Increasing your vertical jump: what actually works

What actually adds centimetres to a vertical jump: build leg strength first (squats, lunges, calves), then convert it into explosiveness through progressive plyometrics, and measure your jump at the start and the end of the block. Count on eight weeks for measurable gains; jumping more often, on its own, improves almost nobody.

A vertical jump is an explosive extension of the hips, knees and ankles. Its height depends on two factors: the maximal force your legs can produce, and the speed at which they produce it. Jumping in practice trains the second factor, never the first: a player stuck at a plateau is almost always short on strength, not on jumping practice.

The consequence is counter-intuitive: the weeks that improve your vertical the most happen partly under a squat bar, not under the rim.

The useful benchmark is not absolute load but relative strength: what you lift compared to your bodyweight. That ratio determines the acceleration your legs can impart to your mass at take-off. The strength and conditioning literature, notably the NSCA manuals, offers a classic landmark: being able to squat roughly one and a half times your bodyweight before tackling the most intense forms of plyometrics, such as depth jumps. It is not an entrance exam, it is a compass: below that, strength is your priority lever, and every kilo added to the bar is worth more than dozens of extra jumps.

To find out where you stand without attempting a risky max, estimate your strength with our 1RM calculator from a set of 5 to 8 reps. If the verdict points to strength, a barbell-focused cycle like those in the strength programs is the most profitable detour towards a higher vertical.

Plyometrics (countermovement jumps, bounds, depth jumps) convert strength into explosiveness by training the stretch-shortening cycle, the ability of muscles and tendons to return the energy stored at impact. Its effectiveness is solidly documented: the meta-analysis by Markovic (2007), which pooled the controlled trials on the topic, concludes that plyometric training significantly improves jump height, with average gains in the range of 5 to 9% depending on the jump type tested.

But plyometrics convert what exists: applied to weak legs, they produce little and fatigue a lot, with tendons that absorb landings poorly. The sequence that works: build strength, then layer plyometrics progressively, landings learned before heights.

Plyometrics are safe on one condition: respect the stages and count the volume. Progression follows contact intensity, never enthusiasm:

• Stage 1: learn to land. Absorbed landings from a low height, jumps in place, knees tracking, silent landings.
• Stage 2: rebound. Countermovement jumps, horizontal bounds, low hurdles. You are chasing rebound speed, not maximal height.
• Stage 3: depth jumps. From a low box, reserved for those with the strength base and the previous stages behind them.

Three guardrails complete these stages. The surface: hardwood, track or firm grass, never concrete. The volume: the classic NSCA landmarks put the beginner dose around 80 to 100 ground contacts per session, far fewer for depth jumps. Freshness: plyometrics go at the start of the session, on rested legs, stop as soon as rebound quality drops, and repeat no sooner than 48 hours later.

The reference test needs only a wall and chalk: mark the highest point touched with your arm extended, feet flat on the floor, then the point touched at the top of a standing jump; the difference in centimetres is your vertical. For a reliable measurement, warm up for about ten minutes, give yourself three attempts and keep the best, and always retest under the same conditions: same time of day, same shoes, same protocol.

Test at the start, midway and at the end of a block: the measurement tells you whether the work is paying, and turns eight weeks of effort into a number nobody can argue with. Expect gains of several centimetres over a first structured block; tales of "+30 cm in a month" belong to marketing, not physiology.

The vertical is not trained the same way all year round. In the thick of the season, games and practices already provide a considerable volume of jumps: the priority becomes maintaining strength with two short sessions a week, without stacking hundreds of extra contacts that would be paid for in freshness at the weekend. Ambitious development blocks belong in the summer preparation or during a break in the calendar.

That is the logic of our basketball Mid-Season Prep: four weeks, three sessions a week, designed to relaunch strength and explosiveness in the trough of the season without sabotaging the games. All the plans, prep and in-season, are gathered in the basketball programs, and other court and field sports will find their equivalent in the athletic preparation programs.

Vertical Jump structures exactly the sequence described in this guide: 8 weeks in two phases, 3 sessions a week, strength first, plyometrics layered on top in stages, with jump tests at the start and the end to measure the centimetres gained. The equipment stays simple: a stable box, a barbell or dumbbells, a wall.

It is a coach-built PDF program, designed for basketball and volleyball and compatible with an ongoing season: you download it, it stays yours, session by session up to the final test.