Animal jump exercises for explosive and plyometric strength and conditioning.

Explosive animal jump exercises tend to require significantly more strength and coordination than many easier animal walk exercises, but their benefits are greater as well. 

Many animal jump exercises demonstrated in the video and below are approachable by beginners, but in case you are new to animal movement drills, please check: 

The benefits of animal jump movement drills are numerous, expect to develop: strength, size, coordination, balance and spatial awareness. These are super athletic movements. 

START CAUTIOUSLY. MANY OF THE EXERCISES BELOW ARE FOR ADVANCED MOVERS ONLY.

Quadruple Animal Jump Exercises 

Pike Jump

Pike jump is an excellent exercise to train the lower body while working on the pike flexibility. You can improve the exercise by stretching your hamstrings and working on pike stretches. 

The key is to maintain the pike position and bounce forward. Extend your legs and point them with your arms while you are in air.

The advanced version of the pike jump is to jump higher and bring legs to more horizontal. This requires a high level of explosive strength in the entire lower body.

Monkey Jump

Monkey jump is one of the easier animal jump exercises but they are both effective and fun. You can jump in all directions: forward, backwards and sideways.

Forward jump tends to be the easiest. You can either jump distance (harder) or do short & quick jumps. Monkey jump backwards requires more strength, especially if you focus on pushing more with your arms.

Frog Jump

Frog jump is one of the hardest animal jump exercises out there, but if you are seriously fit, you can start with the beginner version. Start cautiously. 

With the beginner frog jump you are just jumping to your straight arms and that's it. Frog jump starts to get crazy when you do the hardest variation which is to jump to your arms and then lower yourself down in control. 

The advanced frog jump is a negative handstand push-up which is why the transfer to overhead pressing will be tremendous. And vice versa. 

Donkey kick is similar to the frog jump exercise, except in the donkey kick you are jumping backwards and doing explosive kicks. 

Starfish Jump

Starfish jump exercise requires a high level of strength in the upper body: maintaining the X-position with your body is insanely strenuous. 

Holding hands apart and merely holding the position is already hard and your chest and shoulders need to work hard to do it. It can also be both good and tough for your tendons. 

Bounce forward while holding the position - now it gets HARD. Start cautiously, this is for advanced movers only. 

Tuck Planche Jump

In the tuck planche jump exercise, you jump to the tuck planche (right image) and then lower yourself down in control. The arms stay straight the entire time. Then you continue moving forward in the same fashion.

Tuck planche is a tough position for most people because it requires an immense amount of strength in the shoulder girdle and abdominals.

This tuck planche jump however tends to be easier than actually holding the tuck planche position which is why it's a good exercise to start with if the planche is your goal.

Cricket

This cricket exercise is commonly used by martial artists to toughen up the knuckles and wrists but also to condition the body.

You take a push-up position which you hold with your knuckles. Then you start bouncing forward by generating momentum with your body.

The surface for the cricket exercise needs to be soft. In addition, pay special attention that your wrists stay straight and don't collapse. 

Inchworm Jump

Inchworm jump is a superb exercise which is a combination of a push-up and an intense hip flexion.

It will train all the push-up muscles like chest, triceps and shoulders, but the most effective it's for the abdominal muscles which need to work extremely hard. You also need to push very explosively with your arms. 

As a beginner, you start the exercise by just doing the inchworm jump in your place. When you get familiar with it, you can start moving forward.

Crab Jump

Crab jump is a jump where you move forward or backwards by heavily pushing with your arms and explosively extending your hips. This exercise will train the triceps like nothing else.

Start cautiously, because this is very hard for your wrists and do not attempt the exercise unless the basic crab walk feels extremely comfortable. Crab jump's prerequisite is also a high level of fitness.

Train hard, stay safe.