Every dancer wants higher jumps and better leaps! In this quick-tip video I demonstrate a straight forward but super effective exercise to super charge your dance jumps.
Improving your jumps is all about building explosive power, or improving your muscles’ capacity to produce speed and force. The best way to do this is through a technique plyometrics, which is sometimes referred to as jump training. Plyometrics uses jumps, bounds or hops, and there are endless variations that can be beneficial for dancers. The version in the video below is a basic scissor lunge, which is a great place to start. Don’t be deceived, though, it’s harder than it looks! Once you’ve mastered this scissor lunge, check out some of other many plyometrics variations to keep things interesting and to keep challenging your body.
Plyometrics work the muscles very hard, so you don’t need to do them very often to be effective. Adding just a few reps of plyometrics training 1-2 days a week is enough to reap huge benefits! In fact, because of the high workload you really don’t want to overdo it – 2 days a week max. Also, because you work on what we call “perceived exertion”, or in other works, you will always be jumping to your maximum effort, plyometrics naturally progress themselves. This means, as long as you keep jumping as high as you can, you never need to add more reps. I hope that makes sense!
As always, any questions or thoughts, let me know!
