your vertical game.

There are many factors that go into building a massive vertical. The steps above are easy things you can do immediately to start seeing results and build your explosiveness.

Regards,

Mehdi