7 Minute Plyometric Workout - Squat Jumps
75Having a hard time getting into the gym?
Can't afford a membership?
Are you on vacation?
You can get a good leg workout without having to go to the gym and all you need are.... working legs. I set up a short workout using a plyometric movement called the squat jump so that you can workout whenever and wherever.
If you look at the picture on the right, down below you can see the basic movement you'll be doing. I like to do them with your arms in that "prisoner" position to take the "arm swing" out of your jump and really focus all the work on your legs.
In theory, this workout will help you with your endurance strength, give you gains in explosive power, spark new muscle growth and help you lose weight.
Help you lose weight?
Yes, I set it up in a way so that it will be a short interval workout. This isn't a common form of "cardio" but this interval workout will definitely help you burn fat.
You Don't Need to Do The "Butt Kickers" In This Vid
The Basic Movement
Let's practice the basic movement a couple times, it's pretty simple.
- Put your hands behind your head like you're being arrested, as shown in the picture. Don't worry, working out isn't a crime.
- Now squat down until the top of your thighs are parallel to the floor or until you feel the bottom of your thighs touch your calves.
- As soon as you squat down, you'll want to jump up in an explosive movement so that your legs straighten and your feet leave the floor a little bit. Make sure you keep your hands behind your head the whole time and that, as you squat down, you're keeping your back pretty straight up and down.
- As soon as you land you'll want to go straight back down into the squat position and jump again.
Practice that a couple times so that you can complete it quickly.
You'll need to do these fast, but with good form, to track your progress with this workout. They have to be done quickly so that you can take advantage of the "spring effect" you get by quickly stretching your muscle.
When you drop down low into the squat you stretch your muscle, which stores elastic energy, and then you quickly jump back up, which allows you to jump even higher because of a spring-like effect of your stretched muscle.
Alright, got the movement down?
Let's move on.
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Care to Compete?
As I said before, I've done this workout; I don't make up workouts and then never try them myself. This one really fires up your legs! So let's have a friendly competition. Once you've tried this workout, post your results in a comment. Don't be shy, for all I know, you're better than me at them! Here's what you need to post:
- The DATE you did the workout
- Your AGE and GENDER
- Your HEIGHT and WEIGHT
- # of squat jumps completed each set
- Total # of squat jumps completed in the 4 minutes of intervals you did (add the totals from each set together)
- Did you like the workout?
- Will you do it again?
Here are my results after doing this workout the first time:
July 2nd, 2007 - I'm a 25 year old Male, I'm almost 6'3" and was around 243lbs when I did this workout. I did 33 squat jumps in the first set, 27 in the 2nd, 24 in the 3rd and 23 in the 4th. So that's 107 squat jumps for the whole workout. I did like this workout, even though my legs hurt for the next couple days, but just means I worked my muscles in a way they're not use to. I will be doing this workout again soon.
July 30th, 2007:
- I was around 228lbs
- I did 42 squat jumps in the first set, 33 in the 2nd, 31 in the 3rd and 29 in the last set.
- So that's 135 squat jumps total (I beat my last record by 28 reps overall).
- My legs didn't hurt as bad this time after I did them, so that's a relief.
The Workout
What you're going to want to do is get a watch with a countdown timer on it or you can even use an egg timer or your microwave. You just want something that you can set up to count down a minute and then set off an alarm so that you know when to stop.
You'll want a piece of paper and pen near you and probably a drink.
You're going to do 4 sets of squat jumps. Your sets will be a minute long and you'll have a minute of rest in between each set.
So you'll start the timer and immediately start doing squat jumps when the timer starts.
You want to do them fast but make sure that you're doing the full movement.
AND MAKE SURE THAT YOU COUNT OUT YOUR REPS; this is how you're going to track your progress.
Do a minute straight of squat jumps, counting out your reps. When the alarm goes off, stop jumping and start the timer again.
You've got a minute to write down the number of squat jumps you did and to get a drink if you need one.
Once the alarm sounds again, your "break" is over. You'll have to set the timer again and start doing squat jumps. Count them out and feel the burn! Do them as fast as you can, but if you need a SHORT breather during your set, then take one.
