A Plyo box is one of the best pieces of equipment for performing box jumps, increasing your vertical leap explosive strength, and improving the joint structure.
However, common box jumps mistakes might negate certain benefits of box jumps, so I created an easy-to-follow guide on box jumps benefits and exercises you can perform to boost your athletic performance.
Based on my experience as a certified personal trainer and more than 23 hours of research, I singled out the most relevant benefits of box jumps and the best exercises you can perform to develop muscle explosiveness and boost the resilience of your joints.
After reading the article, you will know how to perform these exercises with proper form, maximized performance, and without injury.
Quick Summary
- The benefits of plyometric box jumps include the right amount of joint impact, increased lower-body explosiveness, improved hip extensions and flexion, and improved cardio conditioning with repetitive sets and reps.
- To perform a box jump properly, you must enter a quarter squat position with your feet shoulder-width apart and quickly launch yourself from the ground on the lower box.
- Incorporating box jumps and different jumping exercises is essential to boost your explosiveness and joint health, but common box jump mistakes must be taken care of before that so you don’t get injured and experience maximal benefits.
Benefits of Plyometric Box Jumps
To maximize plyometric box jumps and their benefits, you must avoid overtraining and doing high-intensity and maximal jumps daily.
This will force your body to enter an overtraining state or syndrome that will hinder your performance and increase the chance of potential injury [1].
Below are listed the most important benefits of plyometric box jumps.
"More power means an enhanced ability to lift more weight more quickly, and, over time, that’ll translate to more weight on the barbell. Building power requires the right exercises, and the box jump is one of the best moves to build (and test) your lower-body power output."
- Mike Dewar, Certified Personal Trainer
Get the Right Amount of Joint Impact
Box jumps are extremely stressful for your ankle, knee, and hip joints.
All three joints must learn how to properly amortize the movement so your joints and muscles never get injured.
You will drastically improve your joint health by doing a regular box jump over some time.
However, if you want to see even bigger benefits from these plyometric jumps, ensure variety and incorporate more challenging box jumps, such as depth jumps and unilateral jump variations.
Boost Your Explosiveness
Plyometric jumps will increase your explosive strength, crucial for maximal athletic performance and sports requiring fast, controlled, and explosive movements on the field.
Usually, the best way to increase your vertical jump, running speed, or anything similar is to use the complex training method [2].
The complex training method pairs submaximal lifting exercises, such as back squats, with plyometric training exercises, such as box or depth jumps.
This has been shown to increase explosive strength the most in the shortest time possible with athletes with descent plyometric and explosive training experience.
The higher the box, the more explosive strength you will build, but only to a certain point [3].
Challenge Hip Extension and Flexion
All types of jumps require fast flexion and extension movements.
For example, when you jump, you must explosively bend your hips forward and then, with even greater explosiveness, extend your hips so you can help energy flow from ankles and knees to the upper body into your hands.
This is assuming you are using the optimal jumping technique for maximal vertical height.
Hip flexion and extension strength are crucial as those two are responsible for trunk and overall body stability in the sagittal plane, allowing for proper lumbar spine position and less chance of injury.
Related Articles:
Spark Cardio Conditioning
You will develop resilience to the particular jumping exercise when you perform box jumps long enough.
Jumping is a whole-body activity, mainly using your leg and hip muscles to produce movement.
You will improve your cardio and lower body conditioning significantly when you perform jumps repetitively over a longer period.
How to Do a Box Jump
Here is how to perform a box jump correctly:
- Place the box in front of you.
- Assume a shoulder-width apart standing stance with your knees slightly bent and hands near your body.
- Explosively move your body by bending your ankles, knees, and hips and entering the quarter squat position.
- From there, quickly produce force and jump off the ground on the elevated surface (plyo box).
- Repeat for three to five reps, rest for 2-3 minutes, and repeat.
Increase Box Jump Benefits
Here are the best exercises to increase your box jump.
Step-up
Step-ups will challenge your quads, hams, hip flexors, and glutes.
How to Perform Step-Ups
- Place a stepper or a smaller box in front of you.
- Assume a hip-width apart stance with your feet and pick two smaller dumbbells to perform up to 8 step-ups with both legs.
- Start the exercise by stepping on the box with your right leg and immediately extending the same leg so you end up standing on top of the box.
- Reverse the motion to return to the starting position and repeat with the same leg.
- Finish 8 reps with one leg first, then transition to work on the left leg.
Seated Box Jumps
Seated box jumps will only focus on the concentric portion of the jump and neglect the eccentric muscle phase.
How to Perform Seated Box Jumps
- Place one smaller box behind you and a larger box in front of you.
- Sit on the smaller box so your feet are firmly on the ground and your back is straight.
- Start the exercise by only performing the concentric portion of the jump - explosively extend your ankles, knees, and hips simultaneously.
- Jump on the higher box, hold the position where you end up for one second, and ensure you stabilize your body without falling off the box.
- Repeat for 3-5 reps, rest for a couple of minutes, and do 3-5 sets.
Depth Box Jumps
The Russian strength and conditioning scientist Yuri Verkhoshansky initially developed depth box jumps, also called the father of plyometrics.
How to Perform Depth Box Jumps
- Place the box of appropriate height in front of you.
- Step on the box with both your feet and assume standing feet hip-width apart stance.
- Drop off the box, land on the ground, and quickly produce the force to translate a depth jump into a high vertical leap.
- Do a couple of reps, rest for 3-5 minutes, and then repeat.
Related Article: Vertical Jump Exercises
FAQs
Is It Ok to Do Box Jumps Everyday?
It depends on your age, joint health status, and conditioning if doing box jumps every day is ok. If you have healthy joints, enough plyometric training experience, know the proper form for all jumping exercises, and have enough explosive power.
With this you can perform box jumps daily with low to moderate intensity to recover for each following box jump workout.
Do Box Jumps Burn Belly Fat?
Box jumps may burn belly fat in a non-direct way.
It is impossible to choose the place where you want your fat stores to be used during exercise since local fat-burning is a popular fitness myth.
The science clearly states that burning fat happens naturally across the whole body when we use fat as the primary source of energy to form adenosine triphosphate.
What Muscles Do Box Jumps Work?
Box jumps work muscles such as the quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings, hip flexors, soleus, gastrocnemius, and additional stabilizer muscles.
Box jump benefits include vertical jump improvements and overall improvement in explosive strength for the previously mentioned muscles.
What Is the Best Way to Supplement My Box Jumps?
The best way to increase your box jumps is to incorporate different plyometric training methods and use creatine supplements.
Creatine monohydrate is the most popular performance-based supplement to boost your vertical jump and raise your energy levels when performing high-intensity exercises.
Creatine works by binding with the phosphate group and allowing for the fastest adenosine triphosphate synthesis in our body, making us more efficient and producing better results while doing high-intensity activities such as plyometric jumps and submaximal and maximal lifting reps.
Read our guide on the best creatine supplements to pick the one that will increase your vertical jump height and allow for better energy recovery post-workout.
Let me know how you plan to incorporate box jumps into your workout schedule.
References:
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3435910/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3963241/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32187147/
About The Author
You May Also Like
