nl
No need to go bananas to get onto the fast lane to a fitter body. There’s a hack for that, and it’s pretty surprising. Here’s the scoop: jump more! Vertical exercises get you fit fast: you become stronger, your cardiovascular endurance is boosted and your athleticism improved. 7 tips t get you started.
1. Swing away
Swinging a kettlebell is very beneficial for vertical fitness. It’s mobile, which makes your movements dynamic. You’re now using that much impact, but you’ll achieve significant results.
2. Get lower
Training your lower legs with efficiency means you should focus on calf raises and toe taps. These exercises train the rest of your lower legs as well.
3. Arm yourself
Does the lowest box still look like the Himalaya to you? Then work those arms. Research states that by training your upper body and arms, your jump improves significantly. And by eating a lot of spinach, of course.
4. Sign up for a Plyo-class!
In de Journal of Athletic Training we found a recent research, proving that training plyometrical two times a week boosts the height of your jumps with 6%. Plyometric exercises demand using your lower body to jump, which fuels explosivity. The boxjump is a perfect example of such an exercise.
5. Start at zero
There’s absolutely no point in transforming yourself into an NBA-player instantly. Essential is to build a solid fundament first, meaning: power legs. From now on, skipping leg day is a sin, you guys. Work towards squatting at 1,5x your bodyweight, practise boxjumps and deadlifts and save the harder jumps (lateral, vertical and broad jumps) for the next level.
Good luck and remember; working out is about feeling great (and trying out the sauna everywhere) and not about looking better than last year. That’s so last season anyway.
