{"id":797,"date":"2010-09-09T17:28:29","date_gmt":"2010-09-10T00:28:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leanmeanvirilemachine.com\/?p=797"},"modified":"2010-09-09T17:28:29","modified_gmt":"2010-09-10T00:28:29","slug":"plyometrics-exercises-vertical-jumps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/2010\/09\/09\/plyometrics-exercises-vertical-jumps\/","title":{"rendered":"Plyometrics Exercises: Vertical Jumps"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/squat_jumps.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-801\" title=\"squat_jumps\" src=\"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/squat_jumps.jpg\" alt=\"Squat Jumps\" width=\"208\" height=\"243\" \/><\/a>In an earlier post, I went over the basics of <a href=\"..\/2010\/06\/10\/bring-the-power-plyometrics-exercises-101\/\">plyometrics exercises<\/a>. This is the second part of a series that will cover this topic more in-depth.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lower Body Plyometrics For a Strong, Healthy, and Attractive Body<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Most people focus on the following exercises for their lower body:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Barbell back squats<\/li>\n<li>Resistance machines (leg press, hamstring curls, calf raises, etc.)<\/li>\n<li>Running<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Back squats are a great exercise&#8230; except most guys overdo it in the long term, pushing themselves to support as much weight as possible across their backs, compressing their spines, and leading to back injuries.<\/p>\n<p>Resistance machines and most isolation exercises are best left to bodybuilders. This kind of &#8220;micromanaging&#8221; more often results in muscle imbalances and asymmetries in Average Joes, plus you have to spend a lot more time to get the same results as if you had been working on compound movements.<\/p>\n<p>Walking, jogging, and sprinting are all important, but again, most guys overdo the steady-state cardio in a misguided attempt to lose weight (diet is the best way to control fat accumulation). This often leads to a lowered metabolism and knee trauma due to poor running form as the result of over-padded shoes.<\/p>\n<p>I think that lower body plyometrics such as vertical jumps are an essential part of your fitness program because they build a strong, healthy, and attractive lower body (women are more attracted to butts than biceps) without the risk of injury and in much less time than the other methods I mentioned.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vertical Jumps<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A group of exercises similar to box jumps, and even more minimalist, are the vertical jumps.<\/p>\n<p>Vertical jumps consist simply of jumping up and down as high as you can and as quickly as you can.<\/p>\n<p>There are two major variations to vertical jumps:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Squat jumps<\/li>\n<li>Tuck jumps<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Squat Jumps<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>With squat jumps, you generate more power by squatting down to parallel every time before you jump up. This added challenge will be great for those who find the regular jumps too easy.<\/p>\n<p><object classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" width=\"480\" height=\"385\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/eZZc18uX-q8&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;\" \/><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><embed type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"480\" height=\"385\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/eZZc18uX-q8&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n<p><strong>Tuck Jumps<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Tuck jumps amp up the challenge even further by having you tuck your knees into your chest with each jump. For the truly hardcore, feel free to combine squats and tucks into the most badass plyometric vertical jump routine ever!<\/p>\n<p><object classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" width=\"480\" height=\"385\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/Q2yH1vixV4g?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US\" \/><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><embed type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"480\" height=\"385\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/Q2yH1vixV4g?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n<span id=\"pty_trigger\"><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In an earlier post, I went over the basics of plyometrics exercises. This is the second part of a series that will cover this topic more in-depth. Lower Body Plyometrics For a Strong, Healthy, and Attractive Body Most people focus on the following exercises for their lower body: Barbell back squats Resistance machines (leg press, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[60,124,125,123],"class_list":["post-797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exercise","tag-plyometrics","tag-squat-jumps","tag-tuck-jumps","tag-vertical-jumps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":900,"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797\/revisions\/900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}