Plyometrics will help make you faster and stronger
Many of you have probably heard the term plyometrics before, but don’t know how it works or how it can benefit you. Plyometrics require skilled technique to avoid injury and you should be cleared by a professional before you attempt them. If you are able to do them though, they will take your speed and power to a new level.
How plyometrics work in your body
Plyometrics take advantage of two things with your body.
First, it takes advantage of the elasticity of your muscles and tendons to generate more force.
Second, it uses the stretch reflex from your muscle spindle fibers. When you stretch a muscle too fast, muscle spindles will cause a stretch reflex to occur, causing a muscle contraction.
Sport specific example of plyometrics
Say you are a basketball player and you want to jump higher to allow yourself to dunk the ball. A plyometric exercise you could do would be to stand on a box one foot off the ground and step off it. You would hit the ground with both feet, then immediately jump straight up in the air with your arms overhead, using the energy stored in your muscles from landing on the ground to jump higher. This plyometric exercise of using your muscle elasticity with the stretch reflex will over time allow you to soar to new heights!
The three phases of plyometrics
The eccentric phase
This is phase 1, or muscle lengthening phase. When you step down from the box in the example above, you are flexing your hips, knees and ankles. The muscles being lengthened are your glutes (hip extensors, or bringing your leg behind you), upper hamstrings (hip extensors), quads (knee extensors, or straightening your knee) and calf muscles (gastrocnemius and soleus, which bend your ankle towards the ground). Energy is STORED in this phase.
The amortization phase
The Amortization phase is basically the time it takes to switch from eccentric (muscle lengthening) to concentric (muscle contracting) phases. This phase is KEY in plyometrics! You want this phase to be kept short, so as not to squander the elastic energy stored up and to allow the stretch reflex to work.
The concentric phase
The concentric phase is stage 3, or the muscle contracting phase. For the jump example, all the muscles that were being stretched and storing energy will now contract. So glutes, quads, hamstrings and calves will all contract together with the elasticity and stretch reflex to produce a lot of power!
Plyometrics are not just for the lower body, they can be used for the upper body too, as seen in this picture of a guy doing clap pushups (one of my favorite things to do personally!)
Plyometrics do place a considerable amount of stress on your body and joints, which is why I recommend getting cleared by a professional to see if you can do them with more benefits than not. If you are cleared to do them though and perform them with proper technique and rest, you will soon find yourself quickly improving on your power and speed!