Explosivity
As someone who is looking to elevate his dunking abilities, I have experimented with different methods to train explosivity in my legs. In my research and experimentation, I found many exercises that all have helped me find positive improvement. Many exercises that I experimented with included mostly lower leg exercises like calf raises, patrick steps, toe raises, etc. What these exercises did for me was strengthen the muscles around my ankles and knees, which is undoubtedly needed when performing explosive motions from the ground like a jump. I saw improvements in my jumps as my ankles and knees were increasing in stability the more I trained. In my initial explosive training circuit I realized that these exercises all neglect the glutes, quads, and hamstrings–the three main power houses in the legs.
Consider the range of motion that our hips have, and how big our glutes, quads, and hamstrings are relative to our calves and shins. It’s intuitive to think about how the biggest muscles would be able to produce the greatest force. I started exercizing these muscles with body weight jumping motions (jump squats, jump lunges, etc.). I quickly realized that I would see the most dramatic improvements by lifting. I began lifting to jump. For all grounded leg exercises (i.e. squats, deadlifts, bulgarian split squats, lunges) I lift for power and speed. I either lift light weight (10-15 rep range) for fast reps that are slow on the way down and explosive on the way up, or I lift extremely heavy (1-3 rep range) where I push as hard as I can on the way up and focus on hip drive and foot-ground connection.
I have seen dramatic improvement in my jumps from lifting like this on leg days. About 2 weeks after I started lifting like this, I immediately saw increases in my vertical and was dunking more consistently and confidently.
In closing, I will offer this piece of advice: For every exercise, execute with purpose. If you’re like me and are looking to get bouncier to dunk off one leg think of your jumping form, and implement it into your workouts. For example, I started squatting with my toes facing forward rather than flared to mimic the straight toes I would be running on and jumping off of. Do not neglect the details of your workout motions. Everything builds ground-body-mind connections, and if you do the small things right in your training your explosivity WILL increase. Lastly, BELIEVE in yourself !