- Workouts that improve your jump are great for stability, strength, and cardio, said personal trainer Chrissy Signore.
- To jump higher, you must first develop a strong lower body, he said.
- Signore said exercises like the dumbbell squat and reverse lunge plyo jump train for lower-body power and explosiveness.
Although I have never played competitively, basketball has always been a way for me to relax and stay active.
More recently, I’ve been trying to improve my jump shot and layup, both of which require athletic jumping, which I’ve never really had.
After reading a men’s health article on how beginners shouldn’t use the box jump to jump higher, I contacted personal trainer Chrissy Signore who gave me some tips on how to improve my jump with other exercises. She said that to build explosive strength, you need lower body power. Jumping is also a great way to increase stability, strength and cardiovascular fitness, whether you use it on the basketball court or not, she said.
Signore told Insider that exercises, such as variations of the dumbbell squat and the plyo reverse lunge jump, help build lower-body strength and explosiveness.
Build Lower Body Power with the Dumbbell Squat Press and Dumbbell Jump Squat Press
Signore, who is the founder of the fitness program, Correlation, He said that having a strong, stable lower body that works in sync with your upper body is an essential part of jumping. She said the dumbbell squat press is a good starting exercise for building lower-body strength, as well as explosive power through the upper body. The exercise can also be modified to be more or less difficult, she said.
To perform the dumbbell squat press, stand with your legs shoulder-width apart with a slight bend at the knees, with weights in both hands resting on your shoulders. Make sure your back is straight and your core is engaged as you sink your weight into your heels, as if you were slowly sitting up in a chair. Then squeeze your glutes as you rise from the squat and use your momentum to press the weights overhead, Signore said.
“Instead of just working on that downward drive, you’re working on starting to rise, taking that energy from your toes and driving it up,” he said.
This exercise will primarily help strengthen your glutes, quads, hamstrings, and shoulders, which she says are involved in jumping.
Signore said the dumbbell jump squat press is an exercise where you can slowly work your way into the squat press, and it involves adding a jump as you come up from the squat and press overhead into the air. For a slightly less difficult version, he said you can take out the vise, which will still generate explosive power.
If you want to work on lower-body strength first, Signore said to simply do a dumbbell squat without the press. Add a little more weight and keep your arms at your sides for this one, he said.
Train for agility and explosive power with the plyo reverse lunge jump
The reverse plyo lunge jump is a move that Signore says will help build power, as well as agility, by quickly working multiple muscles in your lower body at the same time.
She said you start the exercise by stepping back with one of your legs and dropping down so both knees are at 90-degree angles. Signore said that she would then drive her front foot into a jump and lift her opposite knee before landing and falling back to the starting position. Do this exercise on both legs, she said.
Make sure to bend your knees when you initially land, he said, and keep your weight evenly distributed between your legs to avoid injury.
Engage your whole body with the linear jump
Signore said that instead of box jumps and tuck jumps, which don’t engage the upper body like you might in a game of basketball, he recommends the linear jump.
Sink all of your energy into your heel as you bring your arms behind you, and use a rocking motion to bring all of that energy from your foot through your body, he said.
She said to start small and work your way up with this exercise by jumping less than you can at first, and gradually work up to your maximum height. Signore said this will help her body warm up and prevent injury. Mark on a wall once you find your max and do 5 reps of that before finishing, she said.
