What Does Plyometric Exercise Mean?

If you’re looking to sprint faster, jump higher and improve your overall athleticism, plyometric exercises should be a part of your workout routine. Plyometrics are a type of explosive exercise and are effective at developing your neuromuscular system. They utilize an involuntary muscular reflex to increase the power of the contraction, improving your explosiveness.

  1. Definition

    • A common misconception is that any explosive activity is a plyometric exercise, but plyometrics are different in that they involve an explosive and powerful contraction that immediately follows a rapid stretching of the muscle. This brief stretching period, which is also referred to as muscle loading, stimulates an involuntary reflex in the muscle, increasing the explosiveness of the contraction. This process is called the stretch-shortening cycle. The faster and greater the loading, the more powerful the reflex and thus the contraction will be.

    History

    • Plyometric exercises originated in central and Eastern Europe and were first referred to as jump-training activities. In the 1960s and '70s, Soviet athletes employing jump training dominated their sports. As a result, the popularity of the training method spread, and track and field athletes worldwide began to utilize the method. United States track and field coach Fred Wilt coined the term "plyometrics" after watching Soviet athletes do jumping activities during their warmups in 1975.

    Benefits

    • Plyometrics are effective because they improve the reactivity of your neuromuscular system. Your nervous system improves its efficiency at sending signals to your muscle fibers, allowing your muscles to contract more quickly and explosively. This means you’re able to jump higher, sprint faster and change directions more quickly. Therefore, many athletes, such as basketball, volleyball and soccer players, will often employ plyometric exercises so that they’re able to perform better on the court or field.

    Exercises

    • There are a number of types of plyometric exercises, including in-place jumps, standing jumps, multiple response jumps and hops, depth jumps and bounds. Common plyometric exercises include jump squats (lowering into a quarter squat and then exploding into a maximum-height jump), box jumps (jumping onto a plyo box with both feet), and lateral hops (hopping laterally back and forth over a cone). Advanced athletes can do some plyometric exercises single legged.

    Considerations

    • Because of the stress they place on your musculoskeletal system, plyometrics shouldn’t be incorporated into a workout until you’ve been lifting routