Categoriescoaching Exercise Technique Program Design Uncategorized

Box Jumps: You’re Not Jumping as High as You Think You Are. And, You’re Doing Them Wrong

Thump, thud, thump, thud.

“What’s that noise?” I thought to myself. “Thor whacking people’s faces with Mjolnir or a T-Rex break dancing to It Takes Two.”

I turn the corner….”please let it be a T-Rex. PLEASE!”

Nope, just some asshat performing box jumps.

Copyright: ammentorp / 123RF Stock Photo

 

Now, before anyone gets their panties in a tissy….I am not against box jumps. I implement them into my training as well as into the programs I write for other people and think believe they have a time and place (as does most any other exercise in existence1).

I mean, any strength coach or trainer worth his or her weight in paleo brownies understands their role in helping to train explosiveness and athleticism. And, if we were to peel back the onion a bit further, we’d note the REAL benefit(s) of box jumps are:

  1. Force summation, Rate of Force Development, or learning to put force into the ground.
  2. Landing mechanics: or, learning to absorb force.

It’s not to try to jump onto a box at the highest height possible or to perform them for endless repetitions.

Dumb

 

Really Dumb

 

Dumber

 

Commentary on Video #1

Before the record button was pressed you know those two guys were thinking to themselves “Dude, if you hit this jump it’s going viral and you’re totally going to get laid tonight.”

He’s lucky he didn’t break his back or neck.

Commentary on Video #2

Considering the number of banged up knees and scraped shins I’ve come across I really wish CrossFit would begin to understand that box jumps aren’t a great conditioning tool, and that there’s an abyss of better options.2

Hell, running over your right arm with a Honda Civic would be better than high-rep box jumps.

Commentary on Video #3

Yeah, yeah, I get it: It’s JJ Watt, it’s an old video, he’s an elite professional athlete, he nailed it, quit belly aching Tony.

Admittedly that was a baller jump and I too would have full confidence in JJ’s ability to jump over Mordor and then some. However, from a cost-benefit standpoint…..as a coach who’s worked with plenty of high-level athletes myself, I wouldn’t touch that with a ten-foot pole.

I have to wonder, though, did the coaches in that video prescribe or allow this to happen because they felt it would make their athlete better, or because they were chasing YouTube views and likes?

Not worth the risk. Refer to video #1.

My Real Beef: Not Box Jumps, But HIGH Box Jumps

A few months ago I watched a stellar video by Nick Tumminello where he went into detail on why he didn’t like HIGH box jumps, and he made a brilliant point I had never thought of before.

High box jumps reward those people with excellent hip mobility, particularly those with great hip flexion. Here’s an example:

The distance from the bottom of your foot to top of box is the “real” distance you’re jumping. Not so impressive now, huh?

And this is what the same jump looks like when someone doesn’t have the ability to clear ample hip motion:

They start cranking through their lumbar spine, over and over and over and…..”awwwww, goddamit I blew out my back again.”

“Ma, meatloaf! We want it.”

And speaking of the lumbar spine, how many times do you watch someone perform their box jumps and it ends up looking something like this:

Box Jump: Poor Landing

 

Happens all the time right?

Yuck.

If your box jumps look like this you’re using too high of a box and are reaping ZERO benefit from doing them.

How you start (chest up, knees slightly bent and not caving in, athletic position) is how you should end. Like this:

Box Jump – Good Landing

 

Another not so great thing thing many people end up doing is landing too loud on the box. Remember: one of the main benefits of the box jump is absorbing force.

Box Jump – Loud Landing

 

If someone can hear your box jumps in Idaho you’re doing them wrong.

Instead, you want to make sure you land softly, or what I like to tell my clients “like a ninja.”

Box Jump – Who’s the Ninja? You Are That’s Who

 

A Few Other Random Thoughts

  • Even with a (seemingly) low box height, the idea is to cue your clients to jump as high as they can (and then to land soft). External cueing works wonders here:
    • Try to hit your head on the ceiling.
    • Jump away from the ground.
    • OMG, there’s a snake!
  • I like to program box jumps for low reps. Sets of 1-3 are ideal.
  • Moreover I LOVE performing box jumps on lower body days prior to squatting or deadlifting as it serves as a nice way to potentiate or wake up the nervous system.
    • Perform 3-4 sets of 1-3 reps and you’re good to go.
    • Quality over quantity.
CategoriesExercises You Should Be Doing

Exercises You Should Be Doing (Better): Box Jumps

Today’s guest post is brought to you courtesy of Michael Anderson: friend, strength coach, and fellow lover of dead animal flesh (and Alicia Keys).

