Topic: hey guys need some advice

[Joe]

hey i got to make this quick. i have been just been thinking about weight training i have started alittle  but i dont realy know if i should keep going with it, especialy the leg press, i have been trying to strengthen my legs for farther jumps and to be able to take the impact better on farther drops. heres the question for anyone who has experiance or knows anything about muscle function, would it be good to do leg presses or should i just continue to do drops over  and over like reps until my legs get stronger, because i know weight training trains your muscle for different situations. because you don't see some guy that puts up 600 pounds on leg press jumping more than 6 feet at a time. so if you have any info let me know. i might just end up reposting this in the bigger forrom

[Nik "Nik" Horvat]

If you do start weight training you have to train both slow sustained strength and your twitch (fast response) strength.  Best way to do this is push out as quickly as you can and then come back in very slowly( ex 1 second out, 3-4 seconds in).  Also you don't want to lose flexibility so make sure you stretch.

[Deceiver]

As far as weight training to increase jump distance, I would use squats, dead lifts, olyimpic lifts etc. those focus on the fast twitch explosive muscle fibres that affect sprinting and jumping. Many of the wolrd record holding deadlifters can jump over people.  Heres a link to some articles that will outline how to jump higher. http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/bbinfo.php?page=VerticalJump
this article has a good list of weighted excercises to do
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/softball15.htm
the higher you jump the longer you're in the air, the longer you're in the air the farther you can jump.

Also having huge legs won't prevent injury from falling greater heights, that has to do with how you land and your bone density (which should increase as you increase strain on your legs )

Try doing box hops, find a step, a box , a ledge  or similar at a challenging height and just jump up onto it, then hop down. lather, rinse, repeat. Try to do it at a quick pace, but focus on technique over speed.