How to jump higher: The science of increasing your vertical leap
Why can't i jump high?
Ever wondered why you can't jump as well as your teammates? or why some people are just naturally bouncy? The answer is probably somewhere in this article...
The four factors that increase vertical leap
When it comes to jumping higher (or any physical performance for that matter) there are four key factors at play, all in varying degrees of importance.
- Energetics: How the energy system and the creation of ATP. Energetics are the major site for fatigue across most time spans.
- Biomechanics: These are the relationship between joint angles and limb lengths. This is particularly dictated by movement skill and coordination
- Physics: The influence of forces on the body, things like gravity, inertia, momentum and mass.
- Physiology: The muscles, tendons, and nervous system that are responsible for creating movement and force.
Some of these factors are directly in our control, with immediate steps you can take today to change them and increase your vertical leap, while others are less modifiable. Let's break these down one by one to see where you can give your leap a boost.
Update: We wrote a jump program
Due to popular demand, we have written an online jump training program.
Unlike most jump programs that sell on the basis of sexy training, complex plyometrics and terminology. Our program focuses not on selling and being flashy but instead gives you what you actually need. The Boring Jump Program is a fundamentals focused training plan that can be completed anywhere in just minutes per day. The program may be boring, but the results speak for themselves.
You can buy the entire 8-week jump program for $30USD via the link at the bottom of this article →
All the information in our jump blog series is still available for free, the online program puts together all the crucial exercises and progressions in an easy to follow online program delivered via the TrainHeroic app on your smartphone. Follow the same jump program our athletes undertake when they start training at the Core Advantage gym.
Energy systems
When it comes to vertical, we're looking at a tiny amount time, even with a run up it's not going to be much more than 3-5 seconds worth of work. During such a short amount of effort (even as intense as a max effort jump), Your muscles aren't going to be going much beyond your ATP stores and maybe dipping into your Phosphocreatine reserves.
As far as a limitation to your jump height? there's not much going on here. For a single jump your energetics are not much different to Lebron James or any Olympic high jumper. With repeat jumps, though, that’s a whole other story.
Biomechanics of jumping high
Biomechanics refers to how we move and produce force. A more common term for this is movement skill or technique, jumping is a complex skill with many moving parts, but really it can be broken down into two key parts.
joint sequencing in the vertical jump
The timing and coordination of your feet, ankles, knees hips and upper body as you generate force and momentum into the jump.
That’s your ability to coil the legs tight like a spring and then uncoil it in the proper order. When you start the up phase of the jump your joints should open in order from top to bottom; Arms > Hips > Knees > Ankles. This maximises the amount of time you can push into the ground and increases speed at take off by unloading the legs faster (more on these in the physics section)
Now, both arm swing and joint sequencing (sometimes called segmental sequencing) are about enhancing the efficiency of the stretch shortening cycle.
A bad jumper looks like this.
The eccentric portion is slow and during the amortisation, there is a lag which leads to lost energy.
Now, if you are a more explosive, reactive, stronger athlete, a better jumper, they look more like this:
This athlete going to be able to load that eccentric portion more aggressively and faster (their legs are more spring-like), and then turn around the amortization phase quicker, meaning none of that eccentric loading you get out of the bottom, the amortisation phase faster and it will create more concentric power taking more of that eccentric load with you skyward.
Swing your arms to increase your vertical jump
Kind of a subcategory of sequencing, but arm swing there is kind of two really key factors that influence jump height. Arm swing is a massive deal for jumping, making up as much as 25-30% of your total jump height, so its crucial to practice and perfect this part of the jump. Your arms work in two ways on the jump; loading the legs like springs as you drop into the approach step and then on the way up they accelerate your torso vertically helping the legs to push hard into the ground.
These are both key areas that you will practice in our 8 week online jump program.
Physics of jumping higher
Physics is all about the ability to accelerate the body vertically, displacing the centre of mass. To do that, you really have to beat gravity, kind of.
Gravity has a speed of 9.8 meters per second per second (9.8m.s2). It isa squared relationship which means it is a rate of change with each second, this is an acceleration). To become airborne you can leave the ground at even low speeds which is why everyone can jump at least a little bit. You don’t have to beat gravity completely. But the greater your speed at take-off the longer it takes gravity to turn you back around and the higher you will jump.
