How to Increase Your Vertical Leap With Ankle Weights

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By Ryan Angus, eHow Contributing Writer

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Increasing on'es vertical leap is a training goal of many athletes. Basketball, baseball, football and running are just some of the sports in which possessing a good vertical leap is beneficial. One of the best ways to increase your vertical leap is to train with ankle weights. The additional weights on your legs will force your muscles to work harder than normal, and by combining the weights with specific training moves you can quickly increase your vertical leap. Each muscle of the leg is used for jumping, but the most important one is the calf muscle. The following exercises will focus on using ankle weights to build better calf muscles, which will result in increasing your vertical leap.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Hill Training

Step 1

Find a steep hill or staircase. The hill should be several hundred feet long. If you use a staircase it should be at least one full flight.
Step 2

With ankle weights on, walk up the length of the hill/staircase. To isolate your calf muscles, shift your body weight onto the balls of your feet--walk on the balls of your feet as much as possible.
Step 3

Walk back down slowly and repeat this process several times. Repeat just a few times initially. As you become more accustomed to the workout and you gain strength, increase the number of times you repeat the exercise and, if possible, add more weight to your ankles.

Home Workout

Step 1

With ankle weights on, jump rope until exhaustion. As you gain experience with the jump rope, you can add more time.
Step 2

Find something to stand on, such as a sidewalk edge, that allows you to lower your heels a few inches downward, and do lifts by lowering and raising your heels. Find your max by doing these until exhaustion and then add more reps weekly.
Step 3

Stand on the balls of your feet and step up onto the edge of a sidewalk, step, or small box with the left foot followed by the right foot. Immediately step down with the left foot followed by the right, and repeat this process until exhaustion.

Comments

wduncan said

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on 2/12/2010 Training with ankle weights is a terrible way to improve your vertical leap. Training with the weights is not only ineffective but exposes the athlete to the potential of serious injury to the ankles and/or knees. While the additional weight does force your muscles to work harder (following the overload principle) it does not force the correct muscles to work harder. The calf muscle is NOT the most important muscle in the jump, while it is involved in the jump it is not the primary mover involved in the jump. The glutes and hamstrings are the primary movers involved in propelling yourself up. Tight/overactive hip flexors also prevent higher vertical jumps. Stretching/foam rolling the hip flexor prior to testing or training will enable an athlete to jump higher (1"-3") without any kind of formal training. Formal training, with a sports performance coach, will result in much lar...