Single Leg Supremacy To Jump Higher Episode 1
This single leg supremacy episode is all about what we need to do when we exercise at home. Doing unilateral, one leg at a time exercise to build strength, stability and explosive ability for your body is what you are looking for. When you are doing single leg squats, there are two obstacles to your success that I want to go over. There are two areas that need to be very supple or flexible. Those areas are your ankles/calves/dorsiflexion and your hamstrings and glutes. For example, if you are down in single leg squat position and you cannot dorsiflex to a good degree, you are going to fall backwards. If you can dorsiflex when you are in a single leg squat position, but your hamstrings or glutes are not flexible, you will also fall backwards. This flexibility makes a big difference in your ability to do the single leg workout that you need to be powerful and explosive. The first thing that you need to do is work on your flexibility so that you can dorsiflex properly. There are a few stretches that you can do to increase this flexibility. One way is to stand with one foot in front of the other, bracing the front foot on a surface that will allow it to be at an angle and tighten your back glute and force the dorsiflexion on the front foot. You can feel the pull all through your calves. Feel the stretch and hold it for about 10 seconds. Do 3-4 sets for each leg. Another way you can do it is to push against something and tighten the back glute and create the dorsiflexion in your ankle and calve. If you are able to dorsiflex or point your toe up well, then you are going to find that it is more comfortable to go all the way down in your single leg squats. The other area you want to focus on is the hamstrings and glutes. If you go down and your hamstrings are tight, it is going to pull you back. That is why you want to work on the flexibility of your hamstrings to allow you to go down as far as possible. Going down as if you are touching your toes can help to stretch your hamstrings. Rather than concentrating on your toes, however, you want to create a good angle where you feel the stretch in your hamstrings. You can use weights to let the weight gently pull you down as well. You do not want to get crazy and get into it going fast and without control. Be gentle and slow to get maximum results and keep from hurting your back. You just want to force yourself to the edge of your range of motion and slowly increase that. Another exercise that you can do is to get down in the squat position and pull your knees toward you tight using your arms. This forces that angle in your hips and ankles to make it more comfortable. You can also lean forward and force the angle even more. Then you are ready to start practicing getting into the single leg position and going back and forth from leg to leg. If you cannot hold this position, it will be almost impossible to do squats in it, so work on your flexibility and balance until you can. By getting your flexibility in line so that you can go through the full squat range of motion. For increasing flexibility, Jacob recommends that you do these exercises throughout the day. It is not something that you are going to do once a day, as your progress would be very slow. You want to do them 3-4 times a day to get faster results. Do it as often as possible, so that your body adapts as quickly as possible. In our next episode, we will learn more about gradually increasing your strength to get down into a full squat and come back up. Then we will learn about increasing intensity to go from strength to explosiveness to help you to jump higher.
About the Author:
Jacob Hiller is the creator of The Jump Manual, a vertical jump program that has been featured on ESPN and in Fadeaway and Men\'s Health magazines. Jacob supports further research for safer and more effective training methods, and has been recognized by many athletes and coaches internationally as an authority on vertical jump training. For more information on The Jump Manual go to http://jumpmanual.com/new/ and for more articles and videos visit http://freeverticaljumptraining.com/
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