If you leave the ground at 9.8m/s/s, you're going to be moving vertically for one second before you reach 0m/s speed (due to gravity bringing you back down). So, the faster you leave the ground, the longer you'll beat gravity for and because it’s a squared relationship every millimetre of take-off speed counts.
If you double your take-off speed, you'll jump up four times longer, doubling the height of your jump.
What makes you jump higher (your physiology)
To achieve a higher velocity at take-off, we need to look at the physiology, the structures and make of your our bodies. The tendons, muscles, bones, nerves, and more that will maximise our ability to produce force, make great body angles and do it explosively.
Speed increases take off velocity for jumping
Speed begins quite literally with how fast you can create contraction within the muscle fibres, faster contraction then creates greater rotation of the limb or body segment around the joint (known as torque), put this velocity in the right sequence and in the right direction and the entire body will, therefore, move faster. This is a huge reason we believe in following a structured jump practice plan as part of a well organised overall training progam.
Strength improves the force you produce when jumping
Because jumping requires moving your body mass and bodies are reasonably heavy it's no good being able to move our limbs fast if they can't also create the required force to shift the centre of mass and break gravity's hold on us.
Speed x Strength = Power. Power is the key to success in almost every sport
A number of factors contribute to strength and the good news is the majority of them are directly in our control.
- Muscle fibre type ratios. We all have a genetic baseline (which is a big factor in most athletic endeavours) but you can shift your fibres more readily than most people think. The old train fast to be fast is pretty accurate, we do this via our hybrid fibres which are highly adaptable and can be manipulated to serve our chosen event or sport through our training mode.
- Down-regulation of Golgi Tendon Organs. These guys are the rate limiters in our tendons that control the amount of force you can or can't produce as a way of protecting you from hurting yourself. One of the cool ways strength training works is by telling these little organs that it's OK to create force and that they can chill out.
- Increased neural drive. That is a software upgrade for your body. If you can make your brain and your nervous system better at talking to and controlling your muscles we become more explosive and you're going to jump higher. One of the best ways to do this is through the principle of intent to move.
- Add cross-sectional area (CSA) to your muscles. A bigger muscle can ultimately create more force, but bigger muscles also have the drawback of dragging you back down to the ground. There is a body weight sweet spot; enough muscle to create enough force, but not so much that it slows your take off or becomes a liability once you get airborne.
Lighter, leaner people tend to jump higher because they can create more velocity and more force relative to their body weight, So, you can be as strong as a truck, but if you're also as slow as a truck, that's going to make it hard to leave the ground.
Flexibility & Mobility for jumping higher
You can create all the force you want, all the speed you want, but if your joints do not have the range to be loaded like springs eccentrically then uncoil and explode into triple extension, all that force will be for nothing because you can’t successfully transfer it through the bodies segments and into the ground. The more range you can take your muscles and your joints through, the more they work like springs because they can be loaded tighter and give you more recoil on the concentric phase. Targeted static stretching to increase your jump height is your best weapons for this.
Plyometics for increasing elasticity and jump height
While supple pliable muscles are beneficial for storing energy, tendons should be the exact opposite.
For every bit of flexibility and mobility your muscles and joints need to have, tendons should have the opposite quality of what is called stiffness (stiffness is a horrible word, reactivity kind of fits as well). When your muscles contract and pull on the tendons, your tendons should resist moving as much as possible relative to its original shape.
That tendon stiffness directly links back into your stretch shortening cycle. Improving this tendon reactivity and stiffness is improved through strength training, plyometrics and jumping technique practice
How to increase your jump height instantly
We love helping athletes jump higher, and we are really good at it. Athletes who join our gym in Melbourne, Australia usually add 6-10cm (2-4 inches) to their jump in the first 8-weeks of training.
If you can't get to Melbourne to train with us, the next best option is to check out our online jump program; The Boring Jump Program. It's a progressive 8-week home training plan aimed at increasing your vertical leap by focusing on building the fundamental physical qualities that make great jumpers.
You can buy the program here →
We also have written plenty more content on our blog to help give your vertical jump a boost, This one is a great article to read next How to increase vertical jump with stretching →
