3 Exercises That Will Increase Your Vertical Jump

Posted on by costafitness

Today I would like to dive into a big topic.. Your vertical jump.

The number of athletes that have started to follow me has increased so with that, I would like to give you in my opinion one of the best pieces of content yet for athletes. With no further ado, lets jump into this article!

What is a vertical jump and how can it make me a better athlete?

Okay so there is a few different jumps I like to cover when training certain athletes. We have your vertical jump which is the main jump that is used in most sports. Vertical jumping is straight up and down. There is horizontal jump training, I like to use this to build more lateral explosion. Then we also have broad jumps, which is used as a testing point in football combines. This will usually give you an idea of how strong and explosive your legs are. In a broad jump, you stand in a spot then proceed with a jump out in front of you linearly for distance. We will utilize some of these to help increase your athletic ability and vertical today.

Now if you want to know how training these can make you a better athlete then listen up on this part. When you train to increase speed and increase vertical jumping skills, you work a lot of the same muscle fibers. This means not only can you get faster from a speed workout but sometimes you can actually increase your vertical as well. Vise versa, so if you are using this article to increase your vertical then you will most likely increase the speed as well. Now if you don’t know how that can help you as an athlete then think about this. An athlete that is fast and can jump high will have a better chance to make more plays happen. So I 100% believe no matter what sport you play, this article can help you out!

Exercises we will be performing:

Pop up to a jump- This is an exercise I did when training for football. I remember watching this and thinking this would be a hard exercise but it was actually quick easier than I thought. I made a video that is added in towards the bottom to help you see how to do these 3 exercises. When training, I would try these 4×4.

 

Pop up to a broad jump- This is another variation of the first exercise but with a broad jump instead. I like this because you are training to make a move in a direction after the jump. It really works on activating the quads, hamstrings, glutes and calves. It should be quick and explosive. This drill will help football players training for broad jumps in combines as well. When training, I would try these 4×4.

 

Linear toe jumps over cones- This is a unique exercise that a lot of people don’t think about doing. The reasoning behind this exercise is that the calfs play an incredibly large part of jumping and even sprinting. If you read one of my previous articles called 3 Stretches That Will Increase Speed then you will know that ankle dorsiflexion is an important part to work on. The calves can act as a loaded spring and thats exactly what this exercise is going to look like. When performing this exercise, you will be loading the calves. The dorsiflexion stretch from the article linked right above would be good to perform before this exercise to get the calves ready. When jumping over the cones like I explain in the video below, you will have minimal knee bend. I had quiet a bit of knee bend but I believe that is because I was not warmed up and the calves were tight when I shot the video. DO NOT keep the knees locked out the whole time. Try to get only a slight bend as you are trying to absorb the ground reaction force into the calf muscles and have those calves trained to use the absorbed energy to process a good output that will increase the height of what you jump. When training, I would use 3-4 cones and do 8 times through total.

 

3 exercises that you will be performing – video 

 

 

Jump Kit-Training Package

These 3 exercises made a crazy impact on not only my vertical but other clients vertical jumping ability as well. I expect all of you that try it to see improvements within as little as 2 weeks! If you are interested in taking your vertical jump to a whole different level then send me an email at costafitness1@gmail.com and ask me how you can get a jump kit training manual! In this training program, you will get the stretches necessary to get all of the right muscles ready to fire. You will get strength training exercises that will increase strength and power. You will also get all of the jump training drills I coach to all different athletes including a couple of D1 college basketball players. Hit the following link to email me about increasing your vertical TODAY! —- EMAIL ALEX

 

Thank you for checking out todays new article. I really hope you all liked it and found some new drills to try. If you like this content then please share it with some friends and family that you think would also find it helpful! Hope everyone is having a good week!

-Alex Costa-

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Jordan’s Training Review

Posted on by costafitness

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Jordan Dartis #35 Ohio University

Jordan is a starting shooting guard at Ohio University. He has had an amazing basketball career and is continuing into his Junior year in this upcoming season. He has held scoring records at Newark High School during his high school basketball career. He has also “broke Ohio’s single season 3-point shooting percentage record last year by shooting 48 percent from beyond the arc as a freshman. Named to the All-MAC Freshman team” as said on thepostathens.com. He is killing it right now and I had a chance to work with him through my online training programming.

