Pemote: Flexibility: The Key to a High Vertical Jump and Injury Prevention

Flexibility: The Key to a High Vertical Jump and Injury Prevention

For most humans, our nature is to achieve our goals as fast as possible, even if it means skipping over essential steps to getting there. Some times we don't think or know that the steps in between the starting point and the end goal are just as important in maintaining our condition as reaching the goal itself. In sports training, those steps in between, such as flexibility exercises, can be critical to long-term success as well as injury prevention. Flexibility can be a primary factor in achieving your goals with vertical jump training.

Many studies have been conducted on the relationship between flexibility, muscle tightness and ligamentous laxity to lower extremity injuries. One such study, conducted by New Jersey Medical School, showed that the lack of flexibility and muscle tightness caused the majority of injuries. Where scores on ligamentous laxity and flexibility were higher, injury risks decreased significantly, mostly in male athletes. In fact, the study showed that out of 203 participants, 73 had high rates of muscle tightness and low rates of flexibility, causing over 115 injuries during the study.

When you are learning how to jump higher, you are utilizing core joints in the hip, knees, and ankles simultaneously, or ‘synergistically', to achieve the highest jump possible. Flexibility is key to ensuring that your joints and muscles are in optimal condition for the vertical leap. Many experts have stressed that other aspects of vertical jump training are enhanced by flexibility exercises, so, if you're serious about reaching maximum heights, flexibility needs to be taken just as seriously.

The most important benefits of combining flexibility training with your vertical jump training are achieving full muscle contraction, preventing injuries, and more leverage and range of motion. An athlete with greater flexibility and subsequent range of motion will be able to fully contract and extend with more force, which provides for optimum vertical leap explosion. Too much stress on the quad muscle, which is caused by stiffness in the hamstring, can cause serious injuries such as jumper's knee. Overall flexibility in all muscles and joints are essential to preventing these injuries. Finally, stretching and the resulting flexibility create a bodily confidence, complete control over your range and motion, and proper form. Proper form is critical to adding inches to your vertical jump.

Remember back when you were in elementary school and P.E. classes always started with stretching and ‘warming up' for the usual ten minutes? There was a reason for this - decades of studies in human body conditioning and overall health, but this even more importantly applies to rigorous athletic sports. However, there is a difference between ‘static stretching' and ‘dynamic stretching'. Static stretching just before training or competing is not going to be beneficial and studies have shown that it has little affect on performance or injury prevention and, in fact, can be detrimental to sports involving vertical jumping or highly rigorous movements. Dynamic stretching just prior to training or competing is more highly recommended because these stretches focus on flexible conditioning all of the core muscles for stability and has shown decreases in muscle tears.

It is important to note that stretching just prior to training or competing is not enough to enhance your overall long-term athletic performance. Many professional athletes are even turning to Yoga for improving not just their flexibility, but also their mental concentration, bodily confidence, range of motion, and long term athletic performance. When your vertical jump is an important part of maintaining your competitiveness in your sport, overall body flexibility and control can be the one thing that sets you apart from the rest, so finding the time to fit flexibility exercises into a regular routine along with your sports training will possibly be one of the most important contributions to your success when learning how to jump higher.

(ArticlesBase SC #5001922)

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Jump Manual Public Relations - About the Author:

The Jump Manual is a highly acclaimed e-book on Vertical Jump Training, written by Jacob Hiller. If you are learning how to dunk and reach maximum vertical heights, this is the resource to proper form, diet, and workouts backed by science.