How to Do a Split Jump Lower Body Exercise

Video Transcript

"Hi , I'm Dr. Garrett Smith with Expert Village. This last exercise in the lunge sequence is called split jumps. Now, what it is is it's a Plyometric type of exercise. We are going to be leaving the ground on this one, so if you're not suppose to do high impact exercises or you're concerned about your knees, you may want to avoid this one. It's not that it's bad for your knees, it just may be too much for some people too early on in their program. Split jumps are very much like stationary lunges we went over earlier, we're going to start in one position. Make sure you have enough clearance over your head. We don't want to be jumping into a really low ceiling. I'll be fine here, you don't jump that high on these. You can start in the up position, and you just go down far enough to jump and switch your feet. Basically, split jumps, you're going from one lunge, jumping high enough, you can really emphasize the jump if you want or you can just jump high enough that you can switch your feet. Either way, one is obviously a lot harder than the other if you try to jump as high as you can each time. All the normal lunge rules apply. You have to know that jumping off the ground, your muscles are going to tire a lot faster, so your form will break down faster too. So really watch that front knee and watch where your placing your feet. Split lunges, split jumps, they're great for building power in the lunge position."