Muscle Fiber Type

Type I: Slow Twitch Fibers.

Type IIa: Fast Twitch Fibers.

Type IIb: Fast Twitch Fibers


Type 1 fibers are slow to contract (hence, slow twitch), and can sustain muscular contractions for an extended period of time. This factor makes them ideal for endurance type of events where one is exercising for long durations. They also contain large and numerous mitochondria which aid in their oxidative metabolism (the use of oxygen). These types of fibers are fatigue resistant but are only able produce a relatively low level of force output.

Type IIa muscle fibers are, as the name would suggest, fast twitch fibers (FTF's). However they are in the middle of the muscle fiber spectrum, as they are less fatigue resistance, produce more muscular force, and contract at a faster speed than slow twitch fibers, but not quite as much as type IIb fibers.

The type IIb fibers are the most easily fatigued out of all the fibers but also generate the most power. These are most heavily recruited for activities that require an all out burst of power over a very short period of time.

It is the type IIb fibers that are primarily responsible for your vertical jump performance, although your type IIa’s also have a small role. As such it is the type II's that you should be targeting with your training.

Table 1: Fast-twitch muscle percentages compared
Subject	Fast-twitch muscle fibre (%)
Sedentary	45-55
Distance runner	25
Middle distance runner	35
Sprinter	84

How To Train Your Muscle Fiber Type

When you're training with weights, your goal is to work as many muscle fibers as possible. Affecting more muscle fibers means greater gains in strength and muscle mass.

If your fibers in a particular muscle consist primarily of slow twitch fibers, in order to affect the greatest number of those muscle fibers, you'll need to train that muscle with higher reps, shorter rest periods and higher volume. This is because they take longer to fatigue, they recover quickly and they require more work to maximize growth.Higher reps (e.g. 12 to 15 reps), higher volume (more sets) and shorter rest periods (30 seconds to a minute between sets) can help you to maximize those muscles.

This doesn't mean you should use light weight, though. You should still strive to use weights that are as heavy as possible that will cause you to reach failure in those higher rep ranges. If you don't use heavy weights, you won't give your muscles a reason to grow.

If your fibers in a particular muscle group consist primarily of fast twitch muscle fibers, you're one of the lucky ones. You'll have a much easier time building mass in that muscle - fast twitch muscle fibers have greater potential for size than slow twitch. The more fast twitch fibers you've got, the greater your ultimate muscle size can be. These muscles are most likely your strongest and quickest to develop.

To maximize your muscles with fast twitch fibers, you'll need to train with low to moderate reps (e.g. 4 to 8 reps), rest periods of around 1 to 2 minutes and a moderate training volume (too much volume will compromise recovery).

If your muscles have a fairly even mix of fibers, you can evenly divide your training between focusing on the lower-rep, fast twitch fiber training and the higher-rep, slow twitch fiber training. This will help you to develop all the fibers in your muscles, maximizing your ultimate development.

Conclusion
In order to get the most out of your vertical jump training, you should try to follow those principles. A vertical jump is a powerful, type II muscle fiber based contraction that takes place in a split second. The most effective and efficient way to train therefore is to ensure you fully develop those fiber types. Anything else is just wasted time and energy.

Supplementation

The most important is FOOD..you should be eatin every 2-3 hours, small meals (the whole grains, fruits, vegetables, fish and chicken meat, turkey, healty fats).. and then you should consider supplements:

1. Vitamins- most important are vitamine A, B complex vitamines, vitamine E, vitamine C

2. Multiminerals

3. Whey powder - Whey protein is very, very important for bodybuilders, athletes, dieters, and shoot, just about everybody! Since athletes and bodybuilders work out often, protein levels become depleted. By being a direct precursor to building muscle and essential amino acids, such as glutamine (a muscle enhancer, endurance builder, and muscle deterioration reducer), the content from high quality whey protein not only can, but will help one's muscles recover and grow faster by bring up the levels of protein. With dieting and those wishing to lose some extra fat, whey protein can be very useful because a good intake of protein balances blood sugar levels, while carbohydrates cause blood sugar levels to fluctuate. When the blood sugar levels stay balanced, one is not as prone to rampant eating and has more energy and greater fat loss. Whey protein allows a person to control his or her diet effectively. Most people who want to change their body for the better could benefit from whey protein supplementation; however, since protein is naturally found in many food items deficiency is usually not a problem.

4. Creatine

5. Fish Oil

6. Glucosamine/Chondroitin

Importance of Rest

When you workout, your muscles burn calories at an increased rate. As a result, your body loses fluids, energy stores, and your muscles develop microscopic tears, especially during hard workouts. If you only give yourself 24 hours to replace everything you've lost and repair damaged muscle tissue, you are decreasing the effectiveness of a workout.

Now remember, your metabolism continues to be ramped up for about 24 hours after your workout. You're still burning calories despite being "at rest." Alternating days with lighter workouts allows you to benefit from this ramped up metabolism while you let your muscles recover. Since your muscles have degraded during your workout, it's important to boost them again with fluids and lean proteins.

The Best "Rest" Recipe

There are multiple types of rest with workouts and you should include all of these in your exercise regimen. Here are the basics:

Rest between sets - Allow yourself time between repetitions to restore some strength, catch your breath, or replace some lost fluids. Between-set rest is always short term. Consider it a necessary "pick-me-up" during a workout.

