Athletes are starting to add more jumping exercises to their usual workouts because research has shown that it can boost endurance levels and enhance results. You can also benefit from these exercises by incorporating them into your workout routine.
Jumping exercises work your entire body, from your legs to your heart. Although top-level athletes use them often, they’re not as commonly used by the average gym-goer. Adding jumping exercises to your workout program is easy, and we’ll explain why and how you should do it
What Are Jumping Exercises?
We all know what jumping is – some of us might be better at it than others, but we’re familiar with the idea. However, do we know how beneficial it can be for our bodies?
Jumping might bring back memories of trampolines or skipping ropes, which were enjoyable activities from childhood.
According to the dictionary, jumping means “to spring clear of the ground or other support by a sudden muscular effort.”
In exercise terms, this is also known as plyometrics.
Plyometrics uses quick, forceful movements to strengthen your muscles. It’s not only used in sports or activities that require physical performance, but it can also help you with everyday tasks.
This is because using the jumping movement means you stretch your muscles, and then contract them again. The combination of this movement develops great muscles.
Should You Add Jumping Exercises To Your Routine?
Including jumping exercises in your weekly workout routine is very simple. You can adjust the intensity to your own level.
Jumping exercises require a lot of energy, which makes them great for burning calories. They help define your muscles, build strength, and improve your leg endurance.
Over time, this can increase your lower body’s power for other workouts or sports activities.
Jumping exercises may not be easy for everyone, and they may not be suitable for those with health conditions or previous injuries. However, the good news is that jumping exercises can be done anywhere, not just at the gym.
While jumping may seem like a basic exercise, it requires proper technique and physical fitness to avoid injury. If you have any health concerns or previous injuries, it’s best to seek professional advice and start slow.
Benefits Of Adding Jumps To Your Exercise Routine
There are different types of jumps, which vary in intensity, height, and positioning. Each variation is designed to alter intensity and strength, thus exercising one series of muscles more than others.
Whether you’re doing things like jump squats or playing basketball, some moves will be more explosive than others but your legs and glutes are getting a great workout.
Some of the benefits of jumping for the body:
- It helps to activate the lymphatic system, which favors the elimination of liquids.
- It raises large levels of serotonin, helping to combat chronic depression and reduce stress levels.
- Improves the pulmonary system and helps control blood pressure.
- The increase in intensity that occurs during jumps stimulates metabolism, promoting fat burning.
- They help increase bone density and help prevent arthritis.
- Improves agility, posture, coordination and balance.
Jumping exercises are great for burning fat and are often included in the best booty workouts, which aim to increase the size of the glutes. Now that you know the benefits, let’s take a look at the different types of jumps you can start incorporating into your workout routine.
Try These 5 Great Jumping Exercises
There are different models of jumps that can be implemented depending on the results that you want to obtain and the intensity that you want to achieve.
All of these are great at targeting different muscles and actions that are used for good cardio and leg workouts:
1. Tuck Jumps
Tuck Jumps consist of performing jumps raising both knees towards the chest as high as possible.
The jump should start and finish with the knees bent, to reduce the impact, since in this way it is cushioned. With it, you work your legs, and abdomen and burn calories.
This is a great bodyweight leg workout and abdominal workout rolled into one.
You see this type of jump utilised in HIIT classes because of its simplicity and effectiveness. Once you become proficient with this you can even add things like dumbbells and ankle weights.
2. Squat Jumps
The squat jump is a squat with a jump, which consists of pushing and raising the feet off the ground and then falling into a squatting position.
It is very simple to those who already know what a squat is, as you are simply adding a controlled jump to the end of the action as you come up from the squat.
To avoid damage, it is necessary to carefully watch that the knee does not go beyond the tip of the foot and that the legs form an angle of 90 degrees.
With this exercise, the legs and buttocks are stimulated. It is common for cardio workouts in the gym to utilize some form of squat jump, as it is effective at engaging a wide range of muscles while burning calories.
3. Plyometric Pushups
This jumping model consists of performing push-ups and moving in one jump while maintaining the position.
It is perfect for strengthening the chest and arms at the same time while burning calories due to the overexertion that must be made.
You will take your hands off the ground with the help of an impulse and hit them before falling back into the starting position.
This is different to the other jumps mentioned since it does not necessarily work the lower body since you are not jumping with your legs. Instead, the jump action is performed in the push-up when you push off the ground and you come up from the lowest part of the push.
It looks like you are hopping with your upper body when you can do it smoothly, and you can even add variations like the clap push-up when you are skilled at it.
4. Box Jumps
This jump is practiced a lot of the time in cross fit sessions. With it, the lower part of the body is worked intensely, particularly the legs and buttocks where the muscle engagement is highest.
It consists of jumping with great intensity on top of a box, returning to the natural and repeating the jump, so on.
Normally with this one your starting position will be in a squat, and when you jump and land of the box you want to land in this position again.
The main point of this exercise is to build explosive power in your muscles with the jumps while maintaining control and stability. This is another exercise that can be performed with dumbbells to increase the resistance later on.
5. Jumping Jacks
Jumping jacks are a great and easy way to burn calories in and out of the gym.
For this movement, you start with your hands by your side and feet together. When you jump, you will spread your feet apart each side and bring your hands above your head.
As you jump again, you will return to the starting position before repeating the movement for the required reps.
It is a very effective exercise that is even utilised by the military to build endurance and muscles. The simplicity of the jumps allows almost anyone to do it, so it can be a great exercise to utilise if you are someone looking to start losing a bit of weight.
You can start with low sets and reps, and gradually build this up as you become better, even potentially using dumbbells to maximise the resistance.
Extra Things To Improve Your Jumping
There are some additional things you can do to help your legs jump higher.
You could try using a rebounder trampoline to work your legs. This has been known to help flush toxins and other waste products out of your body, helping your lymph drainage and immune system.
While you’re having fun bouncing in the air your body is activating muscles in all sorts of new ways.
Plus, the bonus is, it will aid weight loss and increase the intensity to engage your heart.
Another alternative may be to include skipping in your routine.
Of course, you could use a simple skipping rope, they are very effective. However, with new technology you have some added benefits.
The new versions of jump ropes connect with apps to give you all sorts of data and help you improve.
And lastly, you could try this box!
Using a plyometric box for jumping is a fantastic way of gradually building up your strength.
You can adjust the height by rotating the box. Plus, it’s anti-slip and made from durable foam so you won’t get injured.
Box jumping is a very effective exercise and great for your home gym.
Jumping exercises bring some diversity to your workouts and have been proven to help your overall fitness. But, as always, remember to professional advice because they aren’t suitable for everyone.
