There is nothing new about plyometrics. It has a proven track record for improving performance over a wide variety of sports. When used properly, this type of training can be an incredible performance boost and injury prevention tool. It has been my secret weapon in training over the past few decades.
Plyometrics are a type of training that involve a quick stretch of of muscle and connective tissue, followed by quick explosive contraction. Think jumping. When you squat down to jump you are loading the muscles and connective tissue, then you quickly jump as high as you can to release that energy.
The goal in plyometric training is to teach your body to become more efficient and quickly with these movements.
When you stretch a muscle and connective tissue you increase the amount of stored energy that can be released. When you follow the stretch with an explosive contraction you gain more strength and power than the muscle contraction alone could produce. It’s a pretty cool phenomenon.
You most likely have heard of plyos before so I don’t want to spend too much time with the mechanics behind why and how it works. Instead I want to show you how you can safely introduce plyos to your program.
These exercises are great for developing more power so you can jump over walls easier, sprint up hills faster, and a host of other benefits. The little known benefit though is how they can also help you strength your joints and reduce your risk of injuries.
Most sports, like obstacle course racing, involves a lot of impact on the body. Running downhill and jumping over walls and down obstacles will take their toll on the body and leave you with serious injuries if you are not careful.
But, if you just throw plyos into your program you can be adding too much stress on the body for your to handle and increase your risk of injury. So how you implement this training will either make you rock solid for your next race or leave you limping in with unnecessary joint pain.
Enter learning how to land. Sure it is not as sexy as jumping on a 42 inch box, but if you can’t land properly, you have no business jumping on stuff. I posted a video of my 2 year old daughter jumping off the playground recently on Instagram.
We see kids follow this progression all the time. They don’t try and jump on things. They see how high can the jump from without hurting themselves. They learn how to absorb force BEFORE they learn how to create it.
Deceleration is the key. You must learn how to decelerate your body before you accelerate. If I told you you can drive the fastest car in the world, but only the brakes or the engine will work. Which would you pick? I hope the brakes. A fast car isn’t much use if you can’t stop it.
Here is how you introduce plyometrics into your program. You learn how to land with these simple drills. Check out this video below to see the essential drills of drop squats, altitude drops, and single leg step throws.
Keep training smarter. Use proper progression and only add exercises to your workouts that you know you body can handle.
Mike Deibler, MS, CSCS, SGX
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