Jumping jacks are some of the best bodyweight exercises that you likely have been doing for many years. The movement involves you jumping in the air as you widen your legs and clap your hands together, go back to the same position, and repeat.
This process is a great way to build up your physique from home at any time of the year. There are so many benefits of jumping jacks; it is a good idea to add them to your daily exercise routine, and here are some of the reasons why.
1. They Come at No Cost
One of the best things about jumping jacks is that they are a free calisthenic exercise that requires no gym and no equipment. If you play any sort of team sport or even do other forms of indoor cardio with a stationary bike or rowing machine, it can cost a bundle. Jumping jacks does not require any sort of equipment, and unlike even other budget cardio options like running, it does not require any special clothes or shoes.
2. They Are Great for Your Cardiovascular Health
One of the most obvious benefits of jumping jacks is the good it does for your heart and lungs. When you complete a set of 50-100 jumping jacks, it will get your heart pumping and train your cardiovascular organs to build up more and more strength slowly.
When you train your heart, it benefits not only your athletic performance but also your resting heart rate. Additionally, since a jumping jacks workout forces you to pump blood throughout your body consistently, these exercises will keep your blood pressure low as well.
Additionally, if your heart is in better shape, it can deliver more and more blood to your body during other exercises. If more blood is being delivered to your muscles at an efficient rate, it means that you are receiving more oxygen and energy that will help you lift that extra weight or run that extra mile.
Also, since one of the benefits of jumping jacks is a healthy heart, you are less likely to have cardiovascular illnesses such as a stroke, heart attack, or arterial disease. Additionally, the overall health of your heart will lower both your cholesterol and your chance of diabetes.
As for your lungs, the more you do vigorous jumping jacks over a period of time, the more you will be able to train your lungs to take in more oxygen and process it to send to your muscular system.
3. They Help Build Muscle
While jumping jacks may not be the optimal exercise for muscle gain and will not provide the same muscle gains as weights or push-ups, they will still be useful in developing more lean muscle.
Whenever performing jumping jacks, you are swinging your arms up and down from a hanging position over your head. As such, you are slowly training your arms to become stronger and stronger with every motion. It may not seem like much to lift your arms in the air without any added weight, but this jumping exercise will provide more benefits than most other cardio exercises.
Additionally, you can also increase the intensity of your jumping jacks to train your arms further by adding wrist weights or 2–3-pound weights as well. These will really help build your arm muscles over time.
Also, as the name would suggest, jumping jacks involve jumping, which is a great way to grow your leg muscles like glutes, hamstrings, calves, and quads. Having more muscular legs from jumping jacks will improve your overall lower body aesthetic and give you more stamina for running, walking, and standing still. They will also improve your athletic performance in any other sport you play in your spare time.
Lastly, the muscle growth jumping jacks provide will also help improve your balance. If you have sturdier legs, it will allow you to be more specific in your movements and limit any nasty falls as well.
4. They Can Help You Lose Weight
Like with other cardio exercises, many people will start doing jumping jacks to lose some excess weight. Since jumping jacks are a lot more physically taxing than they may seem, they are a way to burn calories and encourage weight loss in a very short period.
If you do one hundred jumping jacks, you will tire yourself out quickly and maybe even feel a little peckish. This is because your body will need a lot of energy to do any sort of physical exercise, and that is especially true of jumping jacks which are a full-body active workout.
Also, if you have not eaten enough calories the day you do your jumping jacks, then your body will eat into your fat reserves to spur your workout, which will help you lose weight. Jumping jacks are also a great way to improve your metabolism, which means that your body will consume calories at a faster rate.
The more often you do sets of jumping jacks, the more your metabolic rate will continue to increase. Even after you finish your set, your body will still burn more calories while resting, which should help you reach your scale goals.
5. They Help with Coordination
Another huge benefit of jumping jacks is the way they will help you with your overall coordination. Jumping jacks require the simultaneous and coordinated movement of both arms and legs. As with virtually anything in life, you will slowly become more adept with the exercise over time. This will not only help jumping jack movements become more and more natural but will improve your overall jumping coordination.
Having better coordination will help you in a variety of different avenues in your athletic activities. Almost all sports require a high degree of hand-eye coordination to hit, kick, throw, or catch something during a game.
Additionally, even mobile activities in your daily life could benefit from better coordination like walking up the stairs or chopping vegetables. The benefits jumping jacks provide for your coordination will serve you well in many aspects of your life.
6. You Can Progressively Increase the Intensity of Jumping Jack Workouts
One other great thing about jumping jacks is that it is easy to increase the intensity of your workout. Instead of just doing more reps like a push-up, you can train other parts of your body by adding wrist weights or ankle weights to train your arm and leg muscles even more.
Additionally, you could also wear a weighted vest that could train the muscles in your abdomen and leg area. There is always progression here, too, as you can always increase the weight on your chest, ankle, or wrists. There really is no top-level you can reach with jumping jacks, and you can always improve on your performance through more and more upgrades to the exercise.
7. They Are a Great Way to Push Up to Exercise More
One other great thing about jumping jacks is that it is a great stepping stone to more and more exercises. Many other workouts can be somewhat intimidating for those just starting to work out or who do not have the time to devote an hour a day to a weight session at the gym. Jumping jacks are a nice short way to start getting moving and move towards a healthier lifestyle.
It is a great way to start a new home workout routine, and as you do them more regularly, you will likely want to add on other calisthenic exercises like push-ups or mountain climbers. Soon enough, you may be able to have a simple circuit training workout that takes your fitness to the next level.
How To Do Jumping Jacks Correctly
Jumping jacks are a great way of improving your overall health but must be done properly to reap the benefits.
- Keep your back as straight as possible, chin up, and shoulders back. The right posture is so important while performing these exercises.
- When you jump, you should make sure your hands widen fully in and out to make sure they are getting the optimal workout.
- You must keep your feet apart so that when you move them back in, they are moving as wide as possible to optimize the workout for your legs and balance the wide movements of your arms.
- Always return to your normal position so that you can perform the same exercise over and over.
- Make sure you repeat it and do them all in a row for a period. Ideally, you should do at least 25-30 and increase to around 100 at once as you do them more and more.
Conclusion
Jumping Jacks are a great exercise that you can do at home at any time of the year and will be a great way to start your fitness journey. As we listed here, there are so many benefits to performing jumping jacks, and everyone will be able to see the benefits of adding jumping jacks to their fitness routine.
