All I do for Cardio - A few words on Jumps

This is all I do for cardio (keep it a secret though): I do 1,000's of jumps jumping rope per day. I typically jump through seven of my favorite audio songs at a time, off and on all day, no matter where I am at.

There are many types of professional sports which require a lot of jumping and for that reason, it is important to frame a routine so that you are able to improve your technique on vertical jumps. Among all other classic sports events, basketball is the most important one as it deals a lot with jumping. A basketball player must be skilled in giving high vertical jumps for beating the opponent.

Other sports that require jumping are volleyball, high jump, badminton, tennis, football and even martial arts. Even if you are just a beginner in any one of these sports, it is required for you to practise and enhance your skills in jumping.

If you are in a notion that exercises will help you in reaching your goal of jumping higher, you are a long way away from your aim. There are some particular exercises which will particularly help you in getting rapid results.

Here we are going to discuss some basic exercises by which you can prove yourself to be a great jumper even if you don’t go to gym or consult an expert.

• Jumping Rope is somewhat similar to your fun playing with your siblings but once you make it a routine, it will not only help you in giving high vertical jumps, but will also help you in building strong quads and tone your other muscles in the body. It is also regarded as an excellent cardiovascular exercise. Once you become familiar with this jump rope, do it on a regular basis for avoiding boredom. The load is on your ankle therefore, this adds power to your thigh muscles.


• It is very easy for to utilize the stairs and thus, it is a very exercise for your leg muscles. Each and every moment, we can see a large number of people going through lifts or escalators. They don’t even understand that if they walk up and down the steps, it will burn the additional fat without going to a gym. But for improving your style of vertical jump, it is a very price effective procedure. Running up and down the stairs will develop your quads, cardiac muscles and leg muscles. You may not have a set of stairs in your house but you can always find them anywhere else at work or friends’ houses.


• Sprinting is a very fantastic physical exercise which helps in conditioning your muscles in the legs and gives you enough strength for achieving higher heights. Alike the previous exercises, it does not require any equipment and you can practice anywhere.


• Last, but not the least comes the stretching. Before you start doing any other exercises of your schedule, it is very important for you to stretch. This not only helps in preventing any future injuries but it also tones your muscles and rises your mobility, thereby improving your vertical leaps.

Numerous athletic coaches and sports personalities incorporate all these simple and cost effective techniques in their work out routine. If you become a beat creative, you do not require spending thousands of dollars behind your goal, you can achieve that in your home itself.

Techniques of Vertical Jump

Measurement of ability and rate of vertical jump is not at all a simple procedure. There are various techniques of jumps, measuring procedures and equipment. All of these can affect reliability, results and interpretation of the test.

Squat Jump or Static Jump

It is the easiest and simplest form of a vertical jump. The practitioner initializes the process by starting from a stationary and semi-squatting position, or stops at the lower level of the squat only before one jumps upwards. The advantage of this type is that it provides a remedy to stretch-shortening problem. The results of the jump will be smaller than the rest of the techniques. The difference maintained in jump height is generally 3-6 cm ignoring the counter-movement.

Counter-movement Technique

Generally, the vertical jumping test is accomplished along with a counter movement, where the knees are made to bend before the jump only. The stretch shortening cycle in the muscle fibers gets activated by the counter-movement technique. This results in enormous power production in the legs. Without using the arms, it is very difficult to perform the traditional technique of going upwards and touching the wall. The eTID VJ protocol is test on counter-movement which is performed without swinging the arm. It is done by keeping one hand on the hip, whereas the other one is raised above the head so that it reaches high up the wall. The Bosco Counter-movement Jumping Test is carried out on a mat, which is sensitive to touch, so that the arms are kept intact on the hips all along the jump.

The Using of Arms

During a jumping test, it is not advisable to use the arms, as variations creep into due to coordination and techniques. But, most of the jumping test techniques make the use of arms for aiding the body to propel upwards. One can achieve greater jump height by practicing this. In fact, there are some measuring techniques which are quite tuff to carry out without using hands at all, as it is required that the arm is stretched upwards in order to mark the wall or the vanes of the vertices can be hit. The Abalakov Jump Test is a classic example of vertical jump, where both arm movement and counter-movement is used on a jumping mat.

Other Variations in Jumps

Vertical jumping tests in standing position can also be practiced by putting off one leg in order to isolate one side of the body. Few jumping test protocols are found allowing a run up. A version consists of a single step into the jump, or even a run up and taking away one or two feet, which depends on the type and quality of the sports involved. Still, another variation is implemented in basketball course during testing. That is the Max Touch. It is characterized by taking off of one or two legs. All that is required here is jumping as high as much as you can. A series of vertical jumping tests has been put forward by Bosco, which includes extra load on the shoulders, after a box is dropped and vertical jumps are multiple repeated.

Measurement Techniques

Besides the various kinds of jumping test techniques, there are several ways to measure the rates and timings of vertical jumps too. Some of them are given below:

• You can use a timing mat- The flight time is measured by this.


• You can use a Vertec, or any apparatus similar to that. The maximum height reached is measured by this.


