What You Need to Know Before You Try Exercises to Increase Your Vertical Jump

[Melissa Gallagher]

If you want to dunk like Nate Robinson but don't have a high enough
vertical leap yet, you're going to want to find some good vertical
jump exercises, a.k.a plyometrics exercises to help you jump higher.
But before you go about trying to do any of these vert routines,
there's a few precautions you should take to make sure you don't hurt
yourself. If you're just trying out different jumping drills by
yourself, there's a good chance you could hurt yourself, and I'm
saying this from personal experience.
So how can you make sure you don't pull or tear any leg muscles?
There's really one main thing you need to do before every plyometric
workout you do, and it will not only help prevent any injuries, it
will also let you jump higher easier.
And that would be...Stretching!
It might not seem like just stretching will help you touch the rim,
but it actually is one of the most important parts of any good workout
routine. And any solid vertical jump program out there should come
with a good warm up/stretching routine.
What stretches should you do?
If you're only going to be focusing on plyometric exercises, you're
going to want to want to concentrate on stretching your hamstrings,
calfs, keeping your ankles limber, and your quads. If you add any
upper body movements to your exercises, you should definitely stretch
any other muscles you use as well, like triceps, chest, etc.
Of course there are many more things that you're going to need to
learn if you want to add 6 inches or more to your vertical, but
stretching is the basis for everything so make sure to not neglect
it!