Best Plyometric Workouts to Get More Explosive and Dunk!

Dunking a basketball isn’t just about being tall or having naturally good genetics. Athletes who can consistently dunk have developed the ability to produce a tremendous amount of force in a very short amount of time. They combine strength, power, reactive ability, coordination, approach speed, and vertical jump ability to get their body high enough to finish above the rim.

And here’s something most athletes need to understand: you learn to dunk by practicing dunking. If you want to become a better dunker, you need to regularly practice your approach, penultimate step, takeoff, timing, and actually jumping toward the rim. But dunk practice alone isn’t enough.

You also need specific strength and plyometric workouts that develop the physical qualities behind your jump.

A strong athlete doesn’t necessarily have a great vertical. But a great jumper needs a high level of relative strength and the ability to turn that strength into explosive force. You don’t need to max out your squat every week, but developing strong legs, hips, and trunk gives you the foundation to produce more force when you leave the ground.

For most athletes, plyometric workouts 2–3 times per week can be extremely effective when properly programmed. The goal isn’t to perform hundreds of jumps. It’s to perform high-quality explosive contacts, recover, and progressively become faster and more powerful.

Check out our previous article on vertical jump training and building explosive athletes here!

What Makes a Plyometric Workout Effective?

Plyometrics train your ability to rapidly absorb and produce force. That means you’re teaching your body to transition from eccentric loading to explosive concentric action faster and more efficiently.

This is critical for jumping.

When you plant before a jump, your body has to absorb force. Then, almost immediately, you have to redirect that force into the floor to propel yourself upward.

That’s why effective plyometric workouts aren’t just about jumping as high as possible over and over again. Different exercises train different parts of the force-production spectrum.

Some develop ankle stiffness and reactivity. Others challenge unilateral stability, horizontal-to-vertical force production, or your ability to produce maximum power.

Here are six plyometric workouts and exercises we use to develop those qualities.

1. Weighted Stationary Pogos

Pogos are one of the simplest ways to train lower-leg reactivity and stiffness.

For weighted stationary pogos, hold a light load and perform repeated vertical jumps while keeping your ground contact short. Think quick and reactive, not deep and slow.

Your ankles should act like springs.

This exercise is excellent for teaching athletes to become more efficient at absorbing and returning force through the feet, ankles, and lower legs.

Coaching focus: Stay tall, minimize ground contact time, and avoid turning every repetition into a deep squat.

Read more here about developing foot and ankle strength!

2. Mini Hurdle Hops

Mini hurdle hops introduce a small external obstacle while forcing you to repeatedly produce explosive contacts.

Set up several mini hurdles in a straight line. Hop over each hurdle while maintaining rhythm and quality.

The objective isn’t simply clearing the hurdles.

You want to land under control, rapidly absorb the landing, and immediately attack the next jump.

This develops reactive strength while teaching the athlete to maintain stiffness and rhythm through multiple contacts.

Coaching focus: Quick contacts, aggressive arm action, and consistent jump height.

3. Single-Leg Mini Hurdle Hops

Now we make the challenge more demanding.

Single-leg mini hurdle hops force each leg to handle the landing and propulsion demands independently. This is important because basketball is rarely played from a perfectly symmetrical position.

You accelerate, decelerate, cut, plant, and jump from different positions constantly.

Single-leg plyometric workouts can help develop unilateral reactive strength and improve an athlete’s ability to produce force through one leg.

Start with lower hurdles and prioritize quality over quantity.

Coaching focus: Stable landings, strong posture, and quick transitions.

4. Hurdle Jumps

Hurdle jumps increase the intensity.

Instead of simply hopping over small obstacles, you’re now asking the athlete to produce more vertical force while clearing a higher target.

The key is to maintain athletic positioning and avoid sacrificing jump quality just to clear the hurdle.

Think violent takeoff, controlled landing, immediate reset.

Hurdle jumps are particularly useful for athletes who already have a basic plyometric foundation and are ready to increase the intensity of their jumping work.

Read more about some of the best plyometric exercises for vertical here!

5. Multi Hurdle Jumps

Multi hurdle jumps combine repeated explosive efforts with the challenge of maintaining quality throughout the series.

This is where athletes have to demonstrate that they can repeatedly absorb and produce force without allowing their mechanics to fall apart.

Set up multiple hurdles with appropriate spacing and jump over each one consecutively.

Don’t turn this into conditioning.

The goal is explosiveness, not exhaustion.

If your jump height drops dramatically or your landings become sloppy, the set is doing more harm than good. High-quality plyometrics require adequate recovery.

Coaching focus: Attack every hurdle, maintain rhythm, and stop the set when explosiveness drops.

6. Approach Box Jump

The approach box jump is one of my favorite exercises for athletes trying to improve their dunking ability because it introduces an approach into the equation.

Dunking isn’t a standing vertical jump.

You have to control your speed, execute your penultimate step, convert horizontal momentum into vertical force, and explode off the ground.

The approach box jump allows you to train that transition while giving you a controlled landing target.

Use an athletic approach, attack the penultimate step, and jump aggressively onto the box.

The box height should challenge you without forcing you to excessively tuck your knees just to make the jump.

Don’t Forget Strength Training

Plyometrics are powerful, but they aren’t a replacement for strength training.

If you want to dunk, you need to develop the ability to produce force before teaching your body to express that force at high speeds.

Your program should progressively develop lower-body strength through movements such as squats, split squats, deadlift variations, and other appropriately selected strength exercises.

Then you combine that strength with explosive movements and sport-specific jumping.

That’s where the real transformation happens.

Strength + Force Production + Plyometrics + Reactive Ability + Sport-Specific Jumping

You don’t need to destroy your legs with endless volume. You need the right exercises, the right intensity, and the right progression.

How Often Should You Do Plyometric Workouts?

More isn’t always better.

For most athletes, 2–3 dedicated plyometric workout sessions per week is plenty when the volume and intensity are appropriate. Your total training load matters, especially if you’re also playing basketball, lifting, sprinting, and practicing your dunk.

The highest-quality jumps should happen when you’re relatively fresh.

Think about plyometrics as neural training, not conditioning.

You aren’t trying to see how tired you can get.

You’re trying to teach your body to produce more force, faster.

And remember: if you want to dunk, you still need to practice dunking. Your body has to learn the specific skill of jumping toward the rim, coordinating your approach, takeoff, arm swing, and ball control.

Final Thoughts

Getting your first dunk, or adding inches to your vertical, isn’t about finding one magical exercise.

It’s about building the complete athlete.

You need strength to produce force. Plyometrics to teach your body to express that force quickly. Reactive strength to become more efficient off the ground. And you need consistent dunk and jump practice to turn those physical qualities into actual basketball performance.

These plyometric workouts are a great starting point, but the biggest results come from having a structured progression that tells you what to train, when to train it, how much volume to use, and how to progress it over time.

That’s exactly what we built Elite Vertical Academy to do.

If you’re serious about jumping higher, getting more explosive, and finally throwing one down, don’t just jump more.

Join EVA and follow a structured system designed to develop the strength, power, reactive ability, and jumping performance you need to get above the rim.