You'll want to do that four times and that's it. That took seven measly minutes and I'm willing to bet that your legs are cooked. The first time I did this workout, my legs ached for a few days.
Pain is progress folks.
This is an intense workout, so try it once and then decide if you need to make any changes (like maybe dropping a set) to better suit you.
You don't need to do a workout like this everyday, have some variety in your workouts. Do this once every other week if you can handle it, or even once a month like I'm going to do. Just add this to your arsenal of workouts.
I do my squat jumps out in my garage and I put a foam pad down to help absorb some shock to save my knees.
I usually do some pushups and pull-ups after I do squat jumps, so I can have more of a full body workout, but that's up to you.
You CAN get a good workout using just your body weight and it doesn't have to be overly long.
Now try this out and tell me how much you hate me in a comment because your legs hurt so much.
How'd Your Legs Feel After This Workout?Loading...
I will attempt this on the weekend. See how it goes. I just started to workout again after 12 years, and I'm in need of losing this baby fat.
I will definitely give this a try and let you know how this works. I like the sound already.
God this work out works
This is easily one of the most intense, lung busting, leg busting workouts I've ever tried and I've done just about everything. The pain you feel in your legs and lungs after doing a set of these is incredible. It definitely helps develop explosive power, takes off the pounds, and takes very little time. And the best part is, its free, doesn't require any equipment, a gym membership, or lots of room. Thank you for introducing me to this workout, I will use it and recommend it for the rest of my life. Thank you!
That is a heck of a testimonial Jonathan, thanks! Definitely rough to get through even if you think, "7 minutes? That's weak!" I know I wasn't always happy to start out with this workout and I only did it once a month.. It's harsh but it does its job and it's simple; that's why I love it. Glad you enjoy it too!
BTW, when I first tried this, I couldn't even make 30 seconds and did about 25 reps before collapsing in exhaustion. Now I can do 3 sets of 60 seconds and do 55-58 reps per set. If I feel extra strong, I can occasionally break the 60 rep barrier in 60 seconds. I'd say that's a pretty dramatic improvement! Sometimes, if my legs will take it, I will extend it to 75 straight, ignoring the stopwatch alarm. I'm 36 years old. Again, thank you for this fabulous workout.
That's great Jonathan! A jump a second shows good endurance on your part. You're 10 years older than me and you are doing them better than I ever did! I think it's good to pace yourself like you did. Do what you can, then baby step up. I think these are great if you hit a stall point in your legs, gives you endurance and some explosive power. Keep up the good work!
I tried this for the first time and I felt like puking for an hour afterwards.
AWESOME!
Haha that's never a good feeling Shaun but I'm glad you have a sense of humor about it. This is a rough workout, modify it to be suit you if you feel the need. Or try it again as is and see if your body has adapted to it.
Very well written article. You were careful to point out a very key component of this exercise when you wrote, " As soon as you land you'll want to go straight back down into the squat position and jump again.". This will force your quadriceps into an eccentric contraction, before a rapid concentric contraction, which is the key to plyometrics.
I've seen other plyometric programs that showed athletes jumping up and down off of boxes, or perhaps jumping down an open track, but without emphasizing the part about getting down into a squat position when landing. I often wondered where the plyometric part (muscle lengthening (eccentric) followed by muscle contracting (concentric)) of their exercise was taking place.
Your demonstration will help lot's of athletes.
Dr. Larry Van Such
Im 16 years old and about 120 pound (just an ectomorph who is in shape yet who does not have extremely strong). I have lifted in the past and this was 7 minutes of the most grueling workout i have ever encountered. I was able to do 4 reps of 35 each for a grand total of 140, but my lungs were on fire, and now i can feel my quads pulsating after that workload. This is going to hurt in the morning!!!!
Thank You Dr. Van Such..
and
I'm glad you enjoyed? the workout Gaurav! It is rough, and could possibly be shortened to 3 sets... or maybe 4 sets of 30 second rounds.. I remember I was aching for a while after I did this my first time. Now you can probably see why I'd only do this once a month!
