Jumping Jacks (Star Jumps)
Jumping jacks elevate your heart rate. Jumping jacks provide a full-body workout and can be done anywhere. You move all of your large muscle groups. Breathe deeply to engage your core so that you target your abdominal muscles as well. Jumping jacks makes a great warm up HIIT exercise, do a one-minute session of jumping jacks to spike your heart rate. It’s great for cardiovascular health and boosting your metabolism.
Ultimate Guide to Jumping Jacks
- Stand with your feet together and your hands at your sides. Slightly bent at the knee.
- Simultaneously raise your arms above your head and jump up just enough to spread your feet out wide (the straighter the arms the harder the workout).
- Choose either to take the hands up to clap (this engages the shoulders more and is a much fuller range of motion) or to raise the hands to a diagonal with the body taking a ‘X’ shape.
- Without pausing, quickly jump back to the start position and repeat.
The Benefits of Jumping Jacks (Star Jumps)
Jumping jacks provide you with a total body aerobic exercise. It is a cardio movement which is medium to high intensity and burns a lot of calories. It is also perfect as a HIIT warm up exercise.
Muscle groups worked with Jumping Jacks
Jumping Jacks (Star Jumps) Variations
- Adding an explosive jump will boost the intensity.
- You can also start with arms out to the side and cross them in a horizontal plane….. called fly jacks.
