Can You Jump Higher If Your Muscles Are Warm?

The main muscles of the legs can be subdivided into three groups: the quadriceps, biceps, and calves; and whenever you undertake any form of aerobic exercise in which you use your legs, all of these muscle groups come into play. What's more, once these muscles are warm, your performance is enhanced mainly because of three physiological factors.

  1. Flexibility

    • Warming up stretches the quadriceps, biceps, and calves in your legs and alleviates tightness in those muscle groups. As a result, your flexibility increases, and with greater flexibility, you are able to move about more freely, which enables you not only to run faster but also to jump higher than you could before those muscles were adequately stretched through some form of warm-up exercise.

    Temperature

    • Warming up speeds up the circulation of blood throughout your legs, which increases their internal temperature as well as that of other body parts. This increased temperature enables the muscles to contract with greater force, thereby allowing you to jump higher than you could when those muscles were cold.

    Blood Flow

    • Warming up pumps fresh oxygenated blood into your legs, which raises your blood pressure and increases your heart rate. Moreover, this increase in blood flow provides your body with a maximum supply of oxygen, and this increased oxygen supply not only helps eliminate waste products from your muscles but also enables you to perform at your physical best, meaning that you can jump higher.