Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Jumping Higher: Is It All In The Quads?

The purpose of this article is to examine the one of the muscles that help one to jump higher fast. The quadriceps also know as quads, are one of the most powerful muscles that involve jumping. But are they the most important muscle to train? No

The reason why your quads are not the most important muscle to train is because all muscles should be trained equally. If you spend too much time training your quads you will miss out on training other muscles that can collectively have a greater affect than if you were to just train calf muscles on your own.

Think about when you jump. Forget about your lower body for a minute. What other muscles do you use? Do you jump with your arms to your side or do you use them in a swinging motion? I’m guessing you swing your arms like most normal people do.

With that in mind let me propose another question. How many people do you know work out there arms for jump training? Probably not to many. By strengthening your upper body and the swinging motion that you use in order to jump you will be come a much more explosive jumper. This is of course assuming you already have a strong foundation to begin with. But all things being equal, you’ll be doing what 90% of your competitors are not!

In conclusion don’t get caught up in all of the hype of only improving one area of your body to increase your vertical leap, whether it be your calves, quads, hamstrings or other. Have an overall approach to increasing your vertical leap. That will prove to be the most effective way to jump higher fast!

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