How to Overcome the Fear of Box Jumps and Equipment-Free Park Bench Workout

Today, let's talk about box jumps and how to overcome the fear of them. Because today's workout has a lot of box jumps in it!

I haven't used any weights for my last three workouts. I love, love, love working out with heavy stuff, but equipment free workouts can be really great too when you work out focused and hard.

On Sunday, I worked out at a park and did a bunch of pull ups, burpees and squats and ran stairs. On Monday, I worked on my toes-to-bars, box jumps and push ups, and mixed in some running.

Yesterday I did the workout that I'm sharing today. All you need for it is a park bench. If you have a plyo box at home, at the gym or wherever you may be working out, you can use that as well.

But I want to show that you can workout even without any equipment. There are benches in every park, also probably at the one close to your house. Have you been there? If not, go today.

You really can find your gym everywhere.

I Used to Hate Box Jumps

One of the most usual exercise we do using a plyo box or bench are box jumps. They're great, because there are cardio, strength and power combined in box jumps. I use them a lot in my own and in my clients workouts.

I used to hate box jumps though! When we had to do them in our track practice back in college or later at crossfit, I'd always freak out if the box was too high. I just couldn't get rid of the mental block: What if I hit the box and fall?

I'd always hesitate. I'd stare at the box, try to get my act together, get ready, then back away, and then sometimes do the most foolish thing possible: Change my mind about jumping while I'm in the air already.

You can guess how that ended.

How to Get Over the Fear of Box Jumps

There are three important things that have helped me to get over of the fear of box jumps, or at least lessened it:

Start low. You don't have to jump on the highest bench or box out there. Start lower. If you have only one height available, you can put down some barbell plates and start your jump by standing on them. Then, take one plate off, so that you have to jump higher. And so on. When you have different heights of boxes, gradually move to higher ones, but you don't have to get on the highest one right away.
Don't think too long. Going back and forth in your head like I did, thining I should jump-I shouldn't jump-what if I fall is not going to help you. Just like with pretty much anything in life, taking action is the most important key to success.
Success. A successful jump is the best thing that gets you better at box or bench jumps and helps you to jump higher. Once you experience success, you realize that you can actually do this, and you're less discouraged to try higher boxes. I know it may sound counter intuitive–How can I success when I'm afraid? But once you prove yourself that you can, you can do everything.

Equipment-Free Park Bench Workout

In this workout, you'll be doing a lot of bench or box jumps, but not just the regular ones–there's always something added to them! A push up, a burpee…

All you need is a park bench or a plyo box:

Here's the workout:

Let me know how you liked it!

Happy training!

Kersten Kimura