The Five-Minute Warm-Up That Adds a Centimetre to Your Jump
Short answer: five minutes of dynamic mobility exercises before you train buys you a higher jump and a faster first few steps, and it's free. Across 35 trials, moving through a range added about 1.6 cm to jump height, where holding a stretch made sprints slower. The routine is the first thing below. Do it in the order given, and save the long holds for after.
There's a version of this you already know. You arrive, you feel stiff, you put a foot up on something and hold a hamstring stretch for a minute, and the first jump still feels like it belongs to someone else. The stretch wasn't wrong; it was the wrong one for that moment.
Swapping it for five minutes of movement costs nothing and needs no equipment, and every trial that has measured it agrees on the direction, even where they disagree about the size.
Routine first, then why it's in that order, then the research.
The five-minute warm-up
The trials describe categories rather than routines, so this is mine, built on what they used. No equipment. On a heavy day, stretch it towards ten minutes, which is where the pooled numbers peaked.
- Ankle rocks, 30 seconds each side. Hands on a wall, one foot back, drive the knee forward over the toes without lifting the heel. Landing starts here.
- Leg swings, 10 each way, each leg. Front to back, then across the body, holding a wall. Small and controlled to start, bigger as they free up.
- Walking lunge with a reach, 6 each side. Step into a lunge, tuck the tailbone, reach the same-side arm overhead. This is the hip flexor and the mid-back in one move.
- Open books, 8 each side. Lie on your side, knees bent up, arms out in front, sweep the top arm back over you and follow it with your eyes.
- Squat to stand, 8. Hold your toes, drop your hips into a deep squat, lift your chest, stand up halfway, drop again.
- Pogo hops, 20. Stiff ankles, small hops on the spot, quiet landings. The last step before anything bigger.
Nothing is held for more than a moment; that's the point. If a move pinches rather than stretches, shrink it.
Why that order, and why not a long stretch
The short version: move before, hold after.
Moving through a range leaves you readier. Pooled across 35 studies, dynamic stretching added 1.60 cm to countermovement jump height against no stretching (95% CI 0.67 to 2.60) and improved sprint time, and it was the only warm-up method that did both. Static stretching went the other way on sprints. The biggest dynamic effect landed at seven to ten minutes. (Li 2023.)
Long holds buy something different: a bigger flexibility gain, with a small performance cost on the day. (Belli 2026.) That's a good trade after a session or in a slot of its own, and a bad one in the ten minutes before you jump. The holds have their own dose, about ten minutes a week for hamstrings, and they work as a habit rather than a ritual.
None of which makes static stretching the enemy. In gymnasts, static stretching before performing made no significant difference to jump height or technical elements, and the elements that depend on flexibility looked better for it. (Yu 2024.) It's a question of when, not whether.
Foam rolling sits alongside stretching rather than above it: across 13 studies there was no significant difference between a bout of rolling and a bout of stretching for performance, and rolling matched dynamic stretching. (Konrad 2021.) Use it if you like it.
What the trials found
The five reviews behind all of that, in one table.
| Review | What it pooled | What it found |
|---|---|---|
| Li 2023, BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation | 35 studies, network meta-analysis of warm-up methods | Dynamic stretching added 1.60 cm to countermovement jump height (95% CI 0.67 to 2.60) and static plus dynamic 1.80 cm, both against controls; dynamic stretching alone improved sprint time, static stretching worsened it; the strongest dynamic effect was at 7 to 10 minutes |
| Belli 2026, Frontiers in Physiology | 23 studies, 627 athletes in flexibility-dependent sports | Static stretching gave the bigger flexibility gain (about 3%) with a small performance cost; dynamic gave a small flexibility gain and a small performance gain; long holds (over 60 seconds) produced large flexibility gains pre to post |
| Yu 2024, Journal of Sports Science and Medicine | 19 studies in gymnasts | No significant difference between static stretching and control for squat jump, countermovement jump or technical elements; dynamic stretching was better for power and dynamic performance |
| Kłobuchowski 2026, Sports | 40 studies in athletes, qualitative synthesis | Structured neuromuscular warm-ups (such as FIFA 11+) were frequently linked to reduced reported lower-extremity injury risk alongside sprint, jump and balance gains; dynamic warm-ups may acutely improve sprint and jump |
| Konrad 2021, Frontiers in Physiology | 13 studies, foam rolling vs stretching | No significant overall difference in performance between a bout of foam rolling and a bout of stretching; foam rolling and dynamic stretching came out equivalent |
Two things to keep in view. These are athletes and gymnasts, not people arriving after work. And the numbers are softer than they look: the Li figures carry wide confidence intervals and high variation between studies, and 15 of the 23 studies behind the Belli percentages were rated low quality. Both sets of authors say so plainly. (Li 2023; Belli 2026.) So treat the direction as solid and the exact centimetre as an average, not a promise.
