Top 10 Plyo Boxes and Jump Boxes in 2024

Plyometric workouts are sessions of truly intense and powerful movements that are done in a fast and effective way. Athletes swear by plyometrics because they help them work on their sports performance to make it even better than before. Nowadays, they have become increasingly popular to help people who want to stay in shape and tone up. Plyometrics is an isometric exercise technique that will help you to jump higher, run faster, throw further, and hit harder. Examples of plyometrics exercises are burpees, power jumps, ladder drills and reach jumps.

Box jump exercises are one of the best plyometric exercises. This deceptively simple exercise involves jumping up and down on a box with a double foot jump. Plyo jumps emphasized lower-body plyometrics. For a super full version, check out the Plyo X workout option from P90X.

When first starting plyo jumps, it’s essential that you start with a box height that you are comfortable with. You don’t have to start super-advanced at 50 inches. Start low and progressively increase the height as you go. Starting with 12 inches will ensure that you won’t fall and twist your ankle as your body and mind get used to the box jump movement.

Buying an adjustable box makes it easy for you to progressively change the height of your plyo box over time without needing to go out and buy another box. An adjustable box is also a great way to save some space in your home gym.

​When you are readying yourself to jump onto the box, you should slightly dip your body. Either you can use your arms to swing through and provide momentum, or you can place your hands behind your head. You should experiment to see which hand position is most comfortable for you. Though you want a slight bend in the knee as you dip down in preparation for the jump, you don’t want to squat too low. Use the power of your momentum to jump, landing on the box with a slight bend at the knee.

​Do not jump off the box to come down. Doing so could potentially damage your joints. Step down with one foot at a time.

​As far as sets and repetitions go, beginners should start with 4 sets of 6-8 jumps. If your goal is to develop jumping height and speed and explosiveness, then you don’t want to do too many box jumps. If you do, you will lose form and explosiveness. However, if your goal is to burn fat and to tone up your body, then you should go for high reps and sets.

Plyo Box Jump Tips:

1. Build up to performing box jumps by starting with jumping in place. Hold your hands out at chest level and then dip down to load your body before springing up. Try to bring your knees up to touch your hands.
2. Try to maintain a consistent distance from the box. You don’t want to be too close or your hands are likely to hit the box on the swing through. Neither, though, do you want to be too far away, or you will lose height on your jump. 12 inches is a reasonable distance. If you can, use some tape to ensure that you are consistently jumping from the same distance.
3. When performing step box exercises, you should land with legs at the same angle as when you started the jump. Don’t bring your butt down too low when you jump on the box.
4. Rather than advancing your jumping height beyond 60 inches, make the exercise more challenging by wearing a weighted vest.

If you never tried out plyometrics before, the benefits they provide us with might seem unbelievable at first. How can just jumping and moving around very fast do something for us, besides burning off fat? Well, believe us when we say that plyometrics can challenge you and your fitness level, and bring about a whole new meaning to being physically fit!

One thing to keep in mind when it comes to plyometrics is that you must keep it safe and effective; in other words, you must utilize proper form and reps. Otherwise, you are just paving the way for an injury. Plyometrics is just a different way to say jump training, and jumping is not so friendly towards our joints, but if you do it properly, you won't even feel the potential high-impact of these exercises. Plyometrics are a great way to work on your power and agility. And thankfully, there's a lot of new research surfacing that showcases plyometrics as a safe way to become faster and stronger.

You won't see so much muscle development when you do plyometrics unless you combine them with weights, but you will most definitely see power and speed improvements. When using plyometric boxes, you will gradually lower the amount of time it takes you to jump onto a platform, and as even more time goes by, that speed and even the height of the platform will increase. You will generate more power when you jump up, and as a result, you will jump faster, while the muscles that work together to propel you onto the box will grow. So, plyometric boxes are a super-effective way to work on your lower body, and your core to some degree, but if you want a full-body workout, you will either want to incorporate free weights or do two different exercises!

What many plyo box manufacturers like to take pride in is the adjustability of their boxes. Making an adjustable plyo box is quite simple - all you need to do is reinforce every side of the box, and then you get a 3-in-1 product that can be flipped around every way so that the height changes, effectively changing the difficulty of your exercises. Every box we mentioned in this guide is very adjustable, and the steel plyo boxes either have a slider that makes adjusting the height possible, or they do not come alone - you get a set of various box heights which are stackable, so they take up as much room as regular plyo boxes do.

Now let's see why an adjustable plyometric box is essential in the first place. Compare plyometrics with regular strength training - you need to increase the strength gradually if you want to see change, right? The same thing is true with plyometric boxes. As you get better and better at jumping, and as your ligaments, tendons, and muscles become bendier yet stronger with every jump, there will come a time when you need to increase the height to improve further. It is why having just one simple box that does all of this is great, just like with adjustable dumbbells!

You will repeatedly jump onto your box, that much is true. This repeated jumping can be quite hard on any surface, even more so if you weigh more. So what you need to consider is how durable the box you will purchase is going to be. The durability will be dictated by how well the box was constructed, what the box was built out of, and of course, by how much you use the box.

Plyo boxes can be made out of three things - wood, foam, and steel. Wood plyo boxes are traditional and are quite simple. The smaller boxes are just made out of plywood, which is usually 3/4-inches thick, and that alone is enough to support up to 400 pounds. The bigger boxes have an inner construction that keeps the boxes sturdy. Foam boxes have a softer shell surrounding the edges since the most common complaint with wooden boxes is the sharp edges that can cause bruises and cuts. The super-dense foam core keeps the box sturdy, no matter which way it faces. Steel boxes are not boxes - they are more like a platform help up by a durable steel frame, X shaped or simply vertical. Steel boxes are the sturdiest, but they can't be flipped around, and the edges can hurt you here as well. The second thing to consider is how well all of these parts we mentioned here are brought together. Most of the time, you will be the one doing the assembly, so how long your box lasts will depend on how well you put it together. Foam boxes, and wooden and steel boxes with a non-slip surface, have a vinyl cover (or a PVC coating), that prevents you from slipping down and losing your support. But if this cover is not sturdy enough, it can tear and rip, rendering the whole slip-free surface almost entirely useless. Keep these things in mind before buying (or making) your new box, and you will end up with a high-quality, durable box!

Since you're probably building a home gym, the weight of your plyometric box is something you should probably take into consideration, along with the weight capacity of your box. No two boxes were made the same way, and how much weight your box has and how much weight it can handle will depend on how well the box was constructed, what it was made out of, and how much you weight in the first place.

Usually, the wooden and foam boxes have the same weight capacity. Their weight capacity is around 400 pounds, although some can withstand much more. Steel boxes can withstand much more, but they will also be heavier, so that's something to think about. Wooden boxes are not so heavy, but the more significant the box is, the heavier it will be!