Here is what Jordan said when I asked about how the programming has been going:

“They are doing very well for my hips! I saw a difference in when I’m playing. I can move a lot better and some of the extra core work has me feeling my best yet bro! I appreciate it!”

The things that he needed to work on was his hip flexibility and core strength. Flexibility and core strength are two of the most important aspects of the game for an athlete. When programming for Jordan, I made sure to incorporate a few main core movements to increase his core strength, like variations of planks, wood choppers to help the obliques increase activation for movement on the court and another main movement that is big for him. Since he wanted to work on core and hip flexibility, I added hanging toe raises/toes to bar. This exercise will not only force him to call upon more muscle fibers, but work his hip flexors as well. The iliopsoas, or inner hip muscles, which is made up of the Psoas major and Iliacus muscle, are the hip flexor muscles that are commonly called upon for athletes. These muscles need to be strengthened and flexible for any athlete. The toes to bar movement causes activation through these muscles due to the legs coming up into a flexed position at the hips. As the knees, or any part of the leg, wants to come up, the core and iliopsoas must work together through this movement to complete the exercise. This is like killing two birds with one stone in my opinion.

hip flexor

When I had designed a personalized program for Jordan, I made a video to go over the stretches and exercises he would perform. The videos have been a big client favorite because it can clear up any confusion on what exercise is which. He had exercises that most have not heard of so I believe this was helpful for that reason as well.

Here is what Jordan had written for his testimonial review:

“The workouts that I was put through to help strengthen my core and be more flexible in my hips have been amazing for me. I can tell a big difference in the way I move and how I play. The video put together was a good video and showed good examples of how the workout should be done. Very simple explanation, very solid work!”

                -Jordan Dartis-

If you are one that is interested in training then shoot me an email at Costafitness1@gmail.com and we can talk about what I can do to get you where you want to be! I have spots open for July! I have an online training service for gym goers that want to lose weight, increase muscle tone, gain mass and size or want to get stronger. I am also offering some training spots for ANY athletes trying to increase their performance and take it to the next level! I offer a few limited spots for in-person training that you can also ask me about in email. I will be releasing more reviews and testimonials through the next few weeks to show you all the awesome clients I have been working with! 

Have a great day!
-Alex Costa-

Kym Royster’s Testimonial

Posted on by costafitness

 

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I have moved to online fitness coaching. I am taking clients that need help in the gym whether it’s losing weight, gaining muscle or getting ready for a show. I’ve helped them all. For anybody that does not know, I received my certification as a speed, agility and quickness specialist recently so I have been taking on more athletes online as well!

I had a chance to work with Kym Royster, a starting power forward at Indiana University. I have known her since high school. She’s a very talented student athlete that has a love for the game.

Kym needed help with lateral speed and working on her vertical, so I put together an online program to help out. She was able to write a review on how everything went. Here is what she had to say:

“Hello my name is Kym Royster and would like to share my review on Alex’s workout program he created for me. The workout he created for me was to help me quicken my lateral movement and to also help me better my vertical jump. Since I have added in the parts of Alex’s workout that I was not already doing, I, along with my strength coaches have noticed some changes. They have made comments on how much better and quicker I have been moving lateral and I have also PR’d on my vertical jump and am jumping almost two inches higher. Since this workout was specifically formulated for an athlete trying to tweak a few things to better their performance, I would highly recommend it.”

                                                                                   -Kym Royster-

This is what one of the lateral speed training days look like that I had programmed for Kym. Try this out if you need to develop more speed laterally. She had a special made video sent to her by me that would walk her through any exercises she did not know how to perform. I believe that is one of the unique things I offer when you do my online training. I make sure you are 100% ready to get to the next level.

Thursday (Speed Training Day) Focus on lateral speed

(warm up) 

  • Band side shuffle warmup 2 sets of 10 steps each way

  • Side shuffle (5 yards) to sprint (10-15 yards) 4 sets each way

  • One leg lateral jump to a sprint  (10 yd sprint) 3 sets each way

  • In/Outs in ladder or line 3 sets of 30 seconds

  • Hip flexor holds with band 3 sets of 10-15 seconds each leg

 

If you are looking for help in a sport or in the gym, and are interested in training then shoot me an email at costafitness1@gmail.com and we can discuss what I can do to help you be a stand out athlete and meet any of your goals through my online training service!

I hope everyone is doing well, have a great day!
-Alex Costa-