Training guide
A jump squat is a quick dip into a squat followed by a jump as high as you can, landing softly back into the squat. It trains power, the ability to produce force fast: in trials, jump training like this added about 2 to 6 cm to people's jumps over several weeks. The landing is the skill that matters most.
This guide shows you the dip, arm swing and take-off, how to land softly, and how to build up from landings to small jumps, full jump squats and harder versions. It covers what jump squats build, how many to do and how often, the evidence on your knees, and what to do about leaking, pregnancy and bone health, with a 3D demo of each step and where to start in our vertical jump workout.
Feet about hip-width, dip quickly into a quarter or half squat as your arms swing back, then drive up through your hips, knees and ankles as your arms swing up. Land softly on the front of your feet, rolling back to your heels, hips back and knees bent over your toes, and reset.
Snapdowns and step-off landings first, then small jumps, then full ones. A jump programme that taught landing cut landing forces by 22% in female athletes.
Across 26 studies, jump training raised the countermovement jump by 8.7%, about 2 to 6 cm. Keep squatting too: in relatively weak men, heavy squats raised jump power as much as jump squats did.
3 sets of 5, resting 60 to 90 seconds, with about 80 jumps and landings in a session including the warm-up, twice a week with 2 or 3 days between, as our vertical jump workout does. End a set when your landings get loud.
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In lab models of single jumps in 20 healthy young adults, a two-footed jump loaded the kneecap joint and the tendon below it about as much as running, and less than a deep one-leg squat. Tired, loud landings with the knees caving in are the risk.
Leaking when you land is common and treatable. Don't start jumping in pregnancy. With osteoporosis, get advice first: the UK consensus advises moderate impacts, not landing from height.
Gyms call it a jump squat or a squat jump. In sports science, a squat jump starts from a paused squat with no dip, and a countermovement jump has the quick dip; the dip added about 3.4 cm in a study of 6 volleyball players. The jump squat on this page is the countermovement kind.
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It works the quads at the front of your thighs, your glutes and your calves, fast. It trains power and jump height more than muscle size, and the skill of landing; in a maximal jump the knee does about half the work, as our jump higher guide explains.
Snapdowns and box drop landings for learning to land, the bodyweight squat, the jump squat, rocket jumps (jump and reach), tuck jumps, broad jumps with a stuck landing, split squat jumps, kneeling jump squats, box jumps and weighted jump squats, each with a 3D demo. "In and out" squat jumps, with the feet jumping wide and narrow, have no demo of their own.
Jump training reviews pool people aged about 11 to 79, mostly young athletes. The knee-load and technique studies are small groups of healthy young adults.
Across 26 controlled studies, jump training raised the countermovement jump by 8.7% (an effect size of 0.88), the jump with an arm swing by 7.5% and the squat jump by 4.7%: about 2 to 6 cm, as our jump higher guide puts it.
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Across 56 studies, programmes longer than 10 weeks with more than 20 sessions and more than 50 jumps a session, mixing squat, countermovement and drop jumps, did best, and added weight gave no extra benefit. These are comparisons across studies, not head-to-head trials.
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In 24 relatively weak men, 10 weeks of heavy squats raised jump peak power as much as jump squats did (17.7% against 17.6%) and raised the squat far more (31.2% against 4.5%). If you're new to lifting, build strength alongside your jumps.
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A quick dip added 3.4 cm over a jump from a paused squat in 6 volleyball players, and an arm swing added 8.6 cm in 20 men, about three-quarters of it through a faster take-off.
Jump training grew muscle a little across 15 studies (an effect size of 0.47, and 0.72 for the thigh muscles), more in people who weren't athletes. For bigger legs, loaded squats with enough hard sets, about 10 or more a week, do more.
Soft landings with more knee bend lowered ground forces, with the hip and knee muscles absorbing more energy, in 8 female athletes dropping from 59 cm.
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In a randomised trial of 80 adults, coaching the landing, or listening to its sound, lowered peak landing force; imagining a soft landing didn't.
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A jump programme that taught landing cut peak landing forces by 22% and sideways knee loads by about half, and raised the vertical jump by about 10%, in female athletes.
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In 205 female athletes, the 9 who later tore an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL, a main knee ligament) had landed with 8 degrees more knee collapse, 2.5 times the sideways knee load and 20% more ground force.
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Programmes with strength and landing work cut the odds of ACL injury by about 40% (odds ratio 0.61), and of non-contact ACL injury by about 65% (0.35), across 13 studies, though the best mix of parts is unclear.
