“Star Jumps Exercise”: 5 best Effective Practice

Have you often seen kids jumping up and spreading their arms as legs as stars as if to fly away and touch the sky? That is a good form of plyometric exercise which keeps the body fit and gives a complete workout for the upper and lower part of the body.

It also increases cardiovascular function. A little or modification in this form makes it the star jump exercise. As the name goes, “star jump” means jump and spread the body like a star. 

Exercise is a great calorie burner and provides strength to your muscles, giving a complete body workout. The best part is that it is a free-hand exercise for which you would require no props or equipment. All you can do is jump in glee like a child in a perfect form. 

Then, repeat the form of exercise till tired and keep on increasing your count of hops regularly. A little rest or jogging in the interval will increase your capacity to continue. Want to know more about the exercise? Here are the details about it. Just read below. 

“Star Jumps Exercise” – your way to fitness 

“Star Jumps Exercise” is a great calorie burner and provides strength to your muscles, giving a complete body workout. The best part is that it is a free-hand exercise for which you would require no props or equipment. All you can do is jump in glee like a child in a perfect form. 

Then, repeat the form of exercise till tired and keep on increasing your count of hops regularly. A little rest or jogging in the interval will increase your capacity to continue. Want to know more about the exercise? Here are the details about it. Just read below. 

Star Jumps Meaning

Star Jumps, as explained already, is a sequence of jumping exercises in which you jump in the air and spread out in the shape of a Star. So, for example, with your two legs and two arms spreading in the air, you would take the shape of a comprehensive “X” and then close to form the shape of a small “I” when you come back to your original position while touching the ground. 

How to do star jumps correctly

Describe below how to do Star Jumps. 

1st maintaining the standing position 

Put your feet in a parallel position a little away from each other. They should be close enough to give you the balance and yet wide enough to hold the weight of your body. The ideal distance is putting the two feet away on shoulder width. 

2nd starting the positioning

The shoulder should be aligned with the hips, and the chin should be tucked inside, touching the upper part of the chest. The knees should be bent frontwards in a quarter squat or half squat posture. 

The 3rd posture – preparation to jump up

The arms should be put down parallel to the side of the body, and gathering it closer to the knees, one must breathe intensely. One should take in and out the breadth several times to figure the strength of the lungs before starting to jump. Once this is done, the pressure must be given to the feet. The ground should be pressed in a crouching position. 

The 4th posture is to jump up

After the above step, a little bit of push and one should lift them in the air. While flying up, one should stretch the legs and hand apart to pull them up and above parallelly on both sides. The posture would then try to form the shape of a star in the sky.

The 5th step is to land down safely

The reverse of the 4th step is to be followed while landing down from the air. The two arms and the two legs must be brought closer together aligned to the body. The body should be landing softly on the ground. 

Repetition of the jumps is necessary

The key to the proper performance helping the burning of star jumps calories is the repetition of the sequence and continuous until ten to twenty jumps are repeated. The number of repetitions should be done according to the endurance of the body.

There should be a ten to fifteen-minute gap after each set, and the frequency of jumps should be increased with practice over the days or weeks. 

Now that you know how to do star jumps correctly, you must be eager to learn star jumps benefits. Just scroll below to know it. 

Star Jumps benefits

I mentioned below the benefits: 

• The exercise is a normal jumping movement that has a simple technique and does not require any instrument.

• You can do an entire body exercise without any investment in a machine or carrying any heavyweight which might cause you discomfort. 

• While you jump, the body will automatically adjust to your capacity for doing the sport, and there is less probability of accident or injury. 

• It is indeed a great way to activate and strengthen your muscles of the legs, the thighs, the hips, the knees, and the ankle. While maintaining the lower part of the body also boosts your deltoids, biceps, and triceps.

• It is excellent to strengthen the abdominal muscles and increase the rate of metabolism of your body. While you jump up and down, the metabolic system is highly active. This even helps to burn down your fat faster and make you trimmer and healthy.

• The jumping increases the cardio-vascular capacity as it increases blood pumping into your heart and increases your ability to intake the oxygen from the air. So, naturally, the cardio-vascular rate increases and adds to your endurance level and stamina.

• All factors make you healthier by increasing your digestive system’s power and bringing in sleep when required inherently.

• The workouts are fun and make you happy and stress-free. You would enjoy your jumps like a kid and admire the fitness you get out of it in your body.

• Soon your body will increase flexibility and strength, and you would feel much lighter and get increased motivation for work and further exercises. 

Variety to star jumps exercise according to an endurance level.

Let’s discuss the variety to star jumps exercises.

The Half star Jumps exercise for new starters

If you are practicing new or an older adult, chances are you may find it challenging to jump above and spread out like a star as kids do. It may be difficult to throw yourself above, and you may fear the chance of falling or hitting the ground too hard. 

Is it your case? No worries, there is a better solution for you. Practice half star jump exercise. The method is simple. 

Just stand on your right leg with the right arm close to your side. Now spread the left leg and the left arm onto your left side. Finally, could you bring it back to the original position? 

Repeat the sequence with your left arm and left leg straight and stretch your right arm and right leg to the side. Then, bring them to your site again? 

Repeat the above sequences several times, stretching your alternate leg and arm one by one. Practice this for a series of ten to twenty times. Once this is done, you have gained half the effect of practicing the complete star jumps exercise sequence.

Increasing the star jumps exercise effects. 

Are you a strong young man with high endurance and want to add variety and high effects to your star jumps? There is also a process for you to make it more active. The process is simple and fun to do. Here is how. Stand facing one direction. 

