For learning to build explosive muscle power for jumping, sprinting, and other activities, it’s hard to beat plyometrics. The most simple plyometrics exercises involve little more than hopping in place, like with jumping rope. However, most people seem to be most familiar with plyometrics as box exercises, using boxes to jump up and down, using gravity to help you learn to develop more power.

Plyometrics box exercises aren’t for everyone, however, and knowing when to do them and how to do them properly will reduce chances of injury. To help you get started with plyometrics box exercises, here are a few tips and one or two simple exercises to get you started.

Injury Prevention

First of all, keep in mind that box plyometrics are rather high-impact exercises that can be hard on the joints, so if you have knees or a back prone to soreness, it’s best to stick to low impact plyometrics rather than trying plyometrics box exercises. It’s also best to hold off on starting on plyometrics box exercises until you’ve done a little weight training, building up some more strength to help you in your training for explosive muscle power.

Box Exercise 1: Jumping Up

When you do decide that you’re ready to start with plyometrics box exercises, it’s time to start with simple jumps. With feet shoulder-width apart, hop up from the ground onto the box, trying to keep the landing as soft as possible. That’s all there is to this exercise. Your best bet fort his one is to start with small boxes and work up to progressively higher ones as you improve. For a little extra momentum, swing your arms upwards as you start to jump.

Box Exercise 2: Stepping Down

For this exercise, you’ll need two boxes to do this properly. Set the boxes about three feet apart, and stand on top of one. Step down off the first box and as soon as your feet touch the ground, jump off the ground onto the second box. This exercise uses the acceleration due to gravity to effectively increase the amount of force you’ll need to push off the ground, making it more difficult than the first box jump.

Most plyometrics box exercises will be similar to these, whether you’re jumping up and down or side to side. The stereotypical plyometrics box exercises usually seem to involve hopping off the box before you make your jump, but you should hold off on such high-impact, joint straining plyometrics box exercises until you’re comfortable with the simpler exercises. By starting slow and working up to more difficult exercises, you’ll find that plyometrics box exercises will bring an increase in your own muscle power.