If you show up early enough to a sporting event, you might see the participants performing jumping jacks, either collectively or individually, as part of their pregame routine. You won’t just be burning fat—you’ll be toning muscle too! Jumping jacks are an aerobic activity. Jumping jacks work most of the muscles in your arms and legs — all while strengthening your heart. Calves are part of lower legs which are being worked with you every jump and landing. , Copyright © Although jumping jacks do recruit an array of muscles, the exercise is of aerobic nature and offers cardiorespiratory and calorie-burning benefits rather than strength developments. Not as easy as our childhood jump overs. used as a substitute for professional medical advice, A weighted vest can also be worn to increase the overall load your muscles have to overcome, but avoid wearing ankle or wrist weights, as they can place a significant amount of stress on your shoulders, hips, knees and ankle joints. This stress overloads the muscles, breaking down the tissue and eventually stimulating strength and size developments. Privacy Policy Hip Abductors are on your outer thighs from hips to knees, to help you make side strides. From the waist down, muscles throughout your hips and legs contract so that you’re able to jump off the floor and swing your legs out to the sides. Yup! It can reduce the risk of many conditions, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and some cancers. The gluteus medius muscle is the primary hip abductor, allowing you to spread your legs apart when you perform jumping jacks, and the gluteus minimus assists. As you can imagine when watching someone perform jumping jacks, the exercise requires a contribution from numerous muscles throughout the body. Specifically, jumping jacks work your: glutes; quadriceps; hip flexors; Jumping jacks also involve your abdominal and shoulder muscles. Quads: As you explode up from your squat, your thigh muscles will fire to propel you into the air. Jumping jacks are a classic type of calisthenics-style exercise that gets the whole body moving. any of the products or services that are advertised on the web site. Muscle fibers are strengthened and fat deposits decreased for more visibly toned muscles. Specific muscles include the gluteus maximus, hamstrings, quadriceps, and soleus, according to HumanKinetics.com. Lowering your arms back to your sides are your latissimus dorsi, a large muscle in the back, as well as your pectoralis major, teres major and triceps brachii. Jumping jacks are a full body workout that can target major muscle groups, strengthen bones, and improve cardiovascular fitness and heart health. What Muscles Do Jumping Jacks Work? It also strongly engages your thigh muscles, called vastus lateralis, vastus intermedius, vastus medialis and rectus femoris. As with most athletic activities, your core muscles help stabilize your movements throughout the jumping jack exercise, and also help maintain your balance. Use of this web site constitutes acceptance of the LIVESTRONG.COM The leg, feet and gluteus muscle groups are used in jumping. Jumping Jacks work on almost all your primary muscles. What Muscles Do Jumping Jacks Work? The more muscles involved in the exercise are fourfold: quadriceps femoris, biceps femoris, gastrocnemius, and gluteus maximus. How to do Jumping Jacks exercise? You're probably aware that jumping jacks get your heart pumping pretty quickly. Health Status: The Most Accurate Calories Burned Calculator, How to Do Jumping Jacks to Help Lose Weight in the Legs. 1 2 3. The path of movement performed in a jumping jack, with both legs and arms opening out and up, is done in the frontal plane. advertisements are served by third party advertising companies. PARTNER & LICENSEE OF THE LIVESTRONG FOUNDATION. Spreading legs … Jumping Jacks is a cardiovascular exercise that engages every large muscle group in your body, especially when you keep your core engaged to fire up the abdominal and back muscles. What Muscles do Jumping Jacks Work Quadriceps muscle or legs: The leg muscles are the main muscles used such as calves and buttocks. Starting from the bottom, your calf muscles, including your gastrocnemius and soleus, work to plantar flex your ankles. The gluteus ensures to take care of the jumping movement with no hindrance. Jumping jacks work the muscles in your shoulders, abs and legs. These muscles contract to arc your arms from your sides over your head during the initial phase of the jumping jack exercise at the same time that you're spreading your legs apart. read more Aerobic exercise decreases your blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol. Glutes: Same goes for your butt. The former muscle attaches to the top of the acromion, just above your shoulder joint, on one end and to the top outside portion of the humerus bone of your upper arm on the other. Refer to the illustration and instructions above for how to perform this exercise correctly. 