10 Powerful Plyometric Leg Exercises

Plyometrics is a type of workout that can offer certain benefits. What are some plyometric leg exercises to do at home or in the gym?

Plyometric exercises are movements where you move your body at a high speed, with or without extra equipment. The way you train your muscles influences what fitness component you improve.

Slower resistance training exercises will train either muscle endurance or muscle strength. These plyometric leg exercises can be a good alternative if you want to work on your muscle power fitness component in your leg muscles.

Keep in mind that plyometrics are not for everyone. Especially if you have sensitive ankles, knees, hips, and back these exercises may not be for you. If you have a softer surface or shock-absorbing shoes these may be a good option.

If you do want to give these exercises a try make sure you warm up sufficiently. You will use your legs in an explosive manner. Being warmed up helps you avoid injuries.

You can do most of the leg exercises below with extra equipment like a quality weighted vest but keep in mind that this is even rougher on your body.

1. Jump squats

To do a jump squat take the following steps:

1. Stand up straight with your feet at more or less shoulder width. Keep your arms hanging still besides your body throughout the exercise to focus more on leg muscles.
2. Slowly lower your hips by bending your knees. How far depends on different factors like knee health but at your lowest point you ideally want your hips to be at or lower than your knee height. You will likely have to bend forward for balance but keep your back in a straight line throughout the movement.
3. Push up your body fast, mainly with the help of your front upper leg muscles. You have to generate enough upward power so that you jump in the air. Try to avoid using your arms for momentum if you want to target your leg muscles.
4. How you want to land depends on what body parts you want to absorb the shock. You generally want to at least fold your legs slightly so your knees don’t absorb all the weight.

The jump squat is one of the most standard plyometric leg exercises. It can help you train muscle power in your glutes, quadriceps, and thighs without equipment or with equipment if the bodyweight version is too easy.

2. Jump lunges

This next plyometric leg exercise can be a good alternative to squat jumps if the squat jumps feel too easy. This is because you put the full weight of your body on one leg at a time with jump lunges. To do two jump lunges take the following steps:

1. Stand up straight with your feet at more or less hip width.
2. Take a big step forward so that you get into a position where both of your knees are at a 90-degree angle. Your front foot should be flat on the ground, your back foot should only touch the ground with the ball of the foot (front). Keep your back straight up throughout the exercise.
3. Push up your body fast, mainly with the help of your front upper leg muscles. You have to generate enough upward power so that you jump in the air. Try to avoid using your arms for momentum if you want to target your leg muscles.
4. While in the air move your back leg forward and your front leg backward. The goal is to land in a way where you can take a similar position as in step 2 but with the other leg forward. How you want to land depends on what body parts you want to absorb the shock. You generally want to at least fold your legs slightly so your knees don’t absorb all the weight.
5. Land and take the same position as step 2 but with the other leg forward. Repeat the same movement with most of the upward movement coming from the other leg.

Something to keep in mind during jump lunges is that you don’t want to move your front knee (a lot) past your toes, especially if you have any knee issues.

One potential downside is that it is hard to make this plyometric lower body exercise exactly equally hard for each leg. This could create or worsen muscle imbalances.

3. Box jumps

For this next plyometric leg exercise, you need an elevated platform that is strong and stable enough to jump on. An example of a suited object is a good plyo box. Take the following steps to do a box jump:

1. Stand upright in front of the box with your feet at shoulder width.
2. Bend into about a quarter squat while you swing your arms back.
3. Swing your arms to the front again and at the same time jump forward on top of the box. When landing you want to have your knees more or less at the quarter squat again. If you are squatted lower, this may be a sign the box is too high for your current jump level.

Make sure you pay attention to using the right technique to avoid any injuries. For box jumps it is also smart to start with a low height and build up from there.

Being too optimistic about your capabilities can be especially punishing when doing this exercise.

A box jump looks and is very similar to regular jump squats. However, by landing on the box, you land with less momentum.

This can make the exercise easier on your body while at the same time still offering a good plyometric workout.

4. Explosive hamstring curls

For this variation of the explosive hamstring curls you need a resistance band anchored at about ground height or your other leg. After that, to do an explosive hamstring curl take the following steps:

1. Safely anchor your resistance band close to the ground. Lie on your stomach in front of the anchor with your feet toward it. Put the free end of the resistance band behind one or both of your ankles.
2. Quickly fold your legs at the knees until the point where the resistance is stretched the most. This will likely be at about where your lower legs make a 45-degree angle to the ground.
3. Stretch your legs again in a controlled motion.

The hamstring muscles do play a role in many of the plyometric leg exercises on this list but often not to the same extent as glutes, quadriceps, and calves. This is unfortunate because plyometrics are often done to increase sprinting speed.

Hamstrings are an important muscle for running faster so explosive hamstring curls can be a good addition to a plyometric leg workout plan.

5. Explosive calf raises

You can do the next plyometric leg exercise both with bodyweight alone or with extra weight in your hands or on your shoulders. To do an explosive standing calf raise take the following steps:

1. Stand up straight with your feet pointing forward and at about shoulder width apart. If you want, you can hold any weights in your hands.
2. Raise your heels off the ground fast with the help of your calf muscles as far as you safely can.
3. Lower your body again in a controlled motion.

