Build All Day Leg Power With This One Exercise

Today I am going to talk about one of my favourite exercises.

An exercise that most have a love/hate relationship with, and for good reason.

They hate doing them, but love the results.

So what is it?

It’s the Kettlebell Jump Squat, where you hold a kettlebell on your back and you jump. A lot.

Why is it effective? It asks the legs, the quads in particular, to pump out a shed load of power over and over again.

It looks like this:

This video is from when I was competing in kettlebell sport. Because of this drill, my legs never failed me in the sport.

It’s also a staple of world renowned Kettlebell Lifter Denis Vasilev who talks about it here:

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Jump Squats for me is the best legs preparation for Jerk. It gives you that explosiveness and power for s good bump. Nothing as painful as Jump Squats 😅 but it worse every bit of it. My target is to get to 3sets of 30 reps with the 32kg kettlebell and work like that for a three last weeks before the competitions. I’m on my way and building up now. Last training did 3sets of 30rp with 24kg, This training is my first one on 28kg and I did 4sets of 15rp. Will get to 3sets of 30rp and then will upgrade to 32kg #kettlebellgrip #denisvasilev #orangekettlebellclub #jumpsquats

A post shared by DenisVasilev (@denisvasilevkbsport) on Jul 14, 2019 at 12:45am PDT

Is it just limited to Kettlebell Sport?

No, I believe this is a drill that would benefit all within the martial arts community. Squatting full range can be a way to armour plate the knees, and the jump squat is a way to develop energy system appropriate muscle and strength in the quads, hamstrings, glutes and calves.

Vasilev talks about sets of 30 reps. I usually do 4 sets of 15-20, or I’ll have them as part of a circuit with other exercises using 30-45 second work intervals.

Be sure you have no knee issues before trying these, and be conservative with the weight you choose. But if you’re a BJJ or Judo player, I think you’ll very quickly come to appreciate the benefits of these.

Regards

Dave Hedges www.WG-Fit.com

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