So you want to jump farther? You've come to the right place.
In this blog post, we’re going to go over how to jump farther with a few different exercises. Jumping requires that you be activated in your posterior chain. That includes your back, gluteals, hamstrings, and calves. If you’ve ever gone hard on jumping, say doing parkour for a couple of hours with your friends, you are sure going to feel it in your abdominals and maybe even your shoulders the next day. You also want to have a great development of fast-twitch muscles. The workouts we chose to do in this jump workout routine will target all the muscles involved in jumping and will in turn help you jump farther. Let’s jump right into it, shall we? (See what we did there?)
Exercise 1: Deadlift - 5 reps x 5 sets
Deadlifts, “The King of All Exercises”. There is not a better exercise out there for a whole package of benefits to your posterior and anterior chain. The deadlift does have a bit of a learning curve to it but it is oh so worth it to learn. It's also important to choose the correct exercise variables - we've chosen 5x5, which is pretty intense. This is to create power in your jump and help your landings. The deadlift is a hip-hinge exercise that activates the entire posterior chain in the sagittal plane. Here's why we chose this exercise to improve your plyometrics:
Muscles Activated (essentially the same as jumping):
Back
Glutes
Legs
Shoulders
Core
Exercise 2: Depth Jumps - 1 rep x 6 sets or 2 reps x 3 sets
The depth jump is a simple exercise you can do almost anywhere. it’s great for increasing your jumping distance and jumping power. It’s a great exercise for developing your fast-twitch muscles to develop reactionary muscle strength to be more explosive. Make sure and start off off a small object if you are not conditioned for jumping. You want to find an object about knee height (give or take) drop off the box and as soon as you hit the ground explode off and jump as far as you can with a soft gentle landing. Since this exercise is primarily activating your type IIB muscle fibers; fast-twitch, you should take adequate rest periods of 3-5 minutes between each set. One rep is a dropping, jumping, and landing. Now, if you were to do this properly it would take you 18-30 minutes, which is a long time! You might be able to fit two reps per set which could lower your work-time to 2 reps x 3 sets. Play around with this one, the time you have, and how your muscles are feeling. Exercise variables are tough for this one.
Exercise 3: Kettlebell Swings - 5 reps x 5 sets
Kettlebell swings are similar to the deadlift in that it’s a highly effective workout with tons of benefits. Especially for those of us who have sit-down jobs. In an anterior-dominated world, the kettlebell swing is a great posterior activation exercise. We recommend talking to a trainer or watching a video to do these correctly. If not done correctly it could be doing the opposite effect for you which is injury.
Benefits and muscles activated:
Back
Glutes
Legs
Shoulders
Core
Exercise 4: Quad Jump - 4 Sets
We put the quad jump on this list because the goal is to jump farther. If you want to jump farther or be better at something then we believe you need to do that something. While the quad jump may require a little more athleticism it can be done by most people. Even if you have to do small jumps at first. What is the quad jump? It’s a series of jumps; Standard jump, land, stride, stride again, land on two feet and jump with as much power as you can and land. This jumps sequence will help develop muscles, reactionary muscle power, and coordination.
Exercise 5: Sprints - 5 Sets
Sprints are much more than just running really fast. They are actually quite a dynamic exercise. You really need to make sure you warm up properly before doing this one, well really you should warm up before all of these. Sprints will train the heck out of your fast-twitch muscles and you’ll get bigger muscles and reduce fat so you’ll be stronger and lighter.
Exercise 6: Knee Jumps - 5 reps x 5 sets
Finally the last exercise in this jump series workout routine. This one is actually pretty hard and may take you a minute to get it. Knee jumps are a great plyometric exercise for an explosive lower body. Similar to the previous exercise, knee jumps will activate your posterior chain. It’ll also help train your knees and feet to get under you which is important in a jump. When you leap from a particular spot your entire body is behind your chest and your goal is to bring all that lower body back in line with your head and chest and actually even in front of you.