• You can lay support against a wall too- this is the simplest and easiest technique and the traditional one.

Advanced jumping techniques to let you jump higher

Athletes require techniques that allow them to jump higher – we shall look at some of those techniques here. A routine practice of these methods will help you to improve your basketball or other sports skills that require you to jump high and jump often. Besides being able to dunk the basketball easily, you will become a much better defender as well as a very good rebounder. All the NBA professionals that you see in the game have had to work very hard on their jumping skills. They have undergone very elaborate training sessions with expert trainers to have been able to achieve that kind of precision.

Here some of the techniques have been discussed that will allow you to become an excellent jumper.

• It is very important that you toughen those muscles of yours which are involved while jumping high. Experience has shown me that the best method to achieve this is squats, although many people ignore it since feel it is an upper leg exercise. I would like to differ with them. If you consider the squat carefully, you will find that it looks almost like a jump in slow motion. Squats have shown that they are a good option for increasing strength. You definitely need to put some power behind your muscles when you try to push your body off the ground, otherwise you won’t be able to reach anywhere.


• The second part of this equation includes the techniques which allow you to remain springy and flexible. Exercises that make you push your body on the ground with power are definitely important, but those that make you spring off the ground help a great deal too. My suggestion would be that you walk around on level ground for half an hour on tip-toes. Although this seems really easy, but trust me, no more than 5 minutes of doing it will start burning your toes.

Various Ski-Jumping Forms from all over the World

Ski jumping forms and corresponding exercises are extremely useful when it comes to strengthening your muscles and preparing your body for a challenging ski session. Here we take a look at some of the ski jumping techniques practised all over the world:

• The Daescher technique: This is a ski-jumping technique that is very popular all around the world. Created by a Swiss professional Andreas Daescher, this technique is actually a 1950 modification of the Kongsberger technique. In this technique, the arms are put backwards towards the hip-area to get a much closer lean. This one was considered to be the standard ski-jumping exercise until the modern V-technique was developed by a Swedish national in 1985.


• The Kongsberger technique: This technique, as the name suggests, had been developed by two Norwegians by the name of Sigmund Ruud and Jacob Tullin Thams, in Kongsberg, Norway. Conceived after the First World War, this exercise consisted of the upper part of the body being bent at the hip-joint, and the arms being extended towards the front, holding one ski parallel to the other one. This particular jumping technique could extend ski-jump lengths from around 45 metres to more than 100 metres, and used to be very popular till the Daescher and Windisch techniques gained momentum during the 1950s.


• V-style: The modern ski jumping style, known as the V-style, was conceived by a Swedish national by the name of Jan Boklöv in the year 1985. As mentioned earlier, this technique is originally an alteration of the old Daescher technique, and took over it as a more successful one. This technique consists of the skis being held in a V-shape alongside the upper body during the jump. This is the only modification from the Daescher technique where the skis used to be held parallel to each other. The V-style has shown improvements of around ten percent in terms of ski-jumping distance.


• The Windisch technique: This technique was the brainchild of a German professional by the name of Erin Windisch, and was formulated in the year 1949. This was a modification of the old Kongsberger technique. In this one, the jumper places his arms backwards toward his hips to achieve a closer lean. This technique is highly improved in terms of aerodynamics, and had been looked upon as the standard ski jumping technique for elite competitions, until the modern V-style technique took over as the preferred one in 1985.

Jump Training Techniques

In this section we look at techniques that allow you to jump very high, especially for women, involved in sports such as basketball, volleyball, etc. When a female decides to enrol herself for a jump training program, she must ensure that she learns all the correct techniques. Unfortunately for women, most coaches and trainers use very efficient programs but commit the mistake of demonstrating bad techniques. Bad technique invariably means a smaller vertical jump or, to make matters worse, increases the chances of a gruesome knee injury.

Many analysts have been able to reach the conclusion that females jump very differently from their male counterparts. The three most important factors identified through research are:

• Women follow a jump pattern that makes them land in a more vertical position than men.


• Women landings involve higher ground-reaction forces.


• Women jump with improper knee position.

More Vertical Jumps and Landings

It is a genetic issues that a female holds lesser muscle mass than a male of the equivalent age. Girls in the age frame between 9 years and 11 years play sports in a typical vertical position – this makes them suffer from weak torsos, hips and leg muscles. This should not be allowed to grow since an aggravation will mean that you will lose the power of a good low position.

Improper Knee Positions

Females have high susceptibility to lower leg alignment problems since they may be exposed to anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears and other heavy knee injuries as athletes. The female body consists of a wider pelvic angle and also has a greater low-back curve; these factors can cause the femur, or the upper leg-bone to rotate inward, thus the knees taking up what is known as a knock-knee posture. Such a position puts stress on the ACL and contributes to bad knee injuries.

Greater Ground-Reaction Forces

According to analysis reports, during a maximum jump, male athletes land with forces that are two and half times the body weight of themselves. This is much lesser than the female athletes, whose ground-reaction forces are up to five times their own body weights. These results in poor shock absorption and can make the athletes prone to injuries.