Vertical Jump Plyometrics

Plyometrics training exercises really seems like they’re one of those things that so many athletes talk about however nobody really knows specifically what it is. So today, we’re going to get into plyometrics training exercises for your vertical jump and get you a real comprehension of what it is and how it can aid you and your explosiveness and your vertical jump.

To Begin, let’s start with what’s really going on when you jump.

When you jump, what’s really happening is you are fully extending your calf and thigh and in order to get the greatest results, you need to get your skeletal system as vertical as possible.

Your bones are functioning like levers for your entire body and your muscles are similar to rubber bands because the store elasticity. The muscles are basically what makes those levers function and this whole process takes place all throughout your body.

And what plyometrics training exercises do is train the elasticity of your muscles to become more explosive so you can end up jumping higher and faster.

So here’s how everything ends up working

First there is a loading phase which is when you use your body weight and gravity to squat down for the jump. This causes something called eccentric contraction (which is really just a fancy was of saying you’re lengthening your muscles).

Second you have an amortization phase which is the phase right in the middle of your jump. This is the point where you are literally at a complete stop right before you explode up. You want this phase to be as concise as you possibly can to assist your body explode upward.

The last and final phase of your jump is the explosion phase which is the point where you actually explode and jump upward.

In more simple terms, what’s happening is that your body is squatting down in the loading phase, gathering up as much energy as possible to use to explode up during the explosion phase and that small time in between where you aren’t moving at all is called the amortization phase.

Which is why it is so important to spend as little time in the amortization phase as possible. The longer that you make the amortization phase, the more elasticity of your muscles you lose and you won’t be as explosive or be able to jump as high as a result.

But here are some common errors to look out for:

1) Pacing yourself or doing too many reps|

There’s a huge misconception that the more that you workout, the better results you’re gonna get and I just want to debunk that myth right now. Instead, you want to make sure that you are doing proper training so you are training effectively and not over training your muscles.

The real key to this is is to train for explosiveness with full intensity every single rep.

2) Having an extra loading phase or bounce step

Shockingly, there are some people that tell you to do this but it isn’t an effective way of training for your vertical jump but it simply doesn’t work. What it actually ends up doing is screwing up the flow of the load and explode phase which is terrible for your vertical jump.

You MUST explode with full intensity and by adding that extra loading step, you won’t be able to achieve that.

Here’s what a proper plyometric training exercise workout entails:

Proper loading phase

Don’t use any weights when you first start doing plyometric training. Just use your own body weight

A Brief Amortization Phase

Again try and keep these phase as short as possible so you can be more explosive

Explosion Phase

If you do the other steps correctly, this is the phase that you will have a ton of energy and be able to explode upward. This is the most intense of the phases

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