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Jumps are a perfect warm-up for the legs

In this article, we want to see 5 types of jumping exercises for beginners.

Note – This article has been asked by one of our Core Course practitioners on Patreon (see how to attend our home study classes here Learn Kung Fu online: a beginner-to-expert course).

Important premises:

These exercises can be performed as a warm-up (read Basic warm-up and How to correctly perform warm-up)
If we want to execute these exercises more intensely (read Intensity of training: depends on what?) than for a warm-up, let’s do stretching before starting (read Basic soft stretching and How to correctly perform stretching)
Train safely, do not train what is in pain (read also Safe training: the 3 errors rule)
If we are overweight, completely out of practice (or simply if we feel discomfort during the practice) we can focus on the light version of exercise 1; the best way to accustom a body out of shape to the jumps is to execute vibrations exercises (read Speed: the vibration’s exercise)
…

A note by Master Kongling – About the last point, it is interesting to say that one of the fighters that asked me to be prepared for MMA competitions arrived at our school with an already deep physical preparation and a wide martial experience but immediately after the first training session, we realized that his knees, although very trained, were his weak point. He was unable to keep up with the pace that the mind and the rest of the body imposed on them during Fabric Cloth Training (read Basic tools: the cloth). Thanks to the vibration exercises we solved the gap in 3 weeks. This is to say that having difficulty in straining the knees does not necessarily mean being completely out of practice: as always, the most effective and rapid solution is graduality.

The exercises

All of these exercises we are going to describe have to be performed for (at least) 10 minutes. We can do specific sessions for each of them or we can divide the amount of time dedicated to executing altogether (eg. 2 minutes each).

Exercise 1 (wave jumps):

Ideal for knee warm-up and for muscle chain (read Use the body power: the muscle chain)
This exercise is useful to get our knees used to bend
We start from a standing position
Our feet must be parallel and with an opening at the shoulders level
We have to bend a little bit our knees
Let’s “bounce” up and down flexing our knees
Let’s try to involve our entire body in a wave-like motion that starts from the feet and arrives at the head
We are not truly performing jumps, our feet do not leave the ground
Beginners can do small flexes, advanced practitioners can gradually do a full flexion (similar to squats)

Exercise 2 (toes bouncing):

It is the next step of exercise 1
Ideal for improving fighting mobility and power generation
We start from a standing position
Our feet can be in a free position (we can even use a fighting stance, read How to rapidly learn Kung Fu: guard stance)
We have to bend a little bit our knees
Let’s “bounce” up and down flexing the knees but this time, rising our heels
Our toes do not leave the ground
We can perform bouncing both with synchronous and asynchronous leg motions

Exercise 3 (free small jumps):

Ideal for stamina development and understanding of weight distribution
We can stay in a standing position or move in all directions (better)
Our feet can be in a free position (again, we can use a fighting stance)
We have to bend a little bit our knees
Let’s “bounce” up and down flexing knees but this time rising our entire foot
At each jump, the foot return completely to the ground
We can make only light and natural jumps (a few centimeters) but they must be elastic and fast, not rigid
Again we can perform bouncing with synchronous and asynchronous leg motions
To also work with coordination, while jumping, we can move the torso back and forward in all directions (eg. from left to right, etc.)

Exercise 4 (alternating openings):

Ideal for stamina, coordination and speed development
We start in a standing position with the legs attached
We jump and we open the legs on the X-axis
We jump again and we close the legs
Then we jump and we open the legs on the Z-axis
Again we jump and close our legs
Now we do the same thing for the 2 oblique directions and then we restart
Let’s try to avoid errors, to not land like a potatoes bag and to gradually move at the maximum speed we can reach
The arms can follow the openings throwing punches (in this case let’s try to do not be in sync)

A note by Master Kongling – About the last point: the reason is that it is not a good idea to train to become predictable.

Exercise 5 (skip):

Ideal for stamina and kick power development
We start in a standing position but we can move in all the directions
We raise the right leg bending the knee (with the feet looking downward)
We maintain our body straight and we try to make the knee (gradually) go as higher as possible (but if this means drastically sacrificing speed, let’s lower them)
Then we leave the right leg returning down
At the exact moment when the right leg touches the ground, we raise the left (in the same way)
Then we repeat the sequence until the end of the execution
Let’s try to maintain a good pace without losing a certain knees elevation

Variations

These are safe and extremely simple jumping exercises ideal for beginners (or as a warm-up) but they have to be performed also by advanced practitioners.

Let’s see some interesting variations (not for novices):

Use a kettlebell or a weighted vest (15-25 Kg) to make the exercise harder
Add eventual obstacles on the ground (let’s not do this when we are weak or fatigued, the risk of injuries is very high)
Doing jumps our arms and hands are free, once we understood the execution’s mechanics, we can perform simultaneously exercises with the upper limbs (read Optimizing the available time)
…

In the next article of this series, we will see more jumping exercises.

In-depth video courses

Basic 6 Dragons Kung Fu Exercises – All the fundamental technical practice to build real martial skills
Advanced speed and reflexes training – All the secrets of our school develop real execution speed
Martial arts weight loss: how to – A guided path toward a safe and long-lasting weight loss

In-depth articles

5 running exercises ideal for beginners / warm-up – A selection of effective running exercises
5 regeneration practices to recover after training – 5 practices ideal to recover energy after an intense workout

Questions

Reply in the comments and share your experience:

Can you jump for 10 minutes without interruption?

Author: Master Kongling

Founder of 6 Dragons Kung Fu.

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