If you want to jump higher you will need to do the right leg exercises to help build muscle in your legs. There are a bunch that you can do, but I'm going to share with you the absolute best.

There are machines out there, free weight movements and resistance training exercises that will help your jumping. In my opinion free weights and machines are the best.

The main muscles you'll want to hit are your quadriceps, hamstrings, butt (glutes) and hips. Also, you'll want to hit your calves too and abdominals (stomach).

When training legs there are a few basic fundamentals. First you have to understand which exercises work what and have an idea of a program that incorporates an effective amount of sets and repetitions of each exercise.

For starters you should probably do no more than 12 sets for your legs. As your muscles get stronger you can then increase the sets.

Here are my top 3 leg exercises for jumping:

1. Squats
2. Leg Press
3. Lunges

It is very important that you stretch before and after training to minimize muscle soreness and prevent injuries.
Here are some more tips:

• Always allow at least two days after workouts for recovery.
• When performing leg exercises focus on squeezing the muscle in a controlled manner. Never herky jerky.
• Try not to lock your legs and knees.

For beginners, I think you should stick with leg press and lunges.

If you're new to weights, you can do squats and lunges at home without weight and when you get stronger you can move up adding weight. If you're just starting use your own body weight.

Your main goal should be to strengthen the muscles that you use for jumping when using weights. Therefore any movement that force your body to get into a squat position will help.

Let me give you a couple more leg exercises that made my honorable mention list.

Of course they involve weights and machines because I think these get you where you're trying to go the quickest.

Hack Squat

I like these because they really focus on your quadriceps.

If you do these right you'll feel your quadriceps working. As I said before, I feel the quadriceps are the most important muscles when it comes to jumping.

Wall squat

This one is good because all you have to do is sit against a wall for a period of time until you can't do it anymore. This exercise really strengthens your legs and you don't need weights. You simply hold this position as long as you can. Work your way up in time. Before you know it, you'll be able to hold your position longer and longer.

If you really want to take your jumping to the next level I recommend you do these leg exercises with a good plyometric training program. Doing both of these together will really build both power and explosiveness in your legs.