Suppose you are facing the East! Fly up the ground using the star jump but turn either ninety degrees and face the north or south direction while landing. If you still have higher capacity, turn hundred and eighty degrees to the west and land. 

Caution is not to turn more than a hundred and eighty degrees in one jump. Else you have a chance to go off balance and fall. These techniques will not increase your joy in doing the exercise but also help you to burn more calories. 

Star jumps or jumping jacks

There is yet another variety of this exercise called the jumping jack. Consider whether you would like to do star jumps or jumping jacks. The jumping jack is a moderate form of the star jumps exercise. Here is how you do that.

Stand straight. Your legs should be a bit apart and face one another. Your arms are to be tucked by your side. Jump a bit and stretch your legs on the side while landing softly on the ground. 

Simultaneously stretch your arms and put them above your shoulder. The palms should be facing each other and give a clap putting the arms above the head. 

While doing this, the arms must be aligned to the headline. The clap of the palms and touching the ground with the feet wide apart should be done simultaneously. This being done, bring down the arms to the side of the body and place the feet parallelly side by side. 

This should be repeated in a sequence of ten to twenty and after a rest of five to ten minutes should be repeated. Ideally, there should be three to four sets done. 

Star Jumps Muscles Worked

The Star Jumps Muscles worked details are given below. These will provide you with an idea of how star jumps of jumping jacks strengthen your whole-body muscles.

• The thigh muscles are strengthened in the first place. This includes the quadriceps, which are composed of the four typical joints extending up to the knees. This is a very flexible muscle and helps a person to sit or stand. While doing so, pressure is given to the quadriceps. The exercises discussed strengthen this muscle to the core and vitalises it.

• Muscles of the hips also gain strength from these exercises. These muscles are called the glutes or the gluteal muscles. These are formed of three parts the gluteus minimus, gluteus medius and the gluteus maximus. Their function is to give power to the buttocks while moving, whether it is an exercise or a daily movement. It is also required while sitting and standing.

• The biarticular muscles at the back of the legs also get strength. These are the muscles of the hamstrings. These are muscles that are found at the back of the legs. These help in the contraction and extension of the lower limbs of the body.

• Next are the calves or the muscles of the back portion of the lower legs that are impacted by the jumps. These muscles help in the movement of the heel areas.

• While you stretch your hands up, the deltoids or the muscles that cover the joint of the hands with the shoulder get the strength.

• The muscles, which are on the inner side of the upper arm, and the triceps on the outer side of the upper arm also get impacted and gain my strength.

• While jumping, the abdomen stretches inside. So the abdominal muscles become prominent and cut fat from them and become flexible and strong.

So, the star jumps and the jumping jacks help strengthen the muscles of each part of the body. 

Star Jumps Calories 

It is pertinent to note that the intensity of the jumps and the style one takes impact the calories burnt. However, there is a formula to give you the average calorie burn counts to give you an idea. A little more profound understanding of calculations is required to arrive at the numbers.

There is a term called Metabolic Equivalent or MET on which the count of calories spent depends on the exercises. Each type of exercise has a different MET count. For example, the MET count for the average star jump in its complete form is 10.

To arrive at the calculation for arriving at the count of the star jumps exercise, we have to use the formula below, which goes for every activity. It is:

(3.5 multiplied by MET count, multiplied by your body weight in Kilograms, divided by 200) per minute. 

So, calories burnt for Star Jumps exercise per minute is 12.5, and for a half an hour routine without a break, it is 367.5. Not bad!

This count is for moderate-intensity star jumps. For half star jumps, the MET is around 6 to 7. For Jumping Jacks, it is 8.

Now that you know the MET count of Star Jumps usually is 10, you get (3.5 x10 x70 /200) calories burnt per minute.

Remember the formula. If your body weight is more, you will burn more calories. However, if you are slimmer, the number of calories spent becomes lower. 

So, for all exercises, the trimmer you get, the slower or harder it becomes to burn your calories, and you need to increase the intensity of the workout to get effects as before. 

Precaution you should take for the exercise

Star Jumps exercises need you to jump and fall back on your feet. So, you need to maintain certain things so that your activity is comfortable and without any injury.

• First, invest in a good costume. Wear a cotton track-suit that soaks your sweat and keeps you fresh. At the same time, it should be stretchable and should not cling too tight to your body. The circulation of your blood and stretching the muscles should be easy with your costume.

• Get for yourself a pair of good shoes. You may get outstanding ones that help you jump and push yourself and feel soft on your toes. But, if it is not possible at all, get a pair of regular athlete shoes. It will keep your feet and ankle safe from hurt and injury.

• You have to Chose the place of your jumping correctly. Either it should be a bare floor or plain ground without pebbles and stones. This also ensures that you are not hurt while jumping. You can choose a temperate grassland if available that will add to your fun and comfort while jumping.

• If the floor where you are practicing the jumps is cemented, take caution that it is not too slippery, or by any chance, there should not be water spilled on it. Also, keep yourself safe from hurt.

• If you are practicing star jump with a 180-degree turn, ensure that your blood pressure is under control and you do not have a head spin. Also, your muscles should be ready to bear your weight. 

• If you have recently hurt your muscles or bones, avoid doing star jumps and weight until you are healed.

Have you checked all the above criteria and feel you are prepared? Then why wait? Begin the jumping regime every morning to gain your stamina and get a healthier body. I wish you a healthy life and a great jumping experience filled with fun and joy and good health. 

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