Destinee Hooker Makes Us Want to JUMP!

Well obviously… have you seen her stats!?

Destinee Hooker has a vertical of 43”!  WOW! When compared to an average vertical of high school volleyball player… she easily doubles it! The average vertical jump for a female high school volleyball athlete is roughly 24”, so we have some work to do! 

After entertaining our fascination with how high Destinee can jump, we decided to gather the best 4 exercises to help volleyball athletes like us improve our vertical, or at least try… and hey, a good workout to burn off that extra cheese pizza we had yesterday isn’t a bad idea!

It’s pretty simple… since your vertical jump is largely a function of strength, the stronger you are in your legs, the higher you’re going to jump! We decided to come up with a way to help you increase your vertical and make you a stronger, better volleyball player.  We designed what we like to call the “Volleyball ROX Star Challenge”!

The first thing you’re going to want to do is throw on your favorite Rox gear and stretch. Don’t argue with us!  Just do it, okay!? The last thing we want you to do is tweak a muscle while ROX-ing out during our volleyball workout challenge. Since you’ll be working most of your leg muscles, you’ll want to do an array of stretches to help loosen them up, such as the hamstring stretch, kneeling quadriceps stretch and the step drop stretch.

Okay, now that you no longer feel like a brand new rubber band, are you ready for a challenging circuit to help improve your vertical and make you a volleyball standout?

Here we go!

ROX Star Challenge

Jump Squats

Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and position yourself in a squatting position. Engage your core and jump up explosively! When you return to land, try to do it as quietly as possible. Do 15 jump squats before moving on to the next exercise.

Muscles working: Quadriceps & Hamstrings (primarily) & Calves

Box Jumps

Face the step or the box that you’re going to be using. With your feet shoulder width apart, bend your knees slightly, throw your arms back and simultaneously spring up onto the box or step. Then jump backwards off the box and land back down on earth. Do this 15 times before you even think about stopping. And yes, we’re counting!

Muscles Working: Quadriceps, Calves, Hamstrings

Toe Raises
Toe raises can be used with the box or on a step, which, of course, will be a bit easier. Stand in a normal position with your feet shoulder width apart; raise up on your tippie toes, now back down. To make this harder, lift your right foot up and raise up on  your tippie toes of  your left foot, then switch feet. Do 25 reps and switch legs. To challenge yourself, you can hold 10-pound weights in both hands as you perform this exercise.

Muscles Working: Calves

Do 3 reps of this entire circuit and VOILA, you have accomplished your very first Volleyball ROX Star Challenge! 

See, that wasn’t so bad! It’s just another way to spice up the competition! Do this workout roughly 3-4 times a week and measure how much your vertical has improved! Just keep jumping, jumping, jumping and one-day maybe we’ll give Destinee a run for her money… well, we can hope, can’t we?!