The best exercises to increase your vertical jump (and stop getting blocked)

To increase your vertical jump in volleyball you need six families of exercises: squats and hip hinges for strength, plyometrics for explosiveness, single-leg work for imbalances, calves and ankle for the last stretch of the takeoff, core to transmit force, and approach technique so you don't waste what you've built. Random jumping isn't enough. Order, volume and recovery all count.

At the net the difference is made by how long you can stay in the air, not by how badly you want to jump. If you attack from position 4 and the block always gets to your hand, the problem is almost never arm technique: it's that you're taking off a few centimeters too low.

Why the vertical jump needs its own training

Training a lot doesn't mean jumping higher. The jump is a movement lasting a little over two tenths of a second: in that window you have to produce a lot of force, and you have to produce it fast. Those are two different qualities, and they're trained with different exercises.

Strength is built with heavy loads and slow, controlled movements. Speed is built with fast movements and short contact times. Train only the first and you get strong but slow. Train only the second and you stay fast but with no drive. The jump improves when the two grow together.

Then there's a third item almost nobody trains: takeoff technique. The approach, the penultimate step, the arm swing. This is where you recover centimeters without adding a single kilo to the bar.

The best exercises to increase your vertical jump

1. Squat: the base of everything

It builds the strength the drive comes from. Go down as far as you can while keeping your back in position and your heels on the floor, without forcing a depth your hips can't hold. Slow on the way down, decisive on the way up.

If you don't have a barbell, the bodyweight squat with a pause at the bottom and the Bulgarian split squat are an honest starting point. They won't give you the same maximal strength, but they prepare the tissue to handle the jumps.

2. Hip hinge: deadlifts and hip thrusts

The squat loads the thighs above all. The jump also uses the glutes and the posterior chain. Deadlift, Romanian deadlift, hip thrust and nordic curl cover that part, and as a side effect they protect your knees and hamstrings.

3. Plyometrics: box jumps, countermovement jumps, depth jumps

Here you train the elastic side: the tendon's ability to give energy back. The rule is quality, not quantity. Few jumps, done well, with full recovery between sets. The moment the jumps get heavy or loud, the set is over.

Depth jumps come last in order of difficulty: first you have to be able to land silently off a low box. If you land with a thud, the box is too high.

4. Single-leg work

In volleyball you almost always take off from an asymmetric situation, and in beach volleyball even more so. Walking lunges, step-ups, single-leg hops and split squats close the gap between your strong leg and your weak leg, which is one of the most banal causes of injury.

5. Calves and a stiff ankle

The last stretch of the drive goes through the ankle. If the ankle collapses, you lose force at the exact moment you're leaving the ground. Train the calves two ways: slow and loaded for strength, and as pogo jumps with very short contacts for stiffness.

6. Core: the bridge between legs and arm

A trunk that folds leaks the force your legs have just produced. Plank, side plank, anti-rotations, roll-outs and dead bugs are the minimum. They won't make you jump on their own, but they stop you losing what you've built.

7. Approach and takeoff: the free part

Penultimate step long and low, last step short and quick, arms dropping behind and coming back up in sync with the legs. Film your approach from the side: nine times out of ten you'll find an arm that forgets to load, or a last step so long it brakes you.

How to put the exercises together across a week

The most common mistake is doing everything every time. A setup that works is this: plyometrics and technique when you're fresh, at the start of the session; strength right after; core and prevention at the end. Two or three sessions a week, no more, if you're already playing.

During the season, cut the volume of jumps in the gym: you already do plenty in technical training. Your total weekly jump load counts more than any single exercise.

The mistakes that keep you stuck

• Changing program every two weeks. Tendon tissue adapts slowly. You need consistency for at least two months before judging.
• Jumping tired. Plyometrics done at the end of training trains endurance, not explosiveness.
• No starting data. Without an initial measurement you don't know whether you're improving or just working hard.
• Zero recovery. Sleep and deload days are part of the program, not a reward.

Measure first, train, then measure again

The principle is simple and holds for any program: start from a number, work through a full cycle, and at the end repeat the same measurement under the same conditions. Without it, every assessment is a feeling — and the feeling after a hard session is almost always wrong.

On the site there's a free jump test: you upload a two-second video of your jump, the system calculates the height in centimeters from flight time, and the video never leaves your device. Do it today and write the number down: that's your zero point.

Which JHP programs work on these exercises

• Jump Higher Program — 10 weeks of bodyweight jump work, no equipment. €60.
• JHP Gym Edition — 16 weeks in the weight room, maximal strength and power. €60.
• Jumping Monster — 14 days of intensive plyometrics, 116 exercises. €40.
• JHP Vertical Upgrade — 36 sessions spread across 12 weeks. €67.
• Addominali di Roccia — 30 days on the core. €10.

You'll find them all on the JHP courses page, or included in the subscription.

You might also like: Jump tests and the elastic explosive strength rating table · Want to jump higher? Start here: 3 bodyweight exercises