An example of this is the Leg Curl Machine, which is used for our fourth exercise, that will cost you a pretty penny and it is also a bulky piece of equipment. For most people, the best and perhaps only option will be to find a local gym under those circumstances.  

Caveats aside, these are practical exercises that, if done well, are expected to produce the desired jump results quickly.

Why Should You Activate Your Leg Muscles When Aiming To Jump Higher?

You should activate your muscles to assess, improve and maintain their efficiency throughout the jump motion. 

While Exercises To Jump Higher will always contribute significantly to the increase in your vertical, it is often the most efficient athletes who produce the most compelling and meaningful results when trying To Dunk In Basketball or Spike Effectively On A Volleyball Court.

When you perform Leg Workouts For Jumping you develop what the experts will call mechanical compensations. The compensations of which we speak lend themselves to poor joint movements during the jump motion - whether that be in the ankles, the knees or indeed in the hip joints. 

Those poor joints movements lead to pain and considerable stiffness, especially in the leg muscles. It is also worth noting that those with chronic lower back problems often have the lack of muscle activation to blame for their misery.

Nevertheless, given that lower limb functionality is so critical to Jumping Higher, the importance of activating those leg muscles in the pursuit of a better vertical cannot possibly be overstated.

Among other things, when you activate your leg muscles for jumping, you are also ensuring that your joints become more stable, whether that be for jump training or in active competition. 

One of the words we bandy about a considerable amount on this site is “efficiency”, when we are talking about the jump motion. When you activate your leg muscles for jumping - and stabilize your joints - you are also facilitating a more fluid motion. 

With a more fluid motion, you are certainly improving your prospects of competing better on the basketball and volleyball courts but you are also limiting the prospects of sustaining serious injury, in the pursuit of your Leg Workout goals. You are becoming a more efficient jumper.  

4 Leg Exercises To Increase Vertical Jump

1- Drill Name: Box Squats

Equipment Needed: Barbell, bench or box

Drill Direction:

• Position yourself safely under the weight resistance, as you would with a standard squat

• Lift it off the rack, once it is safely balanced behind your head and on the top of your shoulders

• Lower yourself into a squat position until your buttocks touch the bench or box that you have placed safely behind you

• Once you feel yourself touch, push yourself back up again

• The intensity with which you perform this drill needs to be high, so you should actually be exploding into an upright position before lowering your body weight again

Reps: 5 Reps

Sets: 4 Sets

Why Should You Add This Exercise To Your Workout?

You should perform this drill to target the hamstrings, the abductors and the glutes. Significantly the drill also achieves better results with your quads than the standard or regular back squat routines. You are increasing the challenge by not just squatting down but also squatting a little backwards at the same time.

2- Drill Name: Bulgarian Split Squats

Equipment Needed: Elevated surface (bench), dumbbells

Drill Direction:

• Balance your outstretched back leg on a bench, while planting your front foot slightly in front of you

• With the dumbbells in your hand, lower the weight of your body until the front knee is flexed at about 90 degrees, while your back knee will flex beyond that, as it dips lower than the elevated surface

• When you are ready push yourself up again and then repeat the movement at a high intensity

Reps: 10 Reps

Sets: 4 Sets

Why Should You Add This Exercise To Your Workout?

The performance of this drill assists with hip mobility, while also targeting the glutes. 

3- Drill Name: burpee tuck jump combo

Equipment Needed: Bodyweight

Drill Direction:

• 
  This exercise is a double whammy because it includes two sets of workouts that most jump training athletes hate to perform. And you essentially perform both of them at once.
• 
  Start the routine with your standard burpee but once you have completed the burpee, you should then perform a tuck jump.
• 
  Both the burpee and the tuck jump need to be performed at a relatively high intensity. In both cases, the higher you explode into the air, the better. The drill builds up strength and capacity in the lower half of your body.
  

Reps: 2-3 Reps

Sets: 2-4 Sets

Why Should You Add This Exercise To Your Workout?

You should perform this drill to build and increase strength levels in your legs and lower body. The workout is also of some benefit to your lower back and the abdominal core. 

4- Drill Name: Leg Curl

Equipment Needed: Leg Curl Machine

Drill Direction:

• Regardless of the position you start the drill in, you will always be using the back of your lower legs to push against the weight resistance

• If you are doing the drill correctly (it is honestly pretty hard to get it wrong) your heels should be pushing up and backwards in the direction of the buttocks

• Every time that you do flex, you should be exploding as much as possible against the weight resistance

• When releasing against that resistance (straightening the legs again), you should do so a little slower to help prevent injury

Reps: 12 Reps

Sets: 3-4 Sets 

Why Should You Add This Exercise To Your Workout?

You should perform this workout to target the hamstrings, calf muscles, glutes, quads and even the shins. This drill can be performed while you are seated, while you are standing and even while you are lying down. 

Those are three variations that will give you a slightly different set of results, depending on what the desired outcomes are. The drill also helps with the development of your fast twitch fibres, which can make all the difference when you are trying to increase the height of your vertical.

Conclusion