Building Power & Speed with Plyometrics

What are “Plyometrics”?
There are a couple different schools of thought regarding what constitutes plyometric exercise. At the base, it is a style of exercise that involves high-intensity, explosive movement designed to invoke the stretch reflex (stretching the muscle before it contracts), so that the muscle contracts with greater force. Many of the exercises were initially developed to improve jump performance, but research studies have shown that plyometric training leads to improvements in overall leg strength, balance, acceleration, agility, and even bone density.

The two different approaches to plyometrics are “jump” training and “shock” training.

Back up. How does this relate to core training?
The answer lies in that last sentence of the previous paragraph: balance and agility. Anything that improves your balance and agility is engaging and working your core. Speaking from personal experience, the muscles that are the most sore after a high-intensity, plyometric-focused workout, are the muscles of my core. I may feel it in my quads and my glutes, but it’s my abdominal area, specifically the transverse abdominis and obliques, that really hurt the next day.

However, in addition to strengthening the muscles that stabilize your core, these exercises will also fire the muscles that you use for that extra burst of speed when you’re sprinting, or when you hit a steep hill and want to power up it.

What do I do?
Step one is to warm up. My favorite warm-up before getting into either jump training or shock training is one that is suggested by Runner’s World (and is remarkably similar to the warmup used by trainers at my gym prior to plyo workouts): an easy jog for five minutes, followed by five minutes of skipping,  high-knee “prancing”, and gentle jumping jacks. After warming up, move into either the “jump” method of plyometrics, or the “shock” method.

What is “jump” training?
It really is exactly what it sounds like, and it is where most beginners to plyometric exercise should start out. These are relatively easy jump exercises without a lot of emphasis placed on the time it takes to execute the movement. Examples include:

• Bunny hops: stand with your feet together and knees slightly bent. Keeping your feet together, take small hops across the room. For extra challenge, hop up a flight of stairs.
• Skip-ups: This is essentially an exaggeration of the skipping motion you used to warm up. As you skip, drive your leading knee as high as you can while popping off the ground, toes pointed. When you land, push off and drive the opposite knee as high as you can.
• Standing long-jumps: Stand with your feet together and knees slightly bent. Swing your arms back and then, as you swing your arms forward, leap as far as possible, landing on both feet.
• Jump-and-stick: Instead of trying to jump a long distance, try to jump as high as possible from the standing position, pushing off from and landing on the balls of both feet.
• Two-way hops: Stand on your right foot, holding your left foot off the ground. Jump forward, landing on your left foot. Hold your position for a couple seconds to regain your balance; try not to touch your right foot t o the ground. Push off with your left foot to jump forward again, this time landing on your right foot.

So what the heck is “shock” training?
It sounds a little intimidating, doesn’t it? Don’t worry; it’s not scary. It simply involves the opposite of jumping: falling. Upon landing, the athlete experiences a shock in which the hip, knee and ankle extensor muscles undergo a powerful eccentric contraction (the muscle lengthens). To land and then immediately push off again, the muscles must move from eccentric contraction (muscle lengthens) to isometric (stopping the downward movement) and then immediately to concentric contraction (muscle shortens).

The most common method of shock training -- one that was popularized in 1970’s and 1980’s by Olympic trainers -- is called “drop jumping”. Simply drop backwards off a platform and immediately jump back up without any pause or hesitation. The beauty of this simple move is that you can chose the platform height and vary the intensity of your workout based on your level of fitness and confidence. The important thing is having a stable, sturdy platform that won’t twist or shift as you drop off it and jump back onto it, and that your landing position is also safe and free of obstacles. You might start out with the bottom step of the staircase in your home, where you can keep a hand on the wall or bannister in case you don’t feel confident about your balance. The steps of the exercise are:

1. Stand on the platform or step. Bend the knees slightly; do not lock them! Take a couple deep breaths and engage your core.
2. Drop backward off the platform. Land on the balls of your feet; if necessary, allow your foot to act as a rocker, landing toe-to-heel to distribute impact.
3. Immediately push off and jump straight up to land on the platform again.
4. Take a pause here if necessary to balance or re-center, then repeat the exercise.

Note that the only pause taken is when you’re on top of the platform. The process of dropping and jumping back up again should be a non-stop movement. As you progress in this exercise, your goal should be to reduce the amount of time spent on the ground between landing and pushing off again.