Plyometric Exercises
Lets us first define what Plyometrics are and what they can do. "Plyometric training involves practicing plyometric movements to toughen tissues and train nerve cells to stimulate a specific pattern of muscle contraction so the muscle generates a contraction as strong as possible in the shortest amount of time. A plyometric contraction involves first a rapid eccentric movement, followed by a short amortization phase, then an explosive concentric movement, which enables the synergistic muscles to engage in the myotatic-stretch reflex during the stretch-shortening cycle".
Plyometric exercises often use quick explosive movements to develop muscular power, alomg with the ability to generate a large amount of force quickly. Plyometric training acts on both the musculotendinous and neurological levels to increase an athlete's power output without necessarily increasing their maximum strength output. Plyometrics are used to increase the speed or force of muscular contractions, often with goals of increasing the height of a jump or speed of a punch or throw. You will most often see the demonstration of Plyometric training with the use of boxes that are used for jumping exercises.
Muscular power can be determined by how long it takes for strength to be converted into speed and force output. The ability to convert strength to speed in a very short time allows for athletic movements beyond what raw strength will allow. Thus an athlete who has strong legs and can perform the freeweight squat with extremely heavy weights over a long duration may get less distance on a standing long jump or height on a vertical leap than a weaker athlete who is able to generate a smaller amount of force in a shorter amount of time. This is often seen by a bodybuilder type athlete who you think would be a physical force on the athletic field, yet their muscles do not translate to speed or performace on the athletic field.
Though the plyometrically trained athlete has a lower maximal force output and may not squat as much, training allows them to compress the time required to reach their maximum force output, allowing them to develop more power with each contraction that they do. So you will see a skinny physically uimpressive athlete who can dunk the basketball or run at a superior speed on a sprint such as Randy Moss.
So over the next month we are going to start to break down what plyometrics really means and what exercises we can do take advantage of them