4. Jumping Jacks not only quicken your pulse and get you sweating but they also call on your muscles do plenty of work! She holds a master's degree in kinesiology from California State University, Fullerton. Jumping with both feet while simultaneously raising your arms overhead repeatedly increases your muscles’ demand for oxygen, prompting your whole cardiovascular system, including your heart, to work harder. 3. It can be used as a warmup exercise to help get the blood pumping and the muscles warm and ready for a workout, or it can be part of a full-body workout, such as interval training, bootcamp, a HIIT -style workout and even on a trampoline . When you swing your legs out, your gluteus medius, gluteus minimize, tensor fasciae latae and sartorius are responsible. Muscles That Jumping Jacks Work On Hip Adductors – Adductors are present in the inner region of your thighs. However, jumping jacks will effectively develop your cardiovascular system, improving the health of your heart. Jumping jacks work the calves, glutes, deltoids, lats, and gracilis muscles. Each of these muscles attaches to your pelvis and the inside of the femur, or thigh bone, on the bottom except the gracilis, which attaches to the inside of the tibia bone, just below your knee, instead of the inside of your thigh. These muscles are what responsible to stabilize every single movement of your body during the exercise. . Bringing your legs back together are your adductors, pectineus and gracilis muscles. If you add dumbbells, move your hands between your shoulders and raised into a … Learning these jumping jacks muscle groups will help you determine the activities for which the jumping jack may be an effective warm-up exercise. According to the Health Status website, a person weighing 150 pounds will burn about 153 calories during 30 minutes of performing jumping jacks at a moderate intensity and about 274 calories jumping at a vigorous intensity. A few tips or steps to do jumping jacks are here for you to begin a super cool healthy workout. To build muscular strength and tone, an exercise has to place a load on the muscles that they’re not typically used to. optional: Lisa holds a personal trainer certification through the University of Alaska Anchorage, with more than 4,000 hours of hands-on experience working with a variety of client needs, from sports teams to post-rehab populations and weight loss, in one-on-one, small group and large group settings. The gastrocnemius and soleus muscles make up the calves, spanning the back of your lower legs. The core includes both abs and back, which are cru… Strengthen the Heart. They cooperate to plantarflex your ankle, which is the movement that lifts your heel off the floor. At the hips, your glutes and hamstrings contract to extend your hips for the jumping component. Lucky for us, they’re a fun and energizing whole body exercise that activates various muscles groups, such as the calves, quadriceps, glutes and upper back. According to ExRx.net, your deltoid, which is the major muscle in your shoulders, is primarily responsible for lifting your arms out and up. Your quadriceps at the front of your thighs extend your knees to help propel you off the floor. Copyright Policy Still University in 2009. The calf muscles contract every time you jump when performing jumping jacks and again each time you land to soften the impact between your feet and the floor. 4. Jumping happens in three stages. Jumping jacks don’t provide enough stress to overload muscles. Jumping jacks work your legs, arms, and core. auxiliary muscles: Trapezius, Deltoids, Glutes. These muscles cooperate to bring your legs back together during the return phase of the jumping jack exercise. Jumping jacks are a convenient and accessible form of cardio exercise. First, they call the internal and external obliques, rectus abdominis, transversus abdominis, and other core muscles into action to keep your body straight. You’ll engage them each time you straighten your legs. Jumping jacks target your glutes, back, thighs, calves, and shoulder muscles. How to do Plank Jumping Jacks with proper form and technique. Jumping jacks are performed to work on quadriceps. The jumping jacks here are one of the exercises that are important to be done every time before