Rest between exercise days - Take at least 2 days of rest between upperbody/lowerbody exercise days. This plan tends to prevent painful injuries to the muscles, soreness, and an over-tired feeling.

Active rest - Active rest involves performing a less strenuous activity alternating with your main workout. Incorporate some stretching on these "off" days, add some jogging, or a leisurely walk. Tone that workout down to allow muscle recovery time. Light activity will still stimulate blood flow and increase your heart rate. All of these benefits will be readily apparent during your regular workout routine.

Sleep - A good night's rest is paramount to the success of an exercise routine. Give yourself 8 hours of rest each night. If you're going to the great effort of exercising to improve your health, then you must consider adequate nighttime sleep just as important.

Replace what you've lost - Replace your fluids with water and energy drinks. Eat a proper diet including lean proteins. Both hydration and proper diet help repair those microscopic muscle tears in addition to giving you the energy you need to keep up with daily activities.

HOW TO TRAIN

Your strength will improve as a result of creating high-tension levels in the muscle,
which is directly related to the training method employed. Your ability to generate
maximum strength depends on the size of the muscle involved, the capacity to recruit or
use your fast twitch muscle fibers, and the ability to coordinate all of your muscles
involved into action. The ability to recruit your fast twitch fibers depends on training
content, in which heavy loads and explosive power training should dominate. Improving
your muscle coordination and synchronization depends on learning, which means
performing many reps of the same exercise.
High-tension levels in the muscle are necessary to create increased levels of force and
strength. So how does one go about creating a lot of tension in the muscles and thus
improve force output? The answer is simple. Lift a moderately heavy to heavy load in
good form with as much force as you can muster! When lifting a heavy load, even
though you might be pushing as hard and as fast as you can, the weight probably won’t
move all that fast. Each muscle cell has to contract forcefully for fairly long periods of
time, therefore your muscle cells are subject to greater amounts of tension which is
necessary to create strength. Lifting a lighter load with more speed doesn’t subject the
muscle cells to the prolonged levels of high tension, so, although useful for increasing
other aspects of performance like increased rate of force development, won’t have near
the effect of heavy weights at creating maximum levels of useable strength and force.
Won’t Getting Bigger Muscles Slow Me Down?
If any of you out there are worried about becoming overly “muscular” or getting too big
from weight training, first I might ask what are you worried about? Don’t you know the
opposite sex loves hard bodies?! All kidding aside you definitely don’t have to develop
huge bodies and large muscles to become significantly stronger. Research shows that
strength training methods typically bring a 3:1 ratio of strength vs. muscle mass increase.
This means if your body mass increases 10%, your strength should increase 30%, which
makes your gains purely functional.
Say you weigh 150 lbs right now and can squat 200 lbs. Your bodyweight is 75% of
your squat. Let’s say you gain 15 lbs of bodyweight bringing you to 165 lbs while at the
same time your squat increases to 260 lbs. Now your bodyweight is only 63% of your
squat! This means your relative strength, or strength per pound of bodyweight, has
improved substantially and your performance will also improve dramatically. The take
home point is to not be afraid of gaining muscular bodyweight.

source: higher-faster-sports

One-legged vs. Two legged jumper

Main muscle groups involved in one-legged jump are :

10% Hips
50% Quadriceps
15% Calves
15% Hamstrings
10% Arms

Main muscle groups involved in two-legged jump are :

65% Quadriceps
20% Calves
15% Arms

here you can see the importance of quadriceps

Get gym membership

First thing you need to do is to get gym membership.. you can't do nothing without weight training!! you must build up your Quads, Hamstrings and calves, but also upperbody should be trained..

The Warm Up

A proper warm up can increase the blood flow to the working muscle which results in decreased muscle stiffness, less risk of injury and improved performance. Additional benefits of warming up include physiological and psychological preparation.

Benefits of a Proper Warm Up:

• Increased Muscle Temperature - The temperature increases within muscles that are used during a warm-up routine. A warmed muscle both contracts more forcefully and relaxes more quickly. In this way both speed and strength can be enhanced. Also, the probability of overstretching a muscle and causing injury is far less.
• Increased Body Temperature - This improves muscle elasticity, also reducing the risk of strains and pulls.

• Blood Vessels Dilate - This reduces the resistance to blood flow and lower stress on the heart.
• Improve Efficient Cooling - By activating the heat-dissipation mechanisms in the body (efficient sweating) an athlete can cool efficiently and help prevent overheating early in the event or race.

• Increased Blood Temperature - The temperature of blood increases as it travels through the muscles, and as blood temperature rises, the amount of oxygen it can hold becomes reduced. This means a slightly greater volume of oxygen is made available to the working muscles, enhancing endurance and performance.

• Improved Range of Motion - The range of motion around a joint is increased.

• Hormonal Changes - Your body increases its production of various hormones responsible for regulating energy production. During warm-up this balance of hormones makes more carbohydrates and fatty acids available for energy production.

• Mental Preparation - The warm-up is also a good time to mentally prepare for an event by clearing the mind, increasing focus, reviewing skills and strategy. Positive imagery can also relax the athlete and build concentration.

source: about.com

Dynamic Warmup should be done prior to any sports activity or weight training.