Incorporating jumping exercises into your training could be the single most important thing you could do. Jumping is arguably the most underutilised form of training out there. 

People naturally go to weight lifting and cardio and neglect explosiveness and power. Incorporating jumps helps build type II muscle fibres and teaches the muscle and tendon to work together. Jumps train the elastic quality of the tendons to manage force. Think of your muscles and tendons as elastic bands, jumps help train this elasticity to make you more efficient and able to move with less effort. Jumps also allow for control and rhythm in landing. As well as, the impact is great for bone mineral density 

Before you jump in (excuse the pun) at the deep end. Like anything, jumping should be gradually progressed.

Note: as much as jumps are often used in cardio sessions, this isn’t the best way to maximise jumps as fatigue reduces power output and movement quality. 

Landing drills – learning to land and dissipate force correctly is a skill many of us have lost, so learning to step off a shallow box and stick the landing is an important place to start.

• Jumps – starting with the basics like two-footed vertical jumps or broad jumps, so you get to work on force production whilst utilising quality landing mechanics. 
• Bounds – jumping from one leg to the other teaches all of the above and starts to help pattern rhythm and motor control.
• Plyos – focus on rapid foot contact time to challenge the elasticity of the tendons. 

Spend some time working gradually through these so you can master each stage before progressing to the next.  

Stay tuned next week for another instalment of Master the Basics and don’t forget to follow me on Instagram where I share exercise techniques, and show you how to maximise your training. I hope you enjoyed this blog post, if you have any questions I host a weekly Sunday Q&A session on my Instagram channel. Otherwise, please feel free to email me at andy@andyvincentpt.com. 

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