Have you ever watched elite or professional athletes and wondered how they can move so quickly? The explanation is a type of exercise that makes the muscles much faster and more powerful when it comes to explosive movements. It trains the muscles to change more quickly when it comes from extending to contracting.
The muscles and connective tissues of most recreational athletes take a much longer time to move from extension to contraction. That extended time period makes them weaker athletes. Plyometrics, or plyos as they are known, train muscles, tendons and ligaments to work with more strength and power than ordinary weight lifting, which is a slow kind of movement. Plyos train the tissues to work with much more force.
Take one of the simplest kinds of plyometric movement; jumping rope. Think about the required complexity of the movement. First, jump up from the balls of your feet, coordinating the jump so the rope passes under your feet. Then you immediately land and absorb the shock, while keeping your feet and arms in coordinated motion to keep moving for the number of jumps or time period of your program.
Since the basic movement of plyos is jumping, bounding or throwing and receiving a ball, it’s an explosive kind of movement. The more energy in the movement, the quicker your reflexes become. As an example, look at the picnic table plyo. This is done along a line of empty picnic tables with attached benches. While running along, you jump up on a bench, then onto the table, back down to the bench on the other side, then to the ground.
Use a stopwatch to measure how long it takes to do four picnic tables without missing a beat. You’ll soon be able to do it five seconds faster, then 10 seconds faster, and so on. Each second dropped means your tissues are acquiring more speed and power.
Another test of your plyometric ability is the vertical jump, which seems like a simple movement, but isn’t simple when done correctly. Tape some paper to the wall, and while holding a piece of colored marker, accelerate from the floor with a powerful jump. The acceleration from the lift-off phase should move up the body. It should hit the calves, the thighs should stretch upwards, as should the glutes, core and shoulders. Reach upward with the hand holding the marker — really stretch it — and make a mark on the paper.
Next, do the same thing using the other hand to hold the marker. If there’s an inch or two between the two chalk marks, you’re doing well. But if they are six inches or more apart, your dominant side and arm are overpowering your weaker side and arm. This will distort your balance when in athletic motion, whether it’s riding a bike or playing hoops. A muscle imbalance will always make an athlete less effective.
Naturally, the solution is to add extra work for the weaker side to equal things out. But no one can start out doing plyos without preparing the body for these forceful movements. That’s why an easier movement — like jumping rope — is a good place to start. Running up a hill, rather than starting out going up in a leaping bounding movement, works your core, hip flexors, glutes and hamstrings. Work with a partner to throw and catch a ball. A lightweight medicine ball of three to five pounds is good for starting out. After a few weeks, your chest, core, shoulders and upper arms will be prepared for the impact and ready to instantly throw it back to your partner.
Use a search engine with key words “plyometric exercises” or “jumping exercises” to find a good training program that tells how to perform these movements correctly. If you have access to an actual coach, ask him or her to critique your technique. With some good plyometric work on your part, you’ll be surprised at how many podiums you’ll be standing on over the summer.
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Wina Sturgeon is the editor of the online magazine Adventure Sports Weekly
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