nThe CrossFit world often gets berated and criticized for the amount of jumping and bounding that is programmed and required in competition and in training. Box jump workouts with 150 reps or 500 double unders in a workout for instance. Compound this amount of bounding with three or four other explosive triple extension style movements and you have a recipe for achilles and ankle problems. Certainly no one has ever looked at CrossFit with any level of intuition and said there is a lack of plyometric and explosive movement training.
While there is some merit to debating the amount of combined weighted explosive training with body weighted explosive training in CrossFit, the opposite may be true of weightlifting. Anyone with a basic understanding of the Olympic lifts knows that in simple basic training for the sport an athlete is developing explosive power. Lifting heavyweights off the floor and creating a massively powerful hip extension to move the weight creates some of the most explosive, powerful jumpers in the world.
However, what often is overlooked is the training of explosive power and speed in the Olympic lifts without a weight component. Many weightlifting programs and weightlifters miss out on the fundamental training and development that comes from training jumping. I first began to notice this truth when I got the opportunity to look at some of the programming coming out of the Olympic training center. When I looked at all that Connor was doing during his Pan Am and World team prep camps, a consistently added exercise was jumping. Zygmunt had those participating athletes jumping between 20 and 40 reps per day. That jumping varied in kind but they were always jumping. I was talking to some Power and Grace weightlifters this afternoon about why I included triple jumps in the program for today. These specific weightlifters were planning to skip the jumps as they both did not see the necessity for them and were just simply being lazy. When I explained to them that they were jumping that much at the Olympic Training Center, they reluctantly got out of their seat and began jumping. However, after a brief discussion with them, they began to understand and see a necessity for developing explosive power and jumping strength while not being under load. Not only is it good for general physical preparedness but it allows for the development of your fast twitch muscle fibers and in many studies unloaded jumping proves to contract those fibers at a higher percentage rate than if performed under load.
The bottom line is that jumping helps develop and create better athletes. There is a plethora of explosive power development in CrossFit through the kitchen sink of exercises. In weightlifting it’s important to add some of those very same exercises. Don’t skip the jumping. It’s good for your development now and the maintenance of your career as a weightlifter.
