DIY Plyo Box Ideas

You would think that a box would be fairly inexpensive. Yet, once a simple idea gets marketed as a fitness product the price jumps so high that that it would break the bank of your average fitness enthusiast. There are plyo boxes going for $70 for each fixed height box. After buying several heights and adding on shipping costs, you just bought your child a semester of text books (that's a entirely different rant!). What follows are some low-tech, DIY options that progress from free and easy to more skilled, yet simple, alternatives to an overly inflated fitness product. This first idea came from an old Kung Fu training book I once had. The idea was to start digging a hole in the ground and jumping out until fatigued. You adjust the depth of the hole by taking away or adding dirt. Different sides of the hole can be adjusted to different heights for easy changes during a workout. It's a very simple and cost effective idea, yet it may not be practical in today's world of pedicured lawns. If you have reservations with defacing your yard, you can search for anything stable to jump to like the side of a deck, a cut down tree stump, a large tire, stacks of concrete block, etc. The possibilities are endless - be creative and use your imagination. If you want to go the route of purchasing a box, you can try the irrigation boxes sold at hardware or lawn and garden stores. These boxes are pretty stable (I tried them out at the store with my 200 lbs of sexyness), but they can slip, especially on concrete. You may need to apply some adhesive traction strips along the edges or screw the box into some type of wood base. And finally, the following two links come from a couple of Crossfit members who have laid out plans for making a set of professional looking homemade plyo boxes. Lincoln's Plyo Boxes Allan's "How I Pimped my Plyo Boxes"