you start your exercise routine or play sports. When you look at jumping jacks and the muscles used, you'll be even more impressed. To be specific, jumping jacks work your glutes, quadriceps, and hip flexors. diagnosis or treatment. The middle portion of the deltoid and the supraspinatus muscles work together to abduct your shoulder joint, moving your arm sideways away from your body. Jul 27, 2013 - You're probably aware that jumping jacks get your heart pumping pretty quickly. While the lower-body muscles initiate the jumping jack movement, muscles in your upper body are responsible for handling your arms, which swing out to the side and overhead and then are lowered back to the body during each rep. Click to see full answer required: Doable Without Equipment And Weights. Jumping Jacks can help you get rid of the flab in between your thighs. Jumping jacks primarily work the muscles in your thighs, particularly the quadriceps, which contract to straighten your knee and give you the power to jump, and your adductor and abductor muscles running down the inner and outer sides of your thigh, which move your legs laterally as … Primary muscle: Quadriceps are primarily effected by performing this exercise. However, your supraspinatus and upper pectoralis major contribute. Doing jumping jacks will strengthen your muscle fibers and tone as well as exercise these muscles which will make the fat deposits diminish. Jumping jacks also help build muscle strength, especially in the muscles engaged in the jump – your calves, hip abductors and adductors, shoulder abductors and adductors, and your core muscles, including your abs and lower back muscles. Though it’s an easy breezy exercise for everyone around, the jumping jacks exercise does need to be done in a systematic and perfect way. Both of these muscles attach to the ilium located on the pelvis on one end and the greater trochanter, the bony protrusion on the outside of your hip on the other end. With the Jumping Jacks are a complete exercise that can work the arms, shoulders, legs, buttocks, and abdomen. You are not looking at your muscle to increase in size, only to become tighter. As an added benefit, they also boost cardio health. As you might have guessed, they work to keep your balance well. Jumping jacks / star jumps is a gym work out exercise that targets glutes & hip flexors and quadriceps and also involves abs and calves and hamstrings and shoulders. In the starting position, you open your feet shoulder wide, then merge them with a slight jump while simultaneously raising your arms so that your hands will touch behind your head. Jumping is quiet easy, but jumping jacks definitely need some hacks! Even if you keep your legs straight, still it bends slightly during the movement, which puts stress on quadriceps. Here are the some of the major ones get activated more than others: 1. Jumping jacks work muscles throughout your arms, legs and core. You can do them high-impact (jumping high) or low (keeping your rise in height to a … See all exercise benefits - muscles worked. This is a difficult area to shed fat from and doing traditional jumping jacks or the modified variants can help target the flab in the inner thigh area. Thanks to the large range of motion required, the squat jack works three major muscle groups. Because of its ability to elevate your heart rate, it’s a quality exercise to incorporate into a dynamic warm-up, circuit training session or high-intensity interval training workout. The Core Muscles of Your Body. Read more: A 10-Minute Plyo Box Leg-Day Workout. WHAT MUSCLES DOES JUMPING JACKS WORKOUT ? He earned a Master of Science in human movement from A.T. The hip adductors include four muscles that that cross the inside of your hip joint: the adductor brevis, adductor longus, adductor magnus and gracilis. What muscles do jumping jacks work? Prior to writing full-time, she worked as a strength coach, athletic coach and college instructor. 2021 Do not make these mistakes when doing this exercise: A variety of muscles across your upper chest, back and arms act as shoulder adductors, including the latissimus dorsi and teres major in your back, both heads of the pectoralis major in your chest, the triceps in your upper arms and the coracobrachialis in your shoulders. What Muscles Does the Planche Pushup Use? When you look at jumping jacks and the muscles used, you'll be even more impressed. The latter muscle follows a similar path. Hormone Helper: Our genes crave brief, high-intensity, full-body movements like jumping jacks. To increase the intensity of your bout of jumping jacks and elevate your heart rate for greater cardiorespiratory work and calorie burning, increase the speed of your jumps. The LIVESTRONG Foundation and LIVESTRONG.COM do not endorse However, they might differ from one to another. Plank jacks require some muscles to maintain the isometric hold of the plank while asking others to generate motion in the hips and legs. Matthew Schirm has worked in the sports-performance field since 1998. Leaf Group Ltd. Does a Higher Elliptical Ramp Incline Target Muscles? 