The Benefits of a Jump Squats Workout

Jump squats exercises are a great way to develop leg muscles, agility, balance and improve cardio. Usually, when it comes to getting bigger, stronger, and more agile, many people believe that the only way to achieve these feats, is to lift heavy weights all day long.  They think that the absolute last thing they should be doing are bodyweight exercises or exercises with light weight.

The truth however, is that bodyweight exercises can build you a lean muscular, agile, flexible, and toned physique , just as well as any free weight exercise . One exercise in particular, which can benefit you greatly, is the jump squat. We’ll be looking at some of the many benefits, associated with jump squats, and will tell you exactly how you can incorporate them into your training routine.

Benefits of a Jump Squats Workout

To be quite honest, chances are that in your gym, you’ve probably never seen anybody performing a single jump squat in there. You’ve probably seen people loading up the barbell and the squat rack, and destroying their knees and backs by trying to lift weights which are far too heavy for them, but if you asked them about jump squats, they’d probably think you were crazy. Here we’ll take a look at how to perform a jump squats workout.

Strength and Power Jump Squats Workout

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Complete 8-10 reps of each exercise x 3-5 sets 2 minute rest between sets. Remember to take your time and concentrate of form. If you have to reduce the reps it's better to have 5 quality reps than 10 sloppy ones.

• Wide to Close Stance Jump Squats
• Single Leg Jump Squats
• Traditional Jumps Squats
• Box Jump Squats

How to perform jump squats –

Start by standing with your feet a little over shoulder-width apart. Rotate your toes slightly, so that your big toes are not quite pointing straight ahead. Next, you want to squat down as close to the ground as you can go, making sure to keep your head and back straight. You’re using your legs here, so you want to take your back out of the equation entirely. Once you’ve squatted down as far as you can go, you need to explode up, and actually jump up from the ground. When you land, focus on keeping your chest up, and try to track your hips back behind you slightly.

Make sure to absorb the impact, the last thing you want is your knees to cave in due to you landing with blunt force on the flats of your feet. Once you’re confident with the exercise, you can then start to adapt it, so that you perhaps hold a dumbbell or kettlebell in each hand. You can also use a weighted over the shoulder sling, to evenly distribute the weight.

What are the benefits of jump squats? –

As mentioned before, there are a whole host of different benefits associated with jump squats. They include:

• Tone, strengthen, and add muscle to your lower body
• Helping with your balance and coordination
• Increase your flexibility
• Build explosive strength
• Enhance explosive speed
• Make you more agile
• Burn calories and help you to get fit and lose weight
• Improve your plyometric abilities
• Being much safer for you than regular barbell squats