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Coaching bodies agree: learn to squat and land before you jump, start with small jumps, control landings on two feet before one, and never train jumps to failure.
From our move page, the squat jump pages of the American Council on Exercise (ACE) and the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), and our jump higher guide's technique steps. Our move page lands on the balls of the feet; ACE allows the middle of the foot as well.
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The movement on the figure: Jump squat
From our snapdown move page. 2 sets of 5, holding each landing for 2 seconds, as the warm-up of our vertical jump workout does.
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The movement on the figure: Snapdown to athletic landing
From our box drop landing move page. 3 sets of 5 from a 20 to 30 cm step, as weeks 1 and 2 of our vertical jump workout do.
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The movement on the figure: Box drop landing
Move on when every landing in a set is quiet and your knees track over your toes (our editorial rule, following NASM's landings-first stages). Squats, 10 reps to a comfortable depth, and snapdowns, 2 × 5 holding each landing for 2 seconds (our vertical jump workout's warm-up); box drop landings, 3 × 5 from a 20 to 30 cm step, and jump squats, 3 × 5 with 60 seconds' rest, small jumps first (weeks 1 and 2 of our vertical jump workout); broad jumps with a stuck landing and rocket jumps, 3 × 3 each (weeks 3 to 5; the rocket jump's move page gives 3 sets of 5); tuck jumps, 2 × 4 (our gymnastics conditioning workout); split squat jumps, 3 × 4 each side (our plyometric workout); kneeling jump squats, 3 to 4 sets of 3 to 5 jumps, resting fully (its move page's dose); box jumps, 4 × 4 on a box you clear easily (weeks 3 to 5); and, after a few months of lifting, weighted jump squats, 3 × 5 with a light bar (our handball and water polo strength workouts).
3D demoBodyweight squatBeginner · No equipment
3D demoSnapdown to athletic landingBeginner · No equipment
3D demoBox drop landingIntermediate · A step
3D demoJump squatIntermediate · No equipment
3D demoStanding broad jump with stuck landingIntermediate · No equipment
3D demoRocket jump (jump and reach)Intermediate · No equipment
3D demoTuck jumpIntermediate · No equipment
3D demoSplit squat jumpAdvanced · No equipment
3D demoKneeling jump squatAdvanced · No equipment
3D demoBox jumpIntermediate · A bench or box
3D demoWeighted jump squatAdvanced · A barbell3 sets of 5, as weeks 1 and 2 of our vertical jump workout and our sports strength workouts use, within our jump higher guide's sets of 3 to 10 jumps.
60 to 90 seconds between sets, as our jump higher guide says; 60 seconds in weeks 1 and 2 of our vertical jump workout.
Expert guidance suggests about 80 to 100 jumps and landings (foot contacts) a session for beginners, 100 to 120 for intermediates and 120 to 140 for advanced athletes, with quality over quantity. Our vertical jump workout keeps beginners to about 80, warm-up included.
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Twice a week, 48 to 72 hours apart, for 8 to 12 weeks, with the jumps first in the session while you're fresh. No study has found the best gap between sessions.
Every jump is a full effort with a quiet landing. End the set when your landings get loud or your jumps get lower, rather than counting reps in reserve, as our jump higher guide says.
100 jump squats a day isn't needed: in volleyball trials, about 42 jumps a session did as well as about 160 (a comparison across studies, as our jump higher guide reports), and tired landings get loud and sloppy. If you do a challenge, keep to the dose above and rest a day between sessions (editorial).
Repeated jump squats in a finisher (2 × 8 in our full-body bodyweight workout) or in intervals (40 seconds on, 20 off in our HIIT workout at home, which swaps jumps for marches if you need low impact) train fitness more than power. Keep hard running or intervals at least 3 hours away from a power session, or on another day, as our plans advise.
How many calories jump squats burn depends on your body weight and how long you keep going; our calories burned calculator estimates it from the activity and the minutes.
NASM lists landing with straight or barely bent knees as a common mistake, and ACE says to avoid locking out your knees on landing. Land quietly into bent knees.
Keep your knees pointing over your toes. Tired, loud landings with the knees caving inward load the knee joints badly, as our move page says.
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It throws away the dip's extra height. ACE allows only a very brief pause.
It costs height: the swing added 8.6 cm in one study.
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NASM lists not squatting deep enough as a mistake, and a deep, slow squat is slow too. A quarter to half squat works.
