What are the main Jump Squat Benefits?
The jump squat benefits include:
- Glute, quad and posterior chain explosive strength
- Improved aerobic and cardiovascular health
- Improved landing mechanics for sports performance
The jump squat is a key exercise for those looking to develop the explosive qualities of fast twitch muscle fibers and to develop their plyometric abilities required for many sports.
It is especially useful as a home training exercise when incorporated into a workout circuit or to super set with an upper body exercise.
Jump squats can be done using just your body weight or with the use of external load such as a kettlebell or dumbbell.
Should I do the dumbbell jump squat or just use body weight?
If you do not have enough strength to complete 10-20 quality reps with your own your body weight you have no business using dumbbells just yet…
The dumbbell jump squat is a great way to add ADDITIONAL stimulus to your glutes and quads. Which puts more of an emphasis on the strength and hypertrophy (muscle growth) benefits of this exercise.
However, you should not use dumbbells if your body weight is already difficult enough.
In fact, you are better off mastering this as a bodyweight exercise before moving on to the dumbbell variation.
We regularly use Jump squats in our programs. You can gain free access to all our training journals now.
How many calories burned doing 1 minute of jump squats?
The jump squat is a great exercise to super set with more traditional resistance training exercises for an additional calorie expenditure between sets.
10 Rounds of Jump Squats included in your upper body training session could burn an additional: 50 – 100 Calories. Depending on your own body weight.
The Jump Squat exercise in 5 simple steps
- Step 1: The Set Up
There are three important things to consider in setting up for this exercise.
Space: You are going to need plenty of space to jump up and down… make sure there are no low hanging lights around.
Footwear: Make sure you are using the correct footwear that is actually secured to your foot. I know you may be performing these at home so it’s time to swap the slippers for some trainers! Protect your joints when landing onto a cushioned sole.
Floor Surface: Make sure you are not jumping up and down onto an object or surface that may break or cause you to slip, trip and fall. I am thinking a slippy mat on a wooden floor… - Step 2: Foot Placement
Place your feet just under your hips. If you imagine the ground is the face of a clock. Your right foot can be pointing between 12 and 1. Your left foot between 11 and 12.
- Step 3: Hand Position
You have two options for hand placements.
Option 1: Keep your hands out to the front to act as a counter balance. Although additional arm motions may make this exercise a little bit harder in terms of co-ordination, it may help if you have poor balance.
Option 2: That being said, for the sake of simplicity when starting I always get my clients to place their hands on their hips. - Step 4: Start Of The Rep
Bend at the knees and shift your hips back so that you are at doing a half or quarter squat. That’s your bum to arm of couch level for most people… and most couches I suppose.
Pre-tense the muscles in your legs and brace your core!
On your first rep you will want to complete a “half effort jump squat”.
This will give you the opportunity to figure out your landing position so you can better absorb the initial impact.
Learning to land softly will limit unnecessary stress to your joints and connective tissues.
From your squat position you should explode upwards using 50% of our max effort.
When you land you should to return to our squat position as fluidly as possible. Soft soft! - Step 5: Finishing The Set:
A great test to see if you are landing softly is to listen to your noise on impact.
When you learn to land like a ninja you will have developed an important skill for functional health.
You should complete the set while maintaining your soft landings.
When fatigue sets in, and you notice your landings are becoming more noisy, you should take a sufficient rest period or 1 to 2 minutes.
Let me know if you have any questions!