Warm-up:
Workout:
Ninja jump
From a kneeling position sitting on your heels, use your hips to explosively jump up into a bottom squat position, using an arm swing to help propel you up and slightly forward. Keep your core and upper body neutral, while focusing on jumping and landing with both feet even and straight as possible into a supported bottom squat position – nothing should be unstable. From here, kneel back down one leg at a time.
To test your strength before going into this one, try a step up squat. From the same kneeling position, bring one leg up at a time and hold yourself in a bottom squat position. No momentum should be needed to get you into this position and you will bring both knees right back onto the floor one leg at a time once you get into the bottom of a squat. Make sure you can do 10 reps total of this exercise with good form before trying the ninja jump.
Power burpee
With hands planted on the floor from a standing position, leap both legs back and land in a solid plank pose and go down into a pushup as in a regular burpee. From here, explosively push back up so that you’re able to land in a bottom squat position with your feet. Once you land, go immediately into the next rep by leaping your feet back again instead of standing straight up.
Knee jumps
From a standing position, jump high enough that you’re able to bring both knees up towards your chest while in mid-air. Before landing, re-straighten your legs and absorb the landing while loading up to go directly into another jump.
If you aren’t able to efficiently coordinate each landing and tie together reps, use jump squats instead until the absorb and rebound transition is smooth.
—Submitted by Chase S., Northern Illinois University