Have you ever wished you could jump higher? Or get more of those few precious inches of air for something like a jump ball in basketball, high jump in track, making an unbelievable save in soccer, or having an amazing spike in volleyball? If so, read on for excercises to increase your vertical jump or "hops."

[edit] Steps

Before starting these exercises, be sure to warm up a little, you can do this by jogging around, jumping rope, or running up stairs for a few minutes and THEN stretching your muscles.
After you are done warming up, try doing a "Deep Knee Bend", be standing and slowly bend at the knees. Be sure to keep your back straight! Go as low as possible, but not so low as to where it hurts. Start off by doing this 15 times, and then as you get more comfortable, increase the amount to 20, 25 or 30.
After you have mastered "Deep Knee Bends" try and do "deep knee jumps" .This uses the same process of starting standing up, then crouching down with your back straight, but do this more quickly. Then once you are as far down as possible explode upward. Do this around 15 times to start and then you may increase the amount.
Stomach crunches also help with your vertical leap. Do crunches for aproximently 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes at night. Lay on your back and rise up high enough for your shoulders to come off the ground.
Another exercise that helps you with your vertical leap are Toe Raises, stand normally, and raise yourself up onto your tip toes. Do this at a medium pace. When you are comfortable doing this, you can pair it with weights. Hold the weights in your hands while doing them. Start with smaller weights, around 5 or 10 pounds and then work your way up.
Sprints and running will help build leg muscle to help you jump higher as well.

[edit] Warnings

- Do not do these excercises more than 4 or 5 days a week, and be sure to use caution while doing these activities. Body parts such as your knees are especially easy to injure.
- Do not do sit ups, instead do the specified crunches, because sit ups may be harmful to your back.