OMG! i thought I was going to die, I started on Monday, still hurts like crazy today!!! But Im loving it... no pain, no gain!!!
Glad you love it MIA! Make sure you're getting your rest and the soreness will be gone before you know it. Try it out again once the soreness is gone and I bet you beat your old reps!
I have been doing this workout on a regular basis once a week for 6 weeks to get in shape for sprints. I can say this has def. helped my explosiveness. My legs feel very strong and I feel like I can push myself out of the blocks much harder than before. Thanks for the good workout.
That's awesome Justin, I'm glad that you can see the progress in your sprints!
Squat jumps are a great addition to a leg workout. When I played basketball in high school I did a lot of these to help improve my vertical jump.
Yeah I agree Thadrok, I added them to my vertical leap workout that I'm in the process of right now.. The really spark new muscle growth, especially when you bring a weighted vest into the mix.
wow. ive been lookin for ways to help me in high jump, and in basketball, after my first workout i know its already working
Glad you like the workout Donavon! These always work my legs hard too.. I love them and I hate them at the same time haha.. I'll be doing them again soon myself.
Squat Jumps are great for getting a bigger round behind, which many woman would love to have. Not to mention also a good leg workout. Thanks!
Just did this for the first time this morning, and had difficulty going down the flight of stairs leaving afterward. Simply amazing. Even had to shorten the rest of my workout after this because it wiped me out. I suspect I'll be able to take flight after a month of working these.
I know exactly what you mean Corey! Steps are quite difficult after this exercise, especially walking down stairs right after doing it. You'll probably still feel it in your legs for a day or two as your muscles repair.
I am training for a marathon and my cardiovascular conditioning seems fine, but after maybe ten miles my legs start to feel pretty sore, I was wondering if this workout would help lessen that soreness during the run.
Hey Christian,
I think what you're probably feeling is lactic acid build up as you're running.. Your muscles just aren't use to endurance runs yet, but with practice they can be.
This workout is designed for short bursts which would be more beneficial for sprinting than running a marathon. If you want to work your endurance more, you can try lengthening the time that you do squat jumps more and more as you progress. 4 minutes of squat jumps aren't going to equal how ever long it'll take you to run a marathon. So possibly 4 sets of 2 minutes until that's not hard anymore.. then 4 sets of 3 minutes and so on. But I still don't feel that this type of exercise will benefit a marathon runner that much.
Working up to running the maranthon distance is going to help you the most. Just gradually increase your overall distance and you'll make it to where you want to be. Keep running just a little past that sticking point where your legs get sore and eventually you'll condition yourself to be able to handle it. Then add more distance and work past the new sticking point.
Thanks for the advice
I'm glad you have a sense of humor about it
Thanks! I try to have a good time even when I'm doing a rough workout...
Good advice. Since leg muscles are one of the biggest muscles in human body squatting is a great way to raise heart rate and burn calories.
I should be doing this instead of reading about it!
Hop to it RYPcontent! Let me know how your legs feel tommorow...
Hey, I'm 16 (almost 17) and i did this for the first time...the next morning I could barely walk! Going upstairs will be a problem! But I guess it just lets me know it's working, i want my Quadriceps to be strong and have explosive power for the rugby season in september.
Yeah this is a rough workout KC93... The first time I did it my legs were so sore and going up and down steps was a bit slow haha... If you need to you can shorten the rounds or drop a round.
Hahaa noo it's fine, i just need to get used to it; i've done squats loads before, but nothing as explosive as this! Do you think the same workout would be as effective with push-ups/clap push ups?
Yeah it could be effective but I don't think you'd be able to go as long with push-ups with a claps... but that is a plyometric exercise.
Try that out with 30 second "sets" and see how it makes you feel... I know that my arms wouldn't be able to last 4 sets of 1 minute each... 30 seconds is possible though, maybe for 3 sets.
True, I highly doubt mine would last either! Just wondering. Anyway, this is a top workout for the legs! Thanks! I'll tell you if i see any noticeable differences
Sounds good KC93! I'm glad you like this workout... I always break it out whenever I really want to rock my legs!