2. Jumping jacks work most of the muscles in your arms and legs — all while strengthening your heart. Plyometric exercises like jumping jacks are primarily utilized to help people run faster and jump higher. Don’t forget that core muscles play role in jumping jacks too. That being said, this muscle is connected from your pelvic region until your buttocks. If we have to mention them, those muscles include the rectus and transversus abdominis of the abs, and the psoas major and lower portion of the erector spinae … LIVESTRONG is a registered trademark of the LIVESTRONG Foundation. What Muscles Do Plank Jacks Use? Here are the steps to perform Jumping Jacks: 1. It should not be Jumping jacks are such a traditional exercise that you may not realize the muscular benefit they provide. A jumping jack contracts muscles to open the joints of your hip, knee and ankle. Core muscles that assist you during jumping jacks include your abs — the rectus and transversus abdominis, and the obliques — hip flexors such as the psoas major and lower-back muscles such as the lower portion of the erector spinae. Which is why they’re so great as part of a high-intensity interval training routine or drill. Apart from this, performing jumping jacks will also work your shoulder muscles and abdominal muscles. These are two of the three muscles often referred to as the buttocks, or glutes. Jumping jacks are a fun plyometric exercise, suitable for all fitness levels. Moreover, we do not select every advertiser or advertisement that appears on the web site-many of the 1. Hip Adductors are present in your inner thighs. Squats are also a … muscles: Quadriceps, Hamstrings, Adductors, Abductors, Calves. M ostly used to warm up, jumping jacks have now become an integral part of many exercise routines like 8fit’s HIIT workouts. The material appearing on LIVESTRONG.COM is for educational use only. Shoulder muscles function in jumping jacks as well. Understanding which muscles are used and firmed while jogging can help you maintain proper form and do strengthening exercises off the track that will enhance your jogging sessions. This exercise is highly effective on your calves, glutes and hamstrings. Plyometrics combine aerobic exercise and resistance work, which works your heart, lungs, and muscles at the same time. Kim Nunley has been screenwriting and working as an online health and fitness writer since 2005. Half Jacks are one of those great filler exercises you can use to train your calves and also keep things revving as you go from one training routine to another. These work slightly different muscle groups, like your back muscles (barbell squats), and can help improve aerobic fitness (jump squats). What muscles are worked with this exercise? The muscles attach near the knee joint on top and combine at the Achilles tendon to attach to the heel on the bottom. He has professional experience as a college baseball coach and weight-training instructor. Lunges & Straight-Leg Deadlifts for Sprinters. Start by standing tall and uptight with your legs together and hands resting on thighs. Jumping Jacks Form, Muscles Worked, Benefits. Every exercise has particular muscles of our body to move and work, indeed. This forceful action strongly engages your gluteus maximus, which is your largest buttocks muscle. The shoulder adductors come into play as you lower your arms to your sides. She’s had multiple short screenplays produced and her feature scripts have placed at the Austin Film Festival. and Terms of Use The exercise, which involves spreading your arms and legs like a starfish — then jumping them back together — increases your heart rate, stimulating blood flow to a variety of muscle groups throughout your body. Jumping Jacks involves the gleutus muscles while you spread your legs apart to jump. Quadriceps, consist of 4 separate muscles, which is responsible for knee extension. 10-Minute Plyo Box Leg-Day workout a registered trademark of the jumping jacks get your heart high-intensity full-body. Strengthen bones, and improve cardiovascular fitness and heart health until your buttocks, suitable all... 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