Most personal trainers I have trained and worked out with, recommend squat jacks to be the best moves for blending both cardio and strength training. Power jacks are the whole arsenal combining two of the body’s major muscle groups, the glutes, and legs.
What Exactly Are They?
If you are after lower body strength and agility, incorporate power jacks in your working-out routines. It is a power-intensive workout, will accelerate your heart rate and greatly aid in burning calories.
The fun part? Power jacks are basic and easy to do at any place and anytime, even in a limited space. The article covers the calisthenics workout that aims to boost your cardiovascular and metabolic well-being.
After in-depth research and experience working out the exercise, I will provide relevant information and data for the total body workout, the power hacks. Get to burn fat by learning how to execute the routine properly. Let’s get to it.
What Is The Power Jack Workout?
The power jack is an excellent cardio exercise that gets the heart pounding and allows you to enhance your cardiovascular health.
Aerobics with power jacks integrates more oxygen into your lungs, boosting the circulation of blood effortlessly. This, in return, improves your mood, boosts your stamina, and in the process tones your muscles.
Video: Power Jack Demonstration
Fitness trainer illustrating how to flawlessly execute the power jack routine
How To Do The Power Jacks Workout
Here's how to do a basic power jack:
Get upright on both your feet apart, your head held high and a straightened back. Ensure your arms are by you and outstretched.
While jumping, your palms should be raised to the side all the way over your head.
Soar back to the initial role in one smooth movement by lowering the palms and leaping theft again collectively.
That counts as one rep.
Continue with this routine as needed, largely dependent on your exercise.
Typically, power jacks are conducted in units or entirely on a time basis. To do so, keep shifting in a constant motion, continuing the cycle until you reach your set or time goal, depending on the program.
What are Power Jumping Jacks?
What are power jacks? You may ask. Get to learn about this intense training exercise by watching this video.
Muscles Worked With Power Jacks Workout
As earlier stated, power jacks are a cardiovascular workout that works for every major muscle group in your body, especially when you keep your core engaged to activate the stomach and back muscles.
You will not only get to burn fat but also get to tone the muscles. Just sustain a quick pace to maintain your heart rate and the aerobic advantages of this workout.
Calves and Core
The calves, which span your legs on the lower parts, are made up of the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles. The muscles join at the knee then later on the heel.
The calf muscles are involved every time you jump and land and aid to reduce impact when landing.
Other exercises that work these muscles areas include, jumping jacks, burpees, the standing leg curl, mummy kicks, regular squats or hack squats.
Abduct and Adduct Your Hips
Gluteus medius is pivotal in hip movement, greatly assisted by the gluteus minimus as it is greatly involved when your legs are apart when performing the exercise.
Both the mentioned muscles make up what can be referred to as buttocks or if you may, glutes. These are two of the three muscles known as the buttocks or if you may, glutes.
The muscles are pivotal as they like the ilium on the pelvis’ one end and the bony projection you feel on your hip from the outside known as the greater trochanter.
Arm Abduction and Adduction
Your shoulders would be immobile were it not for the joint. There are muscles in the joint that aid in the movement of the arms away from you and they include the supraspinatus and deltoid
On one end, it joins at the top of your shoulder, a point known as the acromion. On the lateral end, it finds the humerus bone, an outer section of the upper arm.
When starting the workout routine, the muscles contract, and this leads to your arms arching such that they are over your head with your legs extended wide apart.
Power Jack Workout Common Beginner Mistakes to Avoid
Expecting Results Almost Immediately
When we work out we have this notion that a month of training will make us appear small and trim for their next beach trip!
Most novices have incorrect assumptions about how long it would take to reach their fitness objectives. And many of them devote insufficient time and give up when they do not see instant results. Others overtrain and become hurt as a result.
Take it easy, your muscles need to adapt if you are new to the exercise and you will not be disappointed in the end.
