Box jumps

We spent our childhood jumping up and down, running and monkeying around constantly. Now, you're an adult, you decide to start CrossFit and they put a box in front of you to jump on and you just freeze.

Well, you are not the only one, but I hope that after these tips you will be able to unblock yourself and do the box jumps without fear.

No rep

To achieve a valid repetition, the set movement standards must be met:

• Landing with both feet on the drawer
• Extension full hip when on top of the box

If both requirements are not met, the repetition will count as invalid.. Instead, it is not required to return to the ground with two feet at the same time, the athlete can avoid the jump and choose to go down first with one and then with the other.

Scaling or adapting

Depending on the limitations of each athlete this exercise can be performed in different ways:

• Avoid jumping into the drawer and instead do step ups.
• Lowering the drawer height. The drawer has 3 positions, 50-60-75 cm. If a lower height is required, drawers with smaller dimensions are available.

Some people, without having physical impediments to jump, freeze in front of the box because they are afraid.

Coaches have many resources to help that person gain confidence and gradually make progressions that allow them to do the box jump. For example:

Use a pike on top of the drawer and jump the pike instead of the drawer..

Normally, it is less impressive to jump over a plastic tube than to think of a whole block, even though the height is the same.

As people become convinced that they are capable of jumping that height, they break that mental barrier and dare to do it with the crate, first with a low height and little by little with higher heights.

Tips to improve the box jump

Rest up

If you want your box jumps to be faster, it's better to rest at the top of the box, recover your breath and posture so that when you touch the ground you can use the energy to do a plyometric jump and climb up the box right away.

This is more efficient than resting before jumping, since each time you have to start the impulse to jump from 0.

Don't lose focus

Box jumps are an exercise that does not require great technical skills if you lose concentration, it is easy to fall and hit your shins.

In spite of everything, we are human and even the professionals end up having some signs of war from the drawer. That's why if you want to prevent, you can wear some shin guards or simply the weightlifting knee pads without going up to the knee, resting on your feet will protect your shins..

What muscles are worked in the box jump?

This plyometric exercise mainly involves:

• quadriceps
• buttocks
• hamstrings
• cufflinks

In addition to the muscular work, box jumps help to improve explosiveness and the anaerobic endurance.

Box jumping exercises

In addition to the box jump explained above, there are other versions such as:

Box jump overs

In addition to jumping onto the box, the athlete must finish on the other side of the box from where he/she started the exercise. Hip extension on top of the box is not mandatory.

They can be performed sideways, which allows for more fluidity in the exercise, since the athlete does not have to be constantly rotating to start a new jump.

Box jumps overs without touching the box

We don't usually see this type of demand in a box, but we have seen it in competition. This exercise consists of the athlete jumping to the other side of the box without touching the box in question.

Let's say the athlete has to jump an obstacle which is the box.

High box jumps

Usually the girls jump the box at the height of 50 and the boys at the height of 60.

There is WODs in which the height is specified to be modified to increase the difficulty to 60 and 75 respectively.

Box jumps with ballast

In the same way that classic box jumps are done, but the athlete wears a weighted vest.

High steps overs with dumbbell

The box is placed higher than usual and the athlete must move from one side of the box to the other while carrying dumbbells.

As we saw in the burpees articleThere is also the combination of burpees and box jumps.

Drawer details

Box Jump crate material

The most common box of the boxes is the wooden one. Unfortunately in case of carelessness it is the most dangerous for the shins.

You may also be familiar with quilted drawers, with a Soft coating is safer in case of impact.

Buy box jump with discount

If you want to expand the home training equipmenthere are several options:

Although there is a price difference, we chose the foam one, knowing that one drawer is for life and we would not need to buy another one.