Fast-Twitching Your Way to Higher Vertical Jumps
Training to increase your vertical jump involves working out certain types of muscles. This is why it is important that you know what you are doing if you are to undertake a training regimen of this type. It is very easy to screw it up that you could easily think that the training is ineffective and give up on it quickly without understanding why it is not working in the first place.
You should know that there are two types of muscle fibers: the slow twitch muscle fibers and the fast twitch muscle fibers. The first type, the slow twitch muscles, are muscles that have the capability to load and release energy at a slower rate. They do not tire easily and are used primarily for activities that require endurance such as long distance running or swimming. Fast twitch muscle fibers, on the other hand, are muscles that load and release energy at faster rates and are able to create more energy compared to the slow twitching muscles but they tire quite easily. These muscles are the ones activated when doing movements that require quickness and bursts of strength for very short periods of times like jumping, punching, throwing and sprinting.
Hence, the doing exercises to jump higher requires that you target the fast twitch muscle fibers. This calls for a somewhat counterintuitive way of training as learning to jump higher does not entail exercises that entail jumping long periods at average jumping height. Doing so will only work out the muscles that you use to jump at average height. What you need is a regimen that is executed by short explosive jumping with few repetitions and with each jump aiming for maximum height. This trains the fast twitch muscles as well as the nervous system response that activates the said muscles. Targeting the fast twitching muscles does not entail endurance-developing exercises.
Do not go into these type of training without proper research and understanding about what it entails and how it should play out. Hiring or consulting a professional before doing anything is always prudent and could save you a lot of hurting in the end.