I felt this was an outstanding post and something I’m hoping people will take to heart.  As Mike notes below:  box jumps, while considered “easy” and much of the time haphazardly tossed into programs without much thought, are actually a lot more complicated (and coaching intensive) than people give them credit for.

In this post Mike discusses some common mistakes as well as offers a few coaching cues to help set the record straight.

Enjoy!

Note from TG:  apparently the videos are a little wacky for some people. Depending on the browser you’re using, you’re either going to get the appropriate box jump videos (Chrome, IE) or the same squat video for every video except for the last one (Firefox).

I have no idea how to fix the issue, so I apologize in advance for those who aren’t able to watch the actual videos.

Hey, it could be worse:  they could have linked to a whale giving birth instead.  Either way, the internet is stupid!

There are a ton of new exercises that you should be mixing into your training, but today I want to show you how to get the most out of an old favorite: box jumps.

Everybody and their mother has been doing box jumps for ages; it’s almost always the first plyometric exercise that is taught to young athletes and thus people continue to keep them in their routine for years and years. It’s simple right? Set up a box and jump onto it. So easy a caveman could do it. Well, not quite.

There’s a bunch of ways to screw up this seemingly simple exercise.

First off, let me show you what a good box jump looks like.

The big thing to notice here is the vertical displacement of my hips (Thanks to Chad Wesley Smith for  confirming the use of that phrase. It’s something I’ve been using for a while now).

I’ve created a line for the lowest point of my hips and the highest point, and the space between them is significant. This is caused by full triple extension and the intention of jumping as high as I can. You can see that I’m jumping straight up and landing softly on the box. This is the reason we do the exercise; it allows the athlete to jump as high as they can without having to experience the eccentric stress caused by the landing of the jump.  

Without really exploding through your hips, you’ll be missing a lot of the benefits of this exercise.  This is what a box jump with incomplete hip extension looks like:

You’ll notice that when compared to the other video, all I’m really doing is moving my feet from the ground to the box as quickly as possible.

My hips don’t move very high when compared to the jump with complete extension. When left to their own devices, a lot of athletes will revert to this because it feels faster, so it must be better…right?

Wrong, these athletes aren’t even actually jumping! They’re just efficiently moving their feet from point A to point B. Cue these athletes to get tall during the jump or to try jumping over the box.

Another common fault is the rebound jump; this often happens for a variety of reasons. One is that it’s a faster way to do box jumps if you happen to be doing them for a timed event. Another reason is that coaches feel that it’s more plyometric in nature so that’s how they coach the exercise.

Still, other coaches feel that linking jumps together like this allows for the use of higher boxes and is more “sport specific”…because jumping on a box repeatedly happens all the time during sports.

This action actually places a ton of stress on the body and has recently resulted in a slew of Achilles tendon tears. And trust me, you don’t want to tear your Achilles tendon.

Landing loudly is something that a lot of athletes will do with this exercise because it’s not something they think about.

A jump is a jump, right?

It’s up to the coaches to catch them landing loudly and to fix the problem. I like to tell my athletes to land like a ninja. Have you ever heard a ninja land? Hell no!

Note:   while doing the stomp for this video, I was reminded of why to not do it, because it hurt so damn badly!

Lastly, another common fault with the box jump is very specific to female clients and athletes; landing with your knees together.

Concurrently, this also happens quite often during the takeoff portion of the jump – many athletes (female AND male) will initiate the movement by allowing their knees to cave in.

Teaching athletes to both start and land with the knees out will do a ton in regards to ACL care/prevention.

The stress placed upon the knees when they are allowed to cave or drift in – as demonstrated in the video above – is huge. Preventing ACL injuries in female athletes is one of the hallmarks of a good strength and conditioning program, so please make sure that this simple drill doesn’t work against your overall goals.

If the athlete’s can’t keep their knees out, either lower the height of the box or work on a different drill.

And for my own edification (and because I feel it should be common sense): please don’t do box jumps onto absurdly high boxes.

This isn’t an expression of your ability to produce power so much as an expression of your hip mobility. The box jump isn’t an e-penis measuring contest, so please keep the boxes at a safe height.

To the best of my knowledge box jumps aren’t a contested event, they are just a training drill. Keep them as such, and don’t end up like this guy:

Note:  As a final note, I’d like ask everyone to please check out this great cause and consider donating!

I hope everyone found this useful! Have a great day, and go lift something heavy!

Author’s Bio

Mike is a Boston area personal trainer and currently interning with Boston University Strength and Conditioning. Mike is also finishing his degree in Exercise and Health Science at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He loves bacon, beer and his 7 year old pit bull Lexi. You can reach him with any questions, comments or notes of affection at [email protected]. You can also visit his website:  http://commercialgymtrainer.blogspot.com/