Jump Height – 3 tips to jumping higher!

Goalkeepers claiming crosses, centre halves winning first contacts and strikers bagging with their head, there are plenty of examples of jumping higher being advantageous to footballers. Whilst jumping itself is not a particularly complex task, the science of improving your jump height through appropriate physical preparation can be a little more complex.

Getting stronger is one of the simplest way to put inches on your vertical jump, increasing the amount of force you can transmit through your body into the floor is a sure-fire way to increase output. If we think car analogy – the more horsepower under the bonnet means more speed, the same applies to the human body. Make sure to implement compound exercises that involve all your lower body muscles involved with jumping into your strength training routine for optimal results. To integrate the most well researched sports supplement to improve your strength take a look at Creapure© creatine HERE.

When you analyse the jump, you will almost always find that you have around half a second to produce this ‘force’ we have already spoken about. Given that the time frame involved with jumping is so short, that slight bend of your knees before the countermovement upwards is critical to the height you are going to be able to achieve. Utilise plyometric and ballistic movements to prime your nervous system to produce the amassed force you have created through strength training, quickly. Squat jumps, Olympic lifts and Box Jumps are three examples of these.

Like (almost) anything athletic performance related, being leaner will help with your vertical jumping height. The less mass and greater power to weight ratio you possess the easier it is for your body to express this during a match! If we revert to the car analogies, there is a reason every race car you have ever seen is minimalistic. The important thing here is not to angle your training toward ‘getting lean’, your training should be focussed upon athletic performance, its your nutritional habits that will need the time investment to formulate strategies to lose that excess body fat! Caffeine is potent in the search for dropping unwanted pounds due to the upturn in metabolic activity, check out our Focus90©  gels for a potent caffeine fix prior to exercise.