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NASM lists too much forward lean during the jump as a mistake. A little forward lean on landing is fine: in a lab model, soft landings with some forward lean shared the load across the joints.
Rest fully between sets: quality falls off fast with fatigue, as our move page says, and NASM lists jumping while fatigued as a mistake.
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In lab models of single jumps in 20 healthy young adults, a two-footed countermovement jump put a peak load of 6.4 times body weight through the kneecap joint, against 5.4 in running, 4.5 in a full squat and 8.2 in a single-leg decline squat. For the tendon below the kneecap, the jump and running had almost the same loading index (0.610 and 0.612), below a one-leg jump and the decline squat, and cues to land softly with some forward lean shared the load across the joints.
In 12 trials of 289 adults aged about 58 to 79, jump training caused no increase in injuries or other side effects, and a year of progressive high-impact training didn't change knee cartilage on MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scans in 80 women aged 50 to 66 with mild knee osteoarthritis.
No study has compared jump squat knee loads with the knees kept behind the toes. Knees travelling past the toes is normal in a squat, as our squat guide explains; what matters is that they follow your toes rather than caving in.
Start with squats, step-ups and landings, and add jumps once stairs and squats are comfortable, as our box jump guide suggests. Pain below the kneecap that's worse the next morning means a break: our jumper's knee guide keeps tendon pain at 3 out of 10 or less. See a GP for knee pain that isn't better within a few weeks.
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Across 27 studies, peak power in a jump squat came at light loads: 30% of your squat one-rep max (the most you can squat once) or less.
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Light jump squats (30% of the one-rep max) raised power and movement speed in 26 athletic men while heavy ones (80%) slowed their sprint, and jump squats at the load that gave the most power beat heavy squats and depth jumps over 10 weeks in 64 trained adults.
Across 56 studies, jumping with added weight gave no extra benefit to jump height.
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The weighted jump squat, with around a third of your best squat or less as our move page cues it, is for people with a solid squat after a few months of lifting, ideally with coaching, as our jump higher guide says.
The trials used brief maximal vertical jumps, not jump squats as such: 10 jumps a day, 3 days a week, for 6 months raised bone density at the hip in 36 young women, and 10 or 20 jumps twice a day for 16 weeks did the same in 60 premenopausal women aged 25 to 50. No trial has tested jump squats for bone, so we can't say they build it.
The UK consensus advises moderate impact on most days, about 50 impacts a session (for example 5 sets of 10), not very high impacts such as landing from height, and impact only up to brisk walking after spinal fractures. Get advice before jump squats; heel drops are the usual first step.
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In 452 women CrossFit competitors, 41.8% had leaked in the past 3 months and 17.7% during exercise, high-impact moves most of all; across 13 mostly poor-quality studies of 4,823 women, 44.5% leaked, and jumps were commonly linked. The NHS says high-impact exercise can increase leaks. It's common and treatable: build up pelvic floor exercises and lower-impact work first, and see a GP or pelvic health physiotherapist.
The NHS says it's not recommended to start a new vigorous activity in pregnancy, and to avoid activities with a risk of falling. Don't start new jumping; if you already jump, drop it when it causes leaking, heaviness or pelvic pain, as our move page says.
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The NHS advises avoiding high-impact exercise to start with. Our move page follows UK guidance to wait at least 3 months before running and jumping, and only when walking, hopping and jogging on the spot cause no leaking, heaviness or pain; that timing is expert advice.
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From our vertical jump workout: goblet squats, 3 × 6 to 8, stopping 2 to 3 reps short; pogo hops, 2 × 10, ending the set if your landings get loud; ankle bounces, 2 × 10; skipping, 2 × 20 m; and single-leg calf raises from a step, 2 × 10 to 12 each leg. Resistance band squats, 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 12 with 2 or 3 reps in reserve (its move page's dose), for strength at home; heel drops, 20 to 30 at first, building towards about 50 impacts on most days (its move page's dose, from the UK osteoporosis consensus), as the first impact step for bone; step jacks, 30 to 45 seconds in a circuit, 2 to 3 rounds (its move page's dose), as the no-jump swap.
