Plyometric Exercises for Your Thighs and Glutes

Explosiveness is one of the most important qualities an athlete can have. If you're a basketball player, track and field athlete, gymnast, or involved in any other sport or activity that requires lots of running and jumping, you need to have strong legs that can move quickly. Traditional strength training exercises will increase your strength but won't make you much faster. In some cases, they might actually make you slower.

Plyometrics are exercises that increase both your strength and speed. The purpose of a plyomteric exercise is to train your muscles to contract with as much force as possible in the shortest amount of time. So, if your goal is to run faster and jump higher, the best way to accomplish that is by doing plyometric exercises that work you thighs and glutes. The following are a few tried and true exercises that I guarantee will give you results. Give 'em a shot.

Sprinting

Sprinting is the ultimate plyometric activity. By definition, it has to be done explosively. It's all about going from 0 to 100 in a split second. No one wins a 100-meter dash by starting off slowly and gradually increasing their speed. If I could only do one type of exercise to increase my speed, sprinting would definitely be it. There's nothing complicated about it, either. Just sprint. 50 meters, 100 meters, 200 meters, timed sprints… it's doesn't matter; it's all good for you. The more you do it, the better you'll get at it. Just make sure you give your legs enough time to recover between sessions. You should be able to work your way up to sprinting for 10 to 20 minutes every day without experiencing soreness in a short amount of time.

Box Jumps

To do this exercise you'll need a platform that is about 12 to 24 inches high. If you're new to box jumps, it's best to start off with a low platform and work your way up to a higher one. Box jumps are a good exercise to increase how high you can jump because they force you to always jump the same height each rep. In other words, you can't cheat. All you do is stand in front of the platform with your legs about shoulder-width apart and then jump on to it with both feet at the same time, then repeat.

Squat Jumps

Squat jumps are good for increasing your jumping speed. They're a combination of a squat and a vertical jump. You start off by going down into a quarter-squat and then jumping up as high off the ground as you can. The goal while performing this exercise is to do as many in a row as fast as you can. You can increase the difficulty of this exercise by tucking your knees into your chest each time you jump, which is known as a double leg tuck jump.