Lateral Box Jump

Muscles worked

The force comes from the adductor group down the inner thigh, which pulls the leg back toward the midline and controls the hip as it opens.

A plyometric repetition is over before a slow contraction could contribute anything, so it has to produce that force immediately on contact.

Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the abductors stop the knee collapsing inward and hold the pelvis square; the calves control the ankle and hold the heel position; the glutes finish hip extension.

The hamstrings and quadriceps take a share of the work as well.

Every exercise for:AdductorsAbductorsCalvesGlutesHamstrings

How this movement works

The working muscles shorten as they drive the load away from you, and more than one joint changes angle to do it. Load spreads down a chain instead of sitting on one muscle, which is why a compound push handles more weight than any single-joint alternative — and why joint position, not the muscle, is usually what fails first.

It is filed under plyometrics, which trains the stretch-shortening cycle: loaded fast, released immediately. Contact time matters more than volume, so these belong early in a session.

What you need

These train the adductors too, using equipment this one does not:

• Side Leg Raisesbody only
• Thigh Adductormachine
• Adductorfoam roll
• Band Hip Adductionsband

Difficulty

Listed at beginner level: the pattern is simple enough to pick up without coaching, and a position that goes wrong mid-set is obvious enough to correct on the next repetition.

Of the 13 adductors exercises in this database, 8 are listed at beginner level.