Freehand Jump Squat
Trains the Quads.
- Equipment
- Bodyweight
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Push
- Level
- Intermediate
How to do it
- Stand with the feet about shoulder-width apart and the arms at your sides or hands behind the head.
- Sit down into a squat to about parallel with the chest up.
- Drive up explosively and jump off the floor.
- Land softly on the balls of the feet, bending the knees to absorb the landing.
- Sink straight into the next squat and repeat.
- Keep the torso upright and the knees over the toes on both the take-off and the landing.
Common mistakes
- Landing with the knees caving in. The knees track over the toes on the landing as on the take-off; a caved landing is the commonest fault and the one worth watching for.
- Landing flat-footed. The balls of the feet touch first and the heels follow; a flat landing is loud and jarring.
- Cutting the squat short. Each jump comes out of a real squat; a shallow dip is a hop.
- Leaning forward on the take-off. The chest stays up so the jump goes up rather than forward.