3D demoDumbbell goblet squatIntermediate · A dumbbell
3D demoPogo hopsIntermediate · No equipment
3D demoAnkle bounces (mini pogo)Beginner · No equipment
3D demoSkippingBeginner · No equipment
3D demoSingle-leg calf raise from a stepIntermediate · A step + A wall
3D demoResistance band squatBeginner · A band
3D demoHeel drop (impact for bone)Beginner · No equipment
3D demoStep jack (low-impact jumping jack)Beginner · No equipmentNew to jumping? Start with weeks 1 and 2 of our vertical jump workout: landings first, then jump squats and pogo hops, about 80 jumps and landings in all. The springy starter is a gentler, calf-first way in; the plyometric workout is the advanced next step; the full-body bodyweight and HIIT workouts use jump squats for fitness.
A staged jump session for 8 weeks: landings and small jumps, then box and broad jumps, then depth jumps, each followed by squats, hinges and calf work.
40 minIntermediate16 movesA step, A bench or boxA beginner's springy session: calf strength first, then heel drops, calf springs and gentle bounces, building towards skipping and pogo hops.
20 minBeginner11 movesA wall, A stepAn advanced jump training session: pogo hops, box jumps, split squat jumps, broad jumps and depth jumps.
30 minAdvanced8 movesA bench or box, A stepAn intermediate no-equipment workout: push-ups, split squats, single-leg bridges, pike push-ups and core work.
30 minIntermediate11 movesNo equipmentA 20-minute no-equipment HIIT workout: jumping jacks, jump squats, mountain climbers, burpees, skips and bear crawls.
20 minIntermediate10 movesNo equipmentThese plans use the full-body bodyweight workout, with jump squats in its finisher.
For after about 8 weeks of a beginner plan: three full-body sessions a week, one heavy, one moderate and one light, in a gym or at home, for 12 weeks.
3 training days50 minIntermediate3 days a weekA 12-week calisthenics plan for beginners: three bodyweight sessions a week with push-up, pull-up, squat and dip ladders, and a bar if you have one.
3 training days40 minBeginner3 days a weekA 12-week workout plan for 13 to 17 year olds: technique first, then light weights, 2 or 3 sessions a week around sport and school, at home or in a gym.
3 training days40 minBeginnerIf you get chest pain or pressure, feel faint or dizzy, are unusually breathless, or your heart races or beats irregularly during exercise, as our plans advise. The American Heart Association says these need immediate medical evaluation.
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For chest pain that feels tight, heavy or squeezing, or spreads to your arms, neck, jaw or back; a headache that starts suddenly and is extremely painful; someone who faints while exercising; palpitations that don't go away, or come with chest pain, breathlessness or feeling faint; severe difficulty breathing; or angina pain that doesn't stop after rest and your medicine. Don't drive yourself to A&E.
If you haven't exercised for some time or have a medical condition, speak to your GP first, as the NHS advises. Get advice before jumping if your blood pressure is uncontrolled, or you have heart disease or chest pain when you're active, a pacemaker or defibrillator, diabetic eye disease, glaucoma, a hernia, recent eye or tummy surgery, or you're pregnant, as our breathing guide lists.
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See a GP after any faint, and for dizziness that won't go away or keeps coming back.
Call 999 or go to A&E if you heard a crack, the joint or limb has changed shape or points at an odd angle, it's numb or tingling, or the skin looks blue or grey or feels cold. Contact NHS 111 (in the US, urgent care) if it's very painful or you can't put weight on it or walk more than a few steps. The NHS says to call 999 if someone has fallen and may have injured their head, back, neck or hip, or can't get up.
A sudden snap or pop at the back of the ankle, or you can't stand on tiptoe: a possible Achilles tendon rupture. A knee that's very painful, won't take your weight, is badly swollen or has changed shape, or locks or gives way.
Knee pain that isn't better within a few weeks, or heel pain that is getting worse or hasn't improved after 2 weeks.
Pain in one spot on a bone that's worse with jumping or running and hurts when you press it: stop jumping, as it can be a stress fracture, and see a GP (our jump higher guide). Pain below the kneecap that's worse the next morning (our jumper's knee guide keeps tendon pain at 3 out of 10 or less), a knee that feels unstable, or landings that stay loud however fresh you are. Pain and swelling below the kneecap in a teenager: see our Osgood-Schlatter guide.
With proliferative or severe non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy, avoid jumping and jarring. With numb feet, choose low-impact options, wear well-fitting shoes and check your feet afterwards. With osteonecrosis (avascular necrosis) of the hip or knee, ask your specialist before impact exercise, as our move page says.
Under 16? Do jump training with a coach watching, using body weight and light weights, as our vertical jump workout says. In a growth spurt, do fewer jumps, as our gymnastics conditioning workout advises.
