Plyometrics, Plyometric Workouts and Plyometric Exercises

Use Plyometric Exercises to develop maximum power and strength for your favorite sport.

Plyometrics are a highly effective form of power training designed to significantly improve sports performance. Used by athletes to reach peak physical condition, plyometric exercises manipulate the elasticity and strength of muscles by increasing the speed and force of their contractions. This gives plyometric workouts the ability to produce fast and powerful movements that provide explosive power for a variety of sports.

There has been little research done into formulating best practices for plyometric training. The National Strength & Conditioning Association and others have proposed some guidelines but it has been left mainly to the experience of coaches to formulate their own training plans. Therefore, plyometric exercises should only be done by fit individuals under supervision to avoid any risk of injury. Good physical strength and flexibility are required to cope with the powerful forces that are generated during plyometric workouts.

What are Plyometrics?
Plyometric exercises are a method of power training used by many team and individual sports. In the simplest of terms, plyometrics are exercises that involve a jumping movement. For example, skipping, bounding, jumping rope, hopping, lunges, jump squats, and clap push-ups are all examples of plyometric exercises.

Plyometric exercises use the stretch shortening cycle to generate quick, powerful pre-stretch or counter-movements. Muscles are loaded with a lengthening (eccentric) action, followed immediately by a shortening (concentric) action to reach their optimum force in the fastest time possible. Plyometric exercises strengthen muscle tissue and train nerves to produce the specific muscle contraction.

A plyometric contraction involves three consecutive phases.

So a plyometric exercise is an exercise in which an eccentric muscle contraction is quickly followed by a concentric muscle contraction. In other words, when a muscle is rapidly contracted and lengthened, and then immediately followed with a further contraction and shortening, this is a plyometric exercise. This process of contract-lengthen, contract-shorten is often referred to as the stretch - shortening cycle.

This combination gets the muscles to work in unison while engaged in a particular movement. The myotatic reflex is stimulated to enable the automatic contraction of muscles. The explosive movements generated develop muscular power by acting on nerves, muscles, and tendons.

The Benefits of Plyometrics
Muscular power and muscular strength are not the same thing. Muscular power is determined by the time it takes for muscular strength to convert into speed. A short, fast muscle contraction will produce higher energy than a slower and more powerful contraction. Increasing muscular power by quickly converting muscular strength into speed gives athletes the ability to perform movements that strength alone cannot allow.

Power = mass x speed / distance

Plyometrics improves the athlete's ability to apply more force, more rapidly. This ability to generate maximal force can be transformed into a sport-specific power in sports like martial arts, soccer, tennis, basketball and athletics. This is achieved through plyometric exercises that repeatedly stimulate the elasticity of muscles with movements that mimic the chosen sport.

Why are Plyometric Exercises Important for Injury Prevention?
Plyometrics are often used by athletes to develop power for their chosen sport, and a lot has been written about how to accomplish this, but few people realize how important plyometrics can be in aiding injury prevention.

Essentially, plyometric exercises force the muscle to contract rapidly from a full stretch position. This is the position in which muscles tend to be at their weakest point. By conditioning the muscle at its weakest point, (full stretch) it is better prepared to handle this type of stress in a real or game environment.

Why are Plyometric Exercises Important for Injury Rehabilitation?
Most injury rehabilitation programs fail to realize that an eccentric muscle contraction can be up to three times more forceful than a concentric muscle contraction. This is why plyometric exercises are important in the final stage of rehabilitation, to condition the muscles to handle the added strain of eccentric contractions.

Neglecting this final stage of the rehabilitation process can often lead to re-injury, because the muscles have not been conditioned to cope with the added force of eccentric muscle contractions.

Precautions and Safety Guidelines to Prevent Injury
Little research has been done to either confirm or deny any increased risk of injury through plyometric training. However, even though plyometrics is not inherently dangerous, there is an increase in the level of stress on joints and muscle tissue from repeated, highly focused and intense movements (shock and tension drills). This has lead to the proposal of some safety guidelines including the following.

While the recommendations on this page are a good starting point, you'll get a lot more benefit when you include a wider range of exercises. So to improve your performance, reduce injuries and really take advantage of all the stretching exercises on offer, grab a copy of the updated 2011 edition of the Stretching Handbook and accompanying DVD. Together, they include 135 clear photographs and 44 video demonstrations of unique stretching exercises for every major muscle group in your body.

The DVD also included 3 customized stretching routines (8 minutes each) for the Upper Body; the Lower Body; and the Neck, Back & Core, plus a bonus DVD-ROM feature that allows you to print out over 80 stretching routines that you can take with you where ever you go.

The Handbook and DVD will show you, step-by-step, how to perform each stretch correctly. Plus, you'll also learn the 7 critical rules for safe stretching; the benefits of flexibility; and how to stretch properly. Check out the Stretching Handbook & DVD for yourself.

Minimum Strength Requirements
Minimum strength requirements before doing plyometrics vary depending on the intensity of the plyometric workouts. The following examples give a basic idea of what is required before commencing plyometrics.

Sample Plyometric Exercises
Make sure you warm up before attempting any of the plyometric exercises below and take extra care to follow the precautions in the section above. Below are three lower body plyometric exercises and three upper body plyometric exercises.

Squat Jumps

Jump to Box

Lateral Jump to Box

Overhead Throws

Over Back Toss

Slams