Vertical Jump Training with Elastic Bands

Training with elastic bands is a proven, tested method of improving vertical leaping ability. The nature of elastic bands provides specific benefits especially useful when integrated into a comprehensive vertical jump training program. These benefits can be broken down into four areas. There are a number of such training aids on the market from simple elastic bands for a few bucks, to the inexpensive, yet effective like the Portable Power Jumper by Lifeline USA, to the Vertimax system costing between $1800 to $3000!

The first and most obvious benefit of training with elastic bands is that it allows you to train against resistance. The further an elastic band is stretched, the more force you must apply. Try this with a rubber band between your fingers. At first, it doesn’t require much force to stretch the band. But as the rubber band is stretched further, more force is required to maintain the motion. You can do the same thing with an elastic band attached to your feet and over your shoulder. As you move from a bent-knee position to a standing position more and more force is required to push against the elastic band. This kind of resistance training allows you to extend up more quickly and more powerfully since you are not only overcoming your weight but also the added resistance of the elastic bands. Doing this as a regular part of vertical jump program trains your body to accelerate powerfully through the whole range of the jump.

Second, an elastic band exerts variable resistance over its range of motion. It takes less energy at the start of the stretch than when the band had been stretched out some. For example, in a classic squat exercise, your legs are weakest when your knees are fully bent. This has to do with the mechanics of lever arms. As you extend upward from the squatting position, the leverage changes as your knees and hips extend and you are able to exert more and more force.

If you supplement the squat with elastic bands, the band will provide the least resistance when you are in the weakest position, when your knees are most bent. As you push up through the squat, the leverage of your joints allows you to exert more force, the band stretches more and the resistance increases. As a result, you must put forth more effort to overcome the increasing additional resistance of the elastic bands just as you become strongest due to the mechanics of leverage. This relationship between resistance along the range of movement and when your body naturally exerts the most force allows you to train better because you must exert more force when the lift becomes the easiest and not incur additional resistance when your at your weakest.

Third, if you stretch an elastic band and then let it go, it will snap back to its original size, right? You can take advantage of the trait in your vertical jump training. Just as the elastic band will provide resistance as you extend your knees, it will also provide energy to make your knees bend quicker when returning to a bent-knee position. This helps train your muscles to descend into a jumping motion more quickly, transferring more kinetic energy into the explosive upward movement to follow. The quicker you can descend, the quicker and more powerfully your can extend back up.

Finally, training with elastic bands allows you to add resistance to your workout without adding weight. This allows you to train harder without the added stress and potential joint damage associated with weight training. Jump training with weight vests or leg weights exposes your body, particularly your knees, ankles and feet, to additional stresses encountered upon landing. Elastic bands are extremely lightweight and, thus, do not subject your body to the same forces as weights do.