Where this fits a session
A guided session at Run The Wall starts with a warm-up on the floor before anyone leaves the ground: ankles, hips, mid-back, then small hops, then the first skills. The trials are the reason it runs that way round. The upper-back part of it has its own post, thoracic rotation, and if you want the full picture of what a session looks like, start here.
One thing the reviews do say about injuries: structured neuromuscular warm-up programmes like FIFA 11+ were frequently linked to reduced reported lower-extremity injury risk in athletes. (Kłobuchowski 2026.) That's a programme, not a stretch, and it's in athletes. I'm not claiming five minutes of leg swings does the same thing.
FAQ
How long should a dynamic warm-up be?
Five minutes covers it, and the pooled data points at 7 to 10 minutes of dynamic stretching for the biggest effect on explosive performance. (Li 2023.) Longer isn't obviously better, and the trials measured athletes who were about to test themselves.
Should I static stretch before jumping?
It's not harmful, it's just the wrong tool for the ten minutes before you jump. Pooled across trials, static stretching slightly worsened sprint time where dynamic improved it (Li 2023), and gave a small performance cost alongside a bigger flexibility gain (Belli 2026). In gymnasts it made no significant difference to jump performance at all. (Yu 2024.) Save long holds for after the session or a separate slot.
Does foam rolling work as a warm-up?
As well as stretching, which is to say modestly. Across 13 studies there was no significant overall difference between a bout of foam rolling and a bout of stretching on performance, and rolling matched dynamic stretching. (Konrad 2021.) If you enjoy it, it's not wasted time.
I'm coming back from an injury, or something hurts when I warm up. What then?
Ask your GP or physiotherapist before you start, and tell the coach when you book. These reviews are in healthy, mostly athletic populations; none of them tested people working around a current injury. Pain that pinches, spreads or lingers is a reason to get it looked at rather than to warm up harder.
Want a warm-up you don't have to run yourself? Guided sessions at Run The Wall in Brookvale are adults-only, groups of up to four, and coached from the floor warm-up to the last jump. Book a session.
References
- Li, F. Y., et al. (2023). A systematic review and net meta-analysis of the effects of different warm-up methods on the acute effects of lower limb explosive strength. BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation, 15(1), 106. doi:10.1186/s13102-023-00703-6 (PMID 37644585)
- Belli, I., et al. (2026). How long should athletes with high range of motion demands stretch? Acute stretching durations for flexibility and performance: a systematic review. Frontiers in Physiology, 17, 1881773. doi:10.3389/fphys.2026.1881773 (PMID 42539555)
- Yu, W., et al. (2024). Examining the influence of warm-up static and dynamic stretching, as well as post-activation potentiation effects, on the acute enhancement of gymnastic performance: a systematic review with meta-analysis. Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, 23(1), 156-176. doi:10.52082/jssm.2024.156 (PMID 38455430)
- Kłobuchowski, W., et al. (2026). Exercise-based strategies from warm-up to training: a systematic review of performance enhancement and injury prevention. Sports, 14(5), 187. doi:10.3390/sports14050187 (PMID 42188564)
- Konrad, A., Tilp, M., & Nakamura, M. (2021). A comparison of the effects of foam rolling and stretching on physical performance: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in Physiology, 12, 720531. doi:10.3389/fphys.2021.720531 (PMID 34658909)