How to Increase Your Jumping Height

Building your vertical leap is a slow but rewarding process. Whether you are looking to dunk a basketball or to incorporate higher jumping into your overall fitness, stretching and jumping exercises will help you achieve your goal. Increasing your vertical jump requires repetition and dedication, but the goal is measurable and attainable.

Things You'll Need

• ankle weights
• mini-hurdles

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Instructions

• 1

  Start with a stretching routine. Before beginning any major muscle building exercise it is important to loosen your thigh and calf muscles. There are a variety of stretches that loosen and build the thigh and calf muscles that are necessary to increase your jumping ability. Standing calf and downward dog are excellent beginner stretches.

  For the standing calf, stand an arm's length away from a wall with one leg bent forward and the back leg straight. Put your hands against the wall and push against it, using the muscles in your back leg. After this stretch, switch legs.

  For the downward dog. start on your hands and knee, then raise your knees and buttocks as high as you can in the air, while keeping your arms and legs straight, forming an inverted "V." Hold the stretch position for at least 10 seconds, release, then switch to the next stretch. Repeat several times before moving on to any strenuous muscle building activity.

• 2

  Beginner jumping exercises are the first steps to building muscle in your legs. Repeated sets of hurdle hops, single leg hops and tuck jumps will build the vertical leap muscles over an extended period. Hurdle hops involve placing the legs and knees together while springing over a small set of hurdles with the balls of your feet. Single leg hops involve standing on one leg, then hopping as high and as far forward as you can, landing on the same leg, then repeating. Tuck hops are standing jumps that quickly bring your knees to your chest, before landing again on the balls of your feet and repeating.

• 3

  Acquire some ankle weights. After you've started and feel comfortable with a jumping exercise routine, ankle weights can be an excellent way to build muscle even further. Many ankle weights are adjustable and let you start slowly and build your way up to heavier weights. By performing the same jumping routines with ankle weights, your vertical leap will increase with dedication and practice.