1. The Technique
Start by standing with one foot forward, and the other foot back. Bend both knees in a modified squat position. The thigh of your front leg and the shin of your rear leg should be parallel to the floor. The knee of your rear leg should be almost touching the floor. If your right leg is in front, then raise your left hand in a 90-degree "L" shape in front of you, as though you had just delivered an uppercut to someone's jaw. Put your right arm behind you, also bent at a 90-degree angle, with the upper arm parallel to the floor. When ready, jump up with an explosive motion, making sure to get both feet off the ground. Switch in mid-air so that your front leg goes to the rear, and the rear leg comes to the front. Switch your arms accordingly.
2. Muscle Groups Affected
Because of the nature of this exercise, in which you bring into play so much of your lower and upper body, you can tone and strengthen the hamstrings, the quadriceps, the calves, the shins, the gluteus, the abdomen and the surrounding lower torso. This, in turn, can have beneficial effects on your lower back muscles.
3. Balance Your Body With Proper Posture
Watch your balance in this workout. Many so-called "body weight" exercises are useful and easy to find the time and space for, because you don't need to rely on an extensive set of free weights or an exercise machine. But you are under more personal responsibility to maintain proper balance and posture. Jump lunges require a shifting and re-aligning of several parts of your body at once, so you need to minimize any sudden shifting of your weight that could cause you to strain or sprain an ankle, a knee or other part of your body. Do these jump lunges slowly and easily, with smooth, fluid movements, and maintain a vertical movement.
4. Modified Versions
Add dumbbells to increase both the tension on your body for balance, and the development and toning of your arms. Because you run your arms through almost an entire circle of motion in great, sweeping gestures, you feel a greater whole-body work out by adding external resistance of some kind to your movements. This better affects your pectorals and your upper back. Other possibilities: put your hands on your hips or clasp them behind your head.
5. Other Considerations
As with other exercises, it is advisable--and highly recommended--that you always do a proper warm up set of activities. Run, take a brisk walk or do some jumping jacks to get your blood circulating and the body ready for the more intense tasks that you want to impose on it. This is especially so with jump lunges, as you want your leg and lower torso muscles to be fluid and flexible as you go into these explosive jumps.
