THE BOX JUMP This exercise is one of my personal favourites along with the burpee. It is a simple and extremely effective plyometric exercise. Plus it’s FUN jumping around like a kid! It develops power, helps balance, increases speed, boosts coordination, raises your heart rate, strengthens your legs, burns fat, while building muscle tone in your lower body. This exercise targets your quads while activating your core as well as every other muscle in your lower body such as your calves, hamstrings and glutes. Box Jumping burns a lot of calories. When you jump, your body burns 800-1000 calories an hour (compared to walking burning 200-300 an hour). The high intensity of this exercise actually stimulates changes in your mitochondria (this is where fuel is converted into energy in your cells) so that you will burn fat before carbohydrates. This is great for anyone trying to lose weight. To execute a Box Jump:- 1) Stand with your feet shoulder width apart; 2) Push your hips back and down while dipping your knees; 3) Extend the hips, knees and ankles to jump up, while swinging your arms for momentum; 4) Land on top of “Box” in a partial squat, standing up and hence fully opening up your hips. So get JUMPING and have fun with it!
Posted on: Thu, 19 Jun 2014 06:45:00 +0000