Follow Progressive Overload Principle
Lower weights should be used in the first few weeks of your training regimen. Your muscles will adapt and get more potent as a result of exercise. As a result, when that dumbbell starts to feel like a piece of cake, that’s the green light to raise the weight.
Implement the following when increasing your current weight:
- The increase in weight to be timely and gradual.
- Number of sets should not be an overnight thing, get it done gradually.
- Include a set in each routine exercise.
- Shorten the rest period between sets.
Failure To Warm Up
A broad range of motion for functional motions can help you get the most out of your workout program and stay active. Stretching, though underrated is a great way to fire up those muscles. A gentle stretching practice at the end of your training session aids in the prevention of injury and soreness.
Some novices warm up by running for a few minutes on a treadmill and completing some stretches they learned in Physical Education. Do you do that?
However, this does nothing to prepare your muscles, joints, or neurological system for weight lifting. Instead, unleash the workout beast in you and perform a thorough warm-up that includes dynamic stretches, to get your body ready for weightlifting.
Missing Workouts
We sometimes tend to avoid workouts if we are fatigued, sore, or sluggish. We overlook the fact that the key to developing an amazing body is simple: consistency.
Keep the promises you make to yourself. If you plan to work out on weekdays, make a note of it in your calendar and stick to it. If it is too difficult, get it to be once a week, but never skip it.
Benefits of Power Jacks Workout
This aerobic activity has also been linked to weight reduction. It aids in the burning of extra calories, resulting in a negative energy balance in the body. This indicates you used more energy than you ate. And this is the key weight-loss slogan.
Engage in 5 sets of 10 reps, and you'll feel your heart threatening to stop if you don’t stop working out, unexpectedly, you'll enjoy sweating it off.
Warm Up Your Shoulders
It may sound counter-intuitive to say about a cardiac workout, but the movement of your arms during a jumping jack gives a fantastic stretch for your shoulders. This is one of the reasons jumping jacks are employed as a warm-up for other workouts.
Cardio Exercise At Home
Jumping Jacks have incredible cardiac advantages, but what's even better is that you can do them at home. There's no need to go to the gym or brave the elements; simply find some open space and you are good to go.
Short bursts of movement, such as jumping jacks, can be combined with squats and push-ups to provide a comprehensive exercise right at home.
Relieves Stress
Do jumping jacks relieve tension? Yes, it does.
How? When you jump and move your hands up and down, your brain causes the production of serotonin, sometimes known as the "feel good" hormone. Adrenaline release also causes a surge of enthusiasm. These hormones work together to make you feel joyful and lower your stress levels.
Improves Flexibility
Jumping jacks assist with flexibility as well. If you don't lead an active life and sit for extended periods during the day, you're unlikely to be as flexible as you were as a child.
If you are new to the exercise, you’ll find it challenging to even execute 20 reps at once.
Nothing to worry about. Begin with low-intensity jumping jacks and fewer reps, then progress to more reps and faster jumping jacks. As you develop, you will learn hacks of proper legs and arms placements and the ride will be a smoother one.
Conclusion
Jumping jacks are an effective total-body workout that can be performed virtually anywhere. This activity is a kind of jump training or if you may do plyometrics. Plyometrics is a blend of workout routines including aerobic and resistance training. This form of exercise engages your heart, lungs, and muscles all at once.
Jumping jacks specifically target your stomach, glutes, shoulder muscles, quadriceps, and hip flexors.
Next time you don’t feel like doing anything and still want to be a billionaire so bad, try jumping jacks workout exercise. It never disappoints.
Related Readings:
- Leg Press vs Hack Squat – Which is Better, Harder, Safer? Benefits & Alternatives
- Dumbbell Press vs Barbell (Bench) Press: How Are They Different? Is One Better?
- The 100lb Dumbbell Press: How Hard Is It? Should You Perform It? Safe/Overkill?
- Ring Rows Alternatives – Best Substitute Exercises
- 15 Barbell Row Alternative Exercises – Best Substitute Workouts
References:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alaZwJE20Ds
