Time to upgrade your Box Jumps.
This guy (Master of Sports in Weightlifting) does Weighted Box Jumps (with a 110kg x5) and maintains pretty good form throughout the set.
I’m not gonna lie, at first I was like “what the hell is he doing? Injury risk yadadada”. But on second thought, if you pick a weight that allows you to keep good form throughout the movement (no valgus knee i.e. knees not coming in etc.) and step down in a controlled manner, this is a good exercise.
(Weighted) Jumps in general are very good to develop speed /explosiveness in athletes and many of the soviet/russian books advocate jumps as primary tool of improving speed. Just as an example, this article mentions that Yurik Vardanyan was a staunch advocate of weighted jumps.
Does it mean you have to do it with a 110kg barbell on your back? Of course not (unless you can make it look as solid as this guy does). He is a beast. So take it as a feat of strength.
Watch out for this movement in the 2014 CrossFit Games 😀 .
Update: There seems to be some confusion about this.
- What it is: an exercise to improve speed /explosiveness.
- What it is not: a “CrossFit Exercise” i.e. something that is done for high reps, or in a fatigued state, or both.
More Weighted Jumps:
Update: Dmitry Klokov also likes Barbell Jumps for explosive power development.
Solaris says
Good, if you know that you still have some power left to jump high enough for the last rep, if you don’t…
Gregor says
That should go without saying.
Nathaniel says
i’d do it with kettlebells though or dumbbells somethng that i can throw away from me should things go bad
Sam says
That is stupid! If you don’t blow out your back your going to blow out your knees. You cant keep good form jumping with weight.
Jeff Diritto says
did you watch the video? he kept good form jumping with weight.
Jake W says
it’s kind of tough to say one way or another. it looked pretty solid, but i have no clue what his spine felt like the next day.
Jeff Diritto says
I would bet he used a logical progression and built a solid base of foundational strength to get to that performance
Jake W says
i’m a terrible gambler.
IM says
that just looks like a bad idea
ironwill says
This is a very high end exercise. Doing it with a Barbell on your back makes it more dangerous then doing it the way we perform them with our top guys; and that is with a weight vest. This man however is using a much greater weight and is probable a very good weightlifter.
Jay Blais says
yeah……no thanks
Olliver Argenis says
Why is he NOT fully extending the hips?
Gregor says
Because the jump is the most important part of this exercise. This is where the explosion happens.
Slowly extending your hips while you stand on top does nothing.
Steve says
What?
Olliver Argenis says
Thank you Gregor
WZ_KRK says
ok but why he did not fully extend the hips in last phase of jump?
(not on the block)
Roberto Aguilar says
Because it is not CrossFit bro…
Mike says
I’d say trust your first instinct on this one Gregor… It’s a stupid exercise not worth the risk. Do a contrast instead. Risk to Reward scale severely disproportionate.
Leon says
I am still sceptical. Would be interesting to see what the effects and the loads are. The depth jump was shown to be very effective due to the high eccentric loading. On the plus site no one is going to do this stuff shown in the video, because it looks dangerous. Plyometrics on the other are done even used in warm ups (unfortunately).
andresarpi says
You have to follow a preogression before you do this exercise. verkhoshansky explains that firt ypu have to do extensive methods of jumping without weights, the intensive wo weights, extensive with weights, intensive with weights (this), and the depth jumps.
Daniel Jørgensen says
But why jump onto a box?? If jump practice absolutely needs to be weighted – then why not jump straight up in the air.
And can someone link to a proof that weighted jumping is better then non-wighted jump pratice?
And further, if he needs ten seconds to prepare for cleaning the weight, why not stick with cleaning it.
And further again: No, form is not good.
Daniel Jørgensen says
Okay, form get a little better