By RealJock Staff

This exercise provided courtesy of Billy Polson, founder and co-owner of DIAKADI Body training gym, voted best personal training gym in San Francisco by CitySearch in 2006.

Benefits
Ready for a challenging leg workout that combines the power of a jump with the difficulty of alternating lunges? This exercise asks you to jump between alternating lunges, switching your front leg with each jump. You'll build not just leg strength but also balance and coordination.

Muscles Worked
Legs

Starting Position
Stand upright with feet about hip-distance apart. Place your hands on your head, with your elbows out (see Photo 1).

Exercise

1. From the starting position, step forward with one foot as you drop the back knee toward the floor. Do not push your front knee past your ankle. Think of lowering down through the back thigh, rather than pushing on the front foot (see Photo 2).
2. Reverse direction and, as you push back up, jump powerfully into the air out of the lunge and land with your feet reversed. If you started with right foot forward and left back, you land with your left foot forward and right back, then immediately reverse again and jump so that you land with your right food forward and left foot back (see Photos 3 to 6).
3. Keep going until you have done a total of 40 alternating jump scissor switches (20 of each leg forward).

About Billy Polson: Billy Polson is the founder and co-owner of DIAKADI Body training gym, which was voted the best personal training gym in San Francisco by CitySearch in 2006. A competitive swimmer and triathlete in his own right, Polson has over 15 years of experience working as a coach and trainer, and was recently named by Men's Journal Magazine (December 2005) as one of the Top 100 Trainers in America.