Dangerous Exercise: The PR Box Jump

by Dan Blewett

Box jumps at personal record heights are unnecessary.

Reducing the height to a level easily cleared would eliminate a tremendous amount of risk while only marginally, if at all, reducing the effect of stimulating the athlete's maximum jump intensity. After all, the training effect of the box jump is minimal, while risk is very high.

Box Jumps Do:

Teach intensity by way of a goal to jump to

Demonstrate jumping ability

Demonstrate hip mobility

Box Jumps Do Not:

Provide reactive stimulus for CNS

Provide overload stimulus for muscles

Showcase the jump used in sports (ever see LeBron tuck his legs while dunking?)

Box Jump Risk:

Awkward fall to floor from 2-6 feet

Skimming shins (on wood/metal boxes)

Hands hitting the box on the upswing. Broken fingers, anyone?

Box Jump Reward:

Show others how high you can jump

Show others how mobile your hips are

YouTube Hero

Find out how strong your ACLs and bones are when you inevitably fall

Remind yourself that there's no real training stimulus here except for intensity – your ability to jump is already determined, the exercise is entirely aimed at eliciting 100% of it.

Increasing one's explosive power, especially that of a high-level athlete, requires exercises that force the athlete to increase the rate of force development. Furthermore, jumping height will depend to a high degree on hip mobility.

How To Make Box Jumps Safer

Lower the box. Seeing a 48-inch box is intimidating, even if you know you can jump 50-inches. If you think you have to challenge your PR to get adequate jumping intensity I'd counter that if no one told you, you couldn't tell the difference without measuring. All you need is enough height for your body to really need to get up.

Remove them altogether. They just aren't a great exercise – they demonstrate ability without providing the reactive or strength stimulus to build jumping ability. You have to summon your own mental intensity to jump higher, rather than have an external stimulus train and force you. Once you max out, all the intensity in the world won't stimulate your body to go higher.

Use them as conditioning at low heights. Though CrossFitters are often the culprit of "box jump PRs," I don't hate the CrossFit notion of using low but repetitive box jumps for conditioning. It's relatively safe as long as the height doesn't challenge a person at any point. Jumping at 30-50% of your max height for reps will give you a nice anaerobic training effect.

I can hear the skeptics already – "Joe DeFranco box jumps all his high-level athletes!" I have tremendous respect for Mr. DeFranco and his methods, but I guarantee he knows the risks of the exercise, talks it over with his athletes, and likely takes measures to ensure the height they choose is one they will make 99% of the time.

He's also training a higher percentage of 18+ athletes who can decide for themselves the risk of an exercise in a football environment where injuries are somewhat tolerated.

Lastly, just because he might churn out box jump videos doesn't mean his athletes train that way all the time. Jumping high is sexy and gets YouTube views; jumping down and absorbing impact inspires YouTube yawns.

Remember, it only takes one awkward landing, and 50+ inches is pretty high to break the fall. You can go ahead and "don't be a pussy," if you choose, just don't cry to me when you're rehabbing from that one bad rep. - DB