In lab models of single jumps in 20 healthy young adults, a two-footed jump loaded the kneecap joint and the tendon below it about as much as running, and less than a deep one-leg squat. Jump training in older adults caused no extra injuries, a year of high-impact training didn't change knee cartilage in women with mild knee osteoarthritis, and learning to land cut landing forces by 22%. The risk is tired, loud landings with the knees caving in; sore knees should build up from squats and step-ups first.
Knees travelling past the toes is normal in a squat, and stopping them shifts the load to your hips and back, as our squat guide explains. On landing, push your hips back and let your knees and hips bend together: soft landings with more knee bend lowered landing force.
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Height comes from the growth plates, which close in the teenage years and are replaced by solid bone. Jump squats raise how high you jump, by about 2 to 6 cm with training, not how tall you are, and they don't stunt growth either, as our jump higher guide explains.
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Expert guidance suggests about 80 to 100 jumps and landings a session for beginners, with 48 to 72 hours between sessions. One review found programmes with more than 50 jumps a session did best, but in volleyball trials about 42 jumps a session did as well as about 160, as our jump higher guide reports. Tired landings get loud and sloppy, which is the risk.
Across 56 studies, jumping with added weight gave no extra benefit to jump height. If you use weight, keep it light: jump squat power peaks at 30% of your squat maximum or less, and heavy jump squats slowed sprinting in one trial.
Jump training grew the thighs a little, a small to moderate effect across 15 studies. For size, squats with load and enough hard sets do more.
ACE rates squat jumps a beginner exercise, as long as you learn to squat and land first and start with small jumps, and older adults trained safely on programmes that began with landings. Start with snapdowns and step-off landings, not with 100 jumps.
In the gym, yes: both mean dipping into a squat and jumping up. In sports science, a squat jump starts from a paused squat with no dip, and the version with a quick dip is a countermovement jump; the dip adds about 3 cm.
Your thighs, glutes and calves, working fast. They train power and how high you jump more than muscle size: jump training grew the thigh muscles a little in a review of 15 studies.
Not for healthy knees, built up sensibly: in lab models of single jumps in 20 healthy young adults, a two-footed jump loaded the knee about as much as running, and jump training didn't add injuries in older adults. The risk is tired, loud landings with your knees caving in. If your knees are sore, build up with squats and step-ups first.
That's normal in a squat, as our squat guide explains. What matters is that your knees point the same way as your toes and don't cave in. As you land, push your hips back so they share the work.
For power, 3 sets of 5, resting 60 to 90 seconds, with about 80 jumps and landings in the whole session as a beginner. Every jump should be a full effort with a quiet landing; end the set when your landings get loud.
It isn't needed: twice a week, 48 to 72 hours apart, is the usual guidance, and much bigger sessions added little in volleyball trials, as our jump higher guide reports. Daily 100-jump challenges mostly add tired, sloppy landings.
Yes, as part of jump training: across 26 studies, jump training added about 9% to the countermovement jump, roughly 2 to 6 cm, over several weeks. Mixing jump types and keeping up your squats helps; in weaker lifters, heavy squats raised jump power as much as jump squats did.
No. Your height is set by the growth plates in your bones, which close during your teens and are replaced by solid bone. Jump squats raise how high you jump, not how tall you are, and they don't stunt growth either.
Not for most people: across 56 studies, jumping with added weight gave no extra benefit to jump height. If you add weight later, keep it light, about a third of your best squat or less, which is where jump squat power peaks.
Yes, once you can squat comfortably and land quietly: ACE rates them a beginner exercise, after learning to land and starting with small jumps. Begin with snapdowns and step-off landings, as weeks 1 and 2 of our vertical jump workout do.
We can't say: the bone trials used brief maximal vertical jumps in young and premenopausal women, not jump squats as such, though as few as 10 jumps a day raised hip bone density. With osteoporosis, get advice first: the UK consensus advises moderate impacts, not landing from height, and heel drops are the usual first step.
Leaking on landing is common, affecting about 4 in 10 women in CrossFit studies, and treatable: build up pelvic floor exercises and lower-impact work first, and see a GP or pelvic health physiotherapist. Don't start jumping in pregnancy, and after a birth wait at least 3 months, until walking, hopping and jogging on the spot cause no leaking, heaviness or pain.
Exercise education, not a personal prescription, and clinical review of these guides is pending. Check with a GP before starting hard training if you have a heart condition, chest pain, dizziness or breathlessness when active, and stop for sharp or increasing pain. Health disclaimer.
