Whether you’ve stopped seeing results or are simply bored with your routine, adding plyometrics to your workouts can reignite your fat loss and muscle gain as well as your motivation. Wikipedia defines plyometrics as “a type of exercise training designed to produce fast, powerful movements, and improve the functions of the nervous system, generally for the purpose of improving performance in a specific sport.” In short, these exercises utilize explosive movement, like jumping up and down onto a box or tossing a medicine ball against a wall, to build speed, power, agility, and coordination---skills athletes require to better perform movements specific to their sport.
Physiological Adaptations to Plyometric Training
The idea behind plyometric exercise is that a muscle that’s stretched immediately before a contraction (think of the lowering phase of a squat before exploding into a vertical jump) “will contract more forcefully and more rapidly,” according to Sport-Fitness-Advisor.com. With plyometrics, a person who has developed moderate-to-advanced strength and stability in his muscles with traditional strength training can take his workouts to the next level by adding explosive movement: switching out barbell squats, for instance, with squat jumps.
Even if you don’t play sports, you can see notable improvements in your fitness level by utilizing plyometric training techniques. Plyometrics allow you to convert all that strength you’ve gained in the weight room into functional speed and agility, useful whether you’re playing recreational basketball or jogging up a flight of stairs. Additionally, the combination of explosion and deceleration in these movements improves your coordination, which can help you to avoid injury both inside and outside of the gym. Finally, performing these high-intensity exercises elevates your heart rate and maximizes calorie burn during strength workouts, so they are an essential tool for exercisers focused on weight loss.
Incorporating Plyometrics into Your Workout
Before introducing plyometrics into your workout, here are a few safety considerations:
- Make sure you have a foundation of several months of consistent strength training before attempting these exercises.
- Understand how to land properly. When coming down from any kind of jump, land softly with knees bent, rolling through your foot from front to back, to minimize shock on the joints.
- Wear proper footwear designed for running or cross-training, and ideally find a padded surface, such as a mat or rubberized floor, on which to perform these exercises.
- As always, warm up thoroughly before beginning a strength or plyometric workout.
- Start with lower impact, shorter jumps, and work up to higher intensity moves (e.g. jumping onto an aerobic step with only one riser underneath; working up to additional risers).
Once you’ve achieved these guidelines, here are a few exercises to try:
- Box jumps---Squat slightly, and then jump onto an aerobic step or low bench, landing on both feet.
- Depth jumps---Same as above, only start atop the bench and land on the floor.
- Lateral two-foot hops---Lay a jump rope or length of tubing on the floor in a straight line, and perform side-to-side jumps over the rope with feet together, like a skier. More advanced exercisers can try this over a larger object.
- Lateral one-foot hops---Same as above, only stand on left foot with right foot elevated and jump to the right, landing on right foot, and then back to the left.
- BOSU Up-and-Over Push-Ups---Get into a raised push-up position with left hand on top of a BOSU ball and right hand on the floor to the right of it. Lower into a push-up, and then rapidly replace left hand with right hand and lower into a push-up on the left side of ball. Continue alternating sides.
- Medicine Ball Chest Passes---Hold a weighted ball at chest height and pass it forcefully (like a basketball player) at a partner. When they toss it back, catch it and throw it back as quickly as you can. Alternately, pass the ball at a (well reinforced!) wall; retrieve and repeat.
Perform these exercises twice a week for no more than six weeks at a time to boost your results.
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