Improve Your Long Jump With Plyometrics

If there’s any sport that responds well to training with plyometrics, it’s the long jump. Because the long jump is about converting your energy into explosive power, allowing you to jump long distances, using the explosive power training from plyometrics for long jumps just makes sense. If you’ve been training for a while to do the long jump, plyometrics can add to your routine, with just a few exercises:

Box Exercises

The most commonly recognized plyometrics exercise for long jump improvement is perhaps the box exercises, which increase power for both long jumping and high jumps. These require a box that’s 12 to 24 inches off the ground, which you stand on. Step off the box, and when your feet touch the ground, swing your arms up and jump as high as you can. Several reps of these twice a week will help to improve your explosive jumping power.

Lunge Jumps

Another great plyometrics exercise for long jumps is the lunge jump. In this exercise, you start in the lunge position and jump as high as you can. While in the air, you extend the lunge so your front leg is further up, towards your chest, and your back leg is extended back so it’s almost straight. Before landing, move your feet back into the starting position and jump up again as soon as you land.

Doing four to six reps, then switch the position of your legs, is a great way for you to use plyometrics for your long jump training. Alternate versions of this exercise include putting your hands on your hips so you can’t use their momentum and switching the position of your legs in air, so the front leg becomes the rear leg, before landing.

Highland Swing

This plyometrics exercise for long jumping is similar to the lunge jump, but you start with your feet next to each other. Swing your arms for momentum as you jump up, and when in the air, extend your legs just as in the lunge jump exercise. Bring your feet back together before landing and explode off the ground again right away, alternating the leg in the front. Exercises like these help improve your leg power as well as rhythm, which is important when doing long jumps.

Adding To The Improvement

Do keep in mind because these plyometric exercises for long jumps are rather high impact exercises, they should only be done about twice a week, giving your body plenty of time to recover, which will minimize injury. Because the momentum of the arms as well as the legs is important to long jumps, be sure to add strength training for the upper body to your regimen. With a little work and dedication to plyometrics your long jump should see some significant improvement, though.