This form of plyometrics will enhance your workouts, warmups, and finishers.

How to do Box Jumps Like a Pro

Many new athletes struggle with box jumps. The dread of failing a jump and breaking your neck is very widespread. This self-preservation is why adults frequently avoid attempting potentially dangerous athletic feats: with age comes injury experience, which leads to a “risk-averse” mindset. If you never learned how to backflip as a child, you might dismiss it as an adult, saying, “eh, I don’t need to try that one.” “It might break my face.”

However, leveraging your body against gravity to jump up to a higher surface is an important aspect of being a leg-powered athlete. Most professional athletes, including NBA, NFL, and Olympians, train their vertical leap in some fashion. There is also a significant carryover to Olympic weightlifting. Top professional weightlifters have incredible vertical jumping power, which makes reasonable given that their whole sport revolves upon propelling the biggest weight possible from the ground to over their heads.

Plyometrics are jump training exercises that help you gain athletic power by teaching your muscles to deliver maximal force in short periods of time.

Enter: the plyobox.

As a coach, it’s exciting to see someone hesitate anxiously in front of a knee-high plyo box, clearly fighting their instincts and psyching themselves out to try the jump. They bounce around and pace in front of it, bending their knees and measuring the leap repeatedly.

When will they ultimately launch themselves and land successfully? It’s quite exciting. Cheers and high fives all around. It’s a significant milestone for anyone on a weight-loss or fitness journey.

When you first start out, keep in mind that you will never be completely certain that you can make the jump. Not until you commit to the scary part and successfully complete it.

Here are some time-tested and proven steps to help you get there.

How to build up your box jump

Step 1: Start with step-ups

The ideal place to begin is to practice your coordination and leg strength by stepping up and down one foot at a time onto a sturdy, elevated surface (such as a staircase). Consider pressing down through your foot on the box to establish stability throughout your entire body.

Remember, step-ups are a leisurely movement. They will develop your strength, but not the explosiveness or spatial awareness required to land a higher box leap. Take it slowly, but don’t stay on step-ups forever.

Step 2: Get your technique down

The crucial components here are the two-foot takeoff and landing. Bend your knees and sit your hips back (as if you were about to squat). Launch upward with your arms for velocity, float on top of the box, and land softly with your knees bent. Once you’ve reached the peak, stand tall.

The position you land in should be identical to the one you started in—hips higher than knees, at the beginning of a squat. Practice perfecting this form with every jump, no matter how small.

Step 3: Graduate to plate jumps

Begin with placing a 15lb rubber plate (solid, without holes) flat on the ground and jumping on top of it every day until it feels comfortable. Remember to practice your technique with each jump and land softly. It will eventually become second nature.

You can also use line hops (hopping left-to-right and front-to-back over a floor line) or jump-rope sets for additional jumping exposure.

Step 4: Slowly increase the height

When the 15-pound plate feels comfortable, lay a 10-pound plate on top of it and drill the new height. Continue to add height in modest increments until you reach a point where you cannot go much higher. Then work through the sticking spot and move on when it’s less daunting.

After stacking three or four 45lb plates, or reaching the height of a 20-inch box, it’s time to…

Step 5: Do it scared!

If you can jump onto a plate stack the same height as a plyo box, you should go for it. Use the plates to clear your mind before committing to the box. Your confidence will grow with each repetition.

You will probably never feel completely prepared to climb your first Mt. Everest. That self-preservation instinct will kick in, and you’ll find yourself staring at that gritty wood as if it were a platter of fried scorpions you had to eat to win a lot of money. Accept your fears and go for it nonetheless.

Step 6: Work on rebounding

Up until now, you should have been stepping down one foot at a time to get off the box or plate stack. However, there is a difficult technique known as rebounding that might help you improve your box jump skills.

To rebound from box jumps, jump back up onto the box as soon as your feet touch the ground, rather than stepping down. Rebounding might save time by speeding up your reps, but it requires practice and self-awareness to avoid faceplanting or tearing your Achilles.

Step 7: Try the tall box

When you’re comfortable with box jumps and have some genuine strength underneath you, try the 30-inch height. Do a few jumps adjacent to the tall box to get a sense of how explosive you must be to land on it. (Hint: super-explosive)

For really high leaps relative to your height, your body must soar into full extension before landing in nearly complete flexion. It’s similar to diving into a pool but striking the water in a cannonball. If you can jump onto a tall box, consider yourself a really talented athlete.

Prevent box jump injuries

We’re terrified of box jumps for a reason: you can damage yourself. Scraped shins, strained calves, and ruptured Achilles tendons are all possibilities, but the likelihood of injury increases if you become sloppy with your reps.

Avoid rounding your back, landing slowly, or, worse, stomping hard when you land. When you are exhausted, relax instead of attempting another jump and failing. If they’re accessible at your gym, use soft boxes instead of traditional wooden ones. If everything else fails, wear shin protectors.

If you pay attention to your body, avoid damage, and push yourself just enough, you can begin piling plates on a tall box and firing up onto them as if you were wearing a jetpack.