Hurdle Hops
Also works: Abductors · Adductors · Calves · Glutes · Hamstrings
Continuous two-footed jumps over a row of low barriers, with the landing from one hurdle feeding straight into the take-off for the next. The hurdles set a fixed height and rhythm, so the honest measure of a set is how little time your feet spend on the ground between them.
Own the movement
Set up first, then execute. Every cue below is something you can check on your next set.
Before the first rep
- Use collapsible or foam hurdles, 15-30 cm to start. Rigid barriers punish a clipped foot.
- Space them about 1 m apart so the rhythm is continuous rather than a series of separate jumps.
- Stand a short step in front of the first hurdle, feet shoulder-width, arms down and loose.
- Set the number of hurdles before you start; do not add a pass because the last one felt good.
Every rep
Breathing & tempo — One breath before the pass, sharp exhales through the hops, full recovery between passes. Ground contacts should be as brief as possible, ideally under a quarter of a second — quiet, springy, and identical from the first hurdle to the last.
Before you load it
- Use hurdles that fall over when clipped. Catching a foot on a fixed barrier mid-set means landing face-first with no arms free to help.
- Skip these entirely if you have a current Achilles or patellar tendon complaint — repeated stiff-ankle landings are the specific load those tissues cannot take while irritated.
Sets, reps & load
Where to start, and what to change when it stops being hard.
Bodyweight only. Start at 15 cm and 4 hurdles, 1 m apart. Progress by shortening the contact time at that height first — record a pass on your phone and watch how long the feet stay down — then by adding 5-10 cm of height. Add hurdles to the pass only up to six; beyond that the last few reps are always the slow ones.
What goes wrong
The errors that show up most often, and the cue that fixes each one.
Cue 'stiff ankles, short contact' and lower the hurdles by 10 cm until you can bounce out of each landing. Deep landings train absorption, which is a different and much slower quality.
Pick a height you can clear with 10 cm to spare on every rep of every pass. The height is not the training variable; the speed of the rebound is.
Lower the hurdles until you can clear them by lifting the feet with the hips staying tall. A tuck hides poor jump height and lands you in a heap.
Cap each pass at 4-6 hurdles and rest 90 seconds. If you want breathless work, do it after your lifting with something that has no landing impact.
Use foam or collapsible barriers, or even rolled towels. A trailing foot will catch one eventually and you want that to cost you a stumble, not a fall.
Why bother
Because there is a barrier in front of you, you cannot cheat a rep by jumping less high — you either clear it or you do not. That makes the height a constant and turns your ground contact time into the only variable you can improve, which is exactly the reactive quality worth training here.
The landings do most of the work. Each one is an eccentric that has to be reversed within a fraction of a second, loading the calves, Achilles and quads in the stiff, spring-like way that no barbell lift replicates. Treat every landing as a rep in its own right, because that is what your joints are counting.
Where it fits
Fresh, immediately after the warm-up, before lifting or sprinting. 3-5 passes over 4-6 hurdles, with 90 seconds to 2 minutes of walking rest between passes. Once you start clipping hurdles or the rhythm becomes uneven, stop — a tired hurdle hop delivers all the landing load and none of the speed adaptation, and clipping a barrier while tired is how people land badly.
If this one isn't it
No kit, too hard, or too easy — here's where to go instead.
Same job, different kit
Start here instead
Asked and answered
How high should the hurdles be?
Low enough that you clear them with room to spare while staying tall — 15-30 cm suits most people. If you have to tuck your knees or you land in a deep squat, they are too high. Height is not the training variable here; contact time is, and a tall hurdle destroys it.
Can I do these with one leg?
Yes, once two-footed hops are quiet and evenly timed, and only over the lowest hurdles. Single-leg hopping multiplies the load on the calf and Achilles, so halve the number of contacts when you switch and build up over several weeks rather than in one session.
What if I have no hurdles?
Rolled towels, taped lines on the floor, or a pair of shoes work fine — the barrier is a rhythm cue more than an obstacle. What matters is the fixed spacing so you cannot quietly shorten the jump when you tire. Avoid anything rigid enough to trip you.
Should I do these before or after lifting?
Before. Reactive work needs a fresh nervous system, and done first it can even sharpen the lifting that follows. After a leg session your contacts will be long and heavy, which loads the tendons hard for no return.