Whoa, this seems intense! im gonna have to try it. Just a quick thought, how much good will this do for my vertical jump for volleyball? as im only 5'9, i need a bit of a boost :P
Oh it is intense, Tom! Well I think it could help you build some explosive power in your legs and possibly boost your vertical... I just wouldn't do this workout often, give your legs time to heal before doing it again.
Plyometrics are great for boosting your vertical... you can do things like box jumps too.
man this workout is intense, im 15 in two weeks and i play soccer and basketball and this workout blasted my legs, i do it once a week before bed and i fall into my bed so exhausted im asleep after a minute or so. after a few workouts i still cant even do the whole thing!! one question, how many calories (if any) do i burn with this workout?? btw its great!!!
That's great that you love the workout jibba! I don't really try to get into estimating calories because it depends on how many you do and how fast and how much you weigh and it'd be really complicated to come up with.
All I know is it's quick, powerful and if you do your jumps fast enough then you've combined muscle building with cardio.
This is great!
Would it be better to squat to full depth with knees bellow parrelel? Would that recruit more muscles?
People do perform deep squats sometimes Tom, as I do myself, but just be sure that your knees can take something like that! You'll be jumping so you might want to be on a foam pad and these are explosive movements.
Go through the full movement, squatting down as far as you'd like, first without jumping.. If you can do it without any pain then try out a set of these as deep squats.
I tried it last night before I went to bed, and it was great, absolutely no pain, just a realy good ache today. Thanks alot!
That's great, Tom! If all you're feeling is muscle soreness then continue doing deep squat jumps as you please.
Hey Bendo, is it ok to do it 3 times a week? (if possible)
Hey George, I don't really think you could do this 3 times a week, at least not at first... trust me, you are going to be sore!
You could possibly do squat jumps at lower reps 1 or 2 times a week, but when doing them for a minute straight you're asking a bit much.
It'll take a bit to recoup from the first time you do it and working your legs that hard three times a week will lead to overtraining.
But if you really want to work your legs 3 times a week and want to use squat jumps then try doing something like 3 sets of 10 with a minute or so in between sets.
You might be able to pull that off but you're going to need to keep up on your sleep or your legs won't be able to heal. If 3x10 three times a week is too much then try only 2 times a week for the next week or drop it down to 2 sets of 10 for 3 days a week.
You'll have to baby-step your way into it and see what your body is capable of because honestly I haven't attempted to use squat jumps 3 times a week because I know they're so rough. And if you attempt the workout that I outlined in this article you will be sore all week.
Thanks for the reply! How long did it take you to recover the first time you did it?
The very first time I did this workout as outlined above it took maybe 3 or 4 days before walking up and down stairs wasn't difficult... it's rough!
I can't believe my good fortune in stumbling across this site. I ran track in high school and college. I haven't approached being in that kind of shape since I was 22yo - about 13 years ago at this point. Recently I've begun to some light workouts to try get my body ready for sprit training, which is unusual for someone my age but I figured I'd give it a shot. In the past I'd done fairly intense workouts for 200m 400m & 400m hurdles (an intense race, believe me). I've done more than a few plyometric exercises in my day but not this specific one.
WOW! 4 days later and my legs are still sore. In truth, I could only do a full minute for the first set, then only 40 seconds for the 2nd, 30 seconds for the third, and 20 seconds for the fourth. Not exactly record-breaking stuff, but I was doing fairly quick reps and I worked my legs to muscle failure. I look forward to seeing how much this exercise helps my training...thank you so much!
It's a very intense way to spark new muscle growth, Bert! Now you can see why I don't do this that often ;).
Just be sure that you're getting your rest and eating a high protein and balanced diet so that your hard work is converted into some useful muscle. I know whenever I do this workout again after not doing it for a while that walking up and down stairs for the next few days is hell!
My daughter is 14 and in excellent shape. She conditions everyday with her high school volley ball team. The coach loves squat jumps and when my daughter does any work out she gives 110%. The problem she is getting back leg pain, like on the side of her calf. She met with the personal training at the school and they said for her just do extra calf stretches. BUT it is not working. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance for your help!
Hmm... well perhaps it has something to do with her jumping form, Kderco70. Have her do some squat jumps for you and see how her feet are angled when she jumps. When I do them, my feet are just slightly angled outward (not much at all) and you want to make sure that her knee isn't traveling far over her foot. She wants to do a motion like she's sitting down on a chair behind her, while keeping her back as straight as possible.
If she points her toes too far out while does them it'll really target her inner calves... is she points them too far in, it'll target her outer calves more. And if those muscles aren't use to that kind of work then she's going to feel it for a few days. And if her knee travels forward over her feet as she squats then she needs to correct her form and imagine sitting back into a chair... she could even practice by sitting on a chair.
Plyometrics are tough exercises and if you're not use to them they will really cause some muscle pain for a while which is why I don't like to use them often in my workouts. I like to use them as an occassional boost to spark new muscle growth.
If the pain is from inflammation then what she can do is take a shower after she does her workout and as soon as she gets in turn on only the cold water and point the showerhead straight down. Then have her hold her calves under the water (one at a time) until it numbs her leg.
Hope this helps!
Thanks for all of the info. When she gets home from school I am going to have her show me. I really think after reading your comment that she is pointing her toes too inward. Thanks again!
Glad I could help, kderco70!
hey,I know that this will definitely increase strength in the legs, but will this workout increase the size of my thighs the way heavy squating does?
Since this is pretty high rep and only using your bodyweight, it's not really going to target the biggest fibers in your legs, ronnie...
The 9 to 12 rep range is great for adding size to your muscles... and even though this won't add size like heavy squats in that rep range would, it will still spark new muscle growth!
So if size is what you want, then just toss this workout into the mix whenever you hit a plateau on your squats.
Hey brendo13. Based on what people are saying about this workout, it sounds pretty unreal for developing explosive leg power. I'm an avid snowboarder and by the end of a day on the hill, or especially the morning after, my legs are pretty much shot. I'm going on my first big trip of the season in about a week, so I've decided to do a bit of conditioning each day to help my legs last through the carving and jumping hell I'm about to put them through. I figure plyometrics is probably perfect for improving my on hill performance and increasing the chances of landing those jumps that by the end of the day my legs are not wanting me to try. So, my question is this: Along with this squat workout, is there any other plyometrics (or other) workouts that you would recommend for a snowboarder that has a week to get his legs as ready as they can be? I build muscle pretty fast so I think I can make some sort of difference in a week. Thanks!
-Matt
These would be great for snowboarding, MasterMattias... since they train you for explosive power and, if you do it for the intervals explained above, you're really working your endurance too. Other things you could try are stair sprints... find stairs or bleachers and sprint up the stairs (or seats) and then walk or jog back down the stairs and do it again... pick a set number of stair runs to do and then aim to increase that number each time. You could also do box jumps for reps... set up a box or bench in front of you that is maybe knee high or higher and jump up onto it, then jump back down and as soon as your feet hit the ground, spring right back up...
I know how exhausting snowboarding can be, but you've got the right mindset to train for it ahead of time! When thinking of exercises and workouts to do, keep in mind the goal and mold your workouts around that... try to model them as if you're taking a run down the hill - they're pretty long runs usually and you're always using your legs.
Thanks Bendo13! I see I got your name wrong the first time, oops. I just signed up for this site, and if all the authors are as prompt as you, I'm gonna be on here a lot! I'll let ya know how this and the other exercises work out for me. Peace.
No problem, MasterMattias... I try my best! Good to have you on this site and I hope you see some good results!
i tried this excersise and its awesome.
I have pot belly and fat around my waist and on my chest,so can you please suggest me some exercise which i can try at home and cud get rid of this fat.
Thanks
Hey Surendra , I'm glad you like this exercise! What I would suggest to you is that you try out running intervals, which you can easily do at home with no equipment; you just need a place you can run. Intervals are great for fat loss, and I've seen some good results from them myself.
Check out my other article here, for more info on interval training: http://bendo13.hubpages.com/hub/Interval_Training_
dreadpal 4 years ago
Excellent hub. Thanks for the workout tip. I'll give it a try.