Strengthen These Muscles to Jump Higher

The topic of which muscles you should strengthen to jump higher has been a controversial one for a long time. If you ask 5 people you might get 5 different answers.

But in my efforts to jump higher in basketball, I have tried everything under the sun. I have worked on every muscle. And as my training has evolved, it has become crystal clear which muscles really make you jump higher.

When I was just getting started and jumping higher was my number one goal, I heard all the hype about building strong calves. I also heard about how if you strapped on some strength training shoes or frontal platform shoes, that you'd be jumping to the moon in no time.

The reason why platform shoes were so popular and continue to be, is because of the idea that they built monstrous calves. And strong calves were supposed to make you jump higher. Well, I'm not here to put down anyone else's theories. In fact, I think strength training shoes are great. But when it comes to jumping higher, I don't think calves are the most important muscles.

I mean, don't get me wrong. I did get some decent gains in my vertical when I built my calves. But if you looked at the rest of the muscles in my legs, you'd probably say they looked puny in comparison. Well, it wasn't until I started really hitting my quadriceps hard, that I really started jumping to the moon.

I can remember a light bulb going off when I realized that quadriceps were really the most important muscles for jumping. With that new found knowledge, I really started blasting them and I got even better results.

So I want to share with you what you should work on if you want to jump higher. First, I recommend that you really get started on building strong, powerful and explosive quadriceps. That's the muscle group located on the front part of your thighs.

Some secondary muscles to work on are hips, glutes, hamstrings and calves. It is important to have balance in your thighs if you want to be an explosive, high jumper. So you will also need to focus on your hamstrings.

But ultimately, your quadriceps, in my opinion do a bulk of the work when it comes to jumping. Especially, when it comes to your vertical.

Here are some good workouts to hit to build these muscles: leg press, squats, hack squat, lunges, step ups and many more.

The key is you'll want to build explosiveness as well. No sense in building big bulky muscles that don't help make you more explosive.

To compliment your quadricep training, here are some exercises to build those other muscles. For hamstrings, I recommend leg curls and romanian dead lifts. For hips, I also recommend squats, lunges and step up. For glutes I recommend dead lifts, squats and the butt blaster machine. And for calves, I recommend toe raises. Also, sprinting is a great way to build these muscles as well.

I've figured out more on muscles to jump higher and many other secrets to help you increase your vertical by 10 inches. Visit my website for the free mini-course at http://VerticalJumpAnswers.com now.