You can also do calf raises with the front of your feet on an edge or block. This allows you to go through a bigger range of motion. If you implement this variation take a break at the bottom of the movement so that you use your calf muscles and not your tendons to move upward.

The calf muscles are not as under-focused as the hamstring muscles in the other options on this list but you may want to give them more attention anyway. Explosive calf raises can help you with this.

6. Tuck jumps

To do a tuck jump take the following steps:

1. Stand up straight with your feet at more or less shoulder width. Keep your arms hanging still besides your body throughout the exercise to focus more on leg muscles.
2. Slowly lower your hips by bending your knees. How far depends on different factors like knee health but at your lowest point you ideally want your hips to be at or lower than your knee height. You will likely have to bend forward for balance but keep your back in a straight line throughout the movement.
3. Push up your body fast, mainly with the help of your front upper leg muscles. You have to generate enough upward power so that you jump in the air. Try to avoid using your arms for momentum if you want to target your leg muscles.
4. Move your knees towards your chest while you are in the air and back fast enough to land.
5. How you want to land depends on what body parts you want to absorb the shock. You generally want to at least fold your legs slightly so your knees don’t absorb all the weight.

Tuck jumps are basically squat jumps but instead of keeping your legs slightly less than stretched you move your knees towards your chest and back.

This engages your hip flexors, the muscles responsible for bringing your thighs upward, and your glutes extra in an explosive way.

7. Power skips

For power skips you preferably have some room, both in height and length, to do the exercise. To do a power skip exercise take the following steps:

1. Stand upright with your feet at about shoulder width.
2. Move up one thigh as far as comfortable while folding this leg, push offer the ground with your calf of the other leg, and move up the arm opposite of the leg that is in the air. Do all of this in an explosive way so that you jump off the ground.
3. Land first with the foot closest to the ground. Make sure your leg is slightly less than stretched so it can fold a bit on impact.
4. Stretch the leg that is in the air to slightly less than stretched and land with this leg on the ground.
5. Repeat the movement but while raising the other leg first. To do multiple power skips you keeping alternating.

Initially, you may have to get used to this movement to be able to do it at higher speeds. Keep your upper body upright during the exercise.

Power skips are a plyometric leg exercise that focuses more on muscles like your calf and hip flexors and less on muscles like your glutes and quadriceps compared to something like jump squats.

8. Skater exercise

To do a skater exercise take the following steps:

1. Stand up straight with your feet at about shoulder width.
2. Swing one leg sideways and jump to that side. To start with the actual exercise this first jump can be slightly smaller. How you want to land depends on what body parts you want to absorb the shock. You generally want to at least fold your leg slightly so your knees don’t absorb all the weight.
3. Land on the outer leg and let the inner leg continue behind the main support leg and touch the ground with the front of your foot for balance.
4. Lower your body by bending the knee of the foot that is fully on the ground.How far depends on different factors like knee health but at your lowest point you ideally want your hips to be at or lower than your knee height. You will likely have to bend forward for balance but keep your back in a straight line throughout the movement.
5. Push your body up and sideways, mainly with the help of the leg that is bent.
6. Repeat the movements in steps 3, 4, and 5 but this time your other leg will be the main support and driver of the jump.

Due to jumps to the sides on one leg you engage your outer and inner thighs more compared to other plyometric leg exercises like a jump squat.

The balance between how far vs how high you want to jump during the skater jump exercise depends on what muscles you want to focus more on. Jumping far will focus more on outer thighs and hips. Jumping high will focus more on quadriceps and glutes.

9. Broad jumps

To do a broad jump take the following steps:

1. Stand up straight with your feet about shoulder width apart.
2. Slowly lower your hips by bending your knees. How far depends on different factors like knee health but at your lowest point you ideally want your hips to be at or lower than your knee height. You will likely have to bend forward for balance but keep your back in a straight line throughout the movement.
3. Start leaning forward, depending on your calf flexibility you may have to lift your heels off the ground. You can move your arms back if you want to use them in the broad jump.
4. Push your body up and forward fast, mainly with the help of your front upper leg muscles. You have to generate enough upward power so that you jump. You can swing your arms forward to jump farther.
5. How you want to land depends on what body parts you want to absorb the shock. You generally want to at least fold your legs slightly so your knees don’t absorb all the weight.

Because you are leaning forward a bit when pushing yourself off the ground, the broad jump exercise will focus slightly more on your calves and slightly less on your glutes compared to a regular upward jump squat.

10. Frog jumps

To do a frog jump take the following steps:

1. Stand up straight with your feet slightly wider than shoulder width apart and pointing at about 45-degree angles outward. Keep your arms hanging still in front of your body throughout the exercise to focus more on leg muscles.
2. Slowly lower your hips by bending your knees. How far depends on different factors like knee health but at your lowest point you ideally want your hips to be at or lower than your knee height. You will likely have to bend forward for balance but keep your back in a straight line throughout the movement. Your knees should point somewhat outward.
3. Push up your body fast, mainly with the help of your front upper leg muscles. You have to generate enough upward power so that you jump in the air. Try to avoid using your arms for momentum if you want to target your leg muscles.
4. How you want to land depends on what body parts you want to absorb the shock. You generally want to at least fold your legs slightly so your knees don’t absorb all the weight.

The frog jump is a plyometric leg exercise that is very similar to a regular jump squat but you point your feet outward. This makes it so frog jumps focus more on your inner thighs.