In Reply to: Vertical Jump posted by Mike on October 31, 19101 at 18:38:52:

There's nothing like actually jumping to improve your vertical jump. While your lifting may have made you stronger and less prone to injury, it may have temporarily lessened your max jump and maybe even increased your total body weight a bit. This may be a reason for your shortened jump, for now.
Aside from just playing, one thing you might try is what they call plyometrics; where you jump off of an elevated surface (a few rows up in the bleachers, etc.) to the ground, then immediately jumping as high up as possible. Make sure that you are very well warmed up before doing this, to avoid injury. This technique seems to help with max jump height.
A supplement to add is creatine. Creatine monohydrate is useful during anaerobic exercise (such as jumping) by allowing muscle contractions past former failure points. This stimulate the muscle to repair itself to be stronger.
Of course, adequate rest and protein intake are essential to growing this muscle.

Follow Ups:

• That depends a lot on HOW you lift... Chris V 16:19:46 11/01/101 (0)
• Does creatine add weight though? mike 12:57:49 11/01/101 (1)
  • creatine can add some water weight Mike Ramsey, SNS Nutrition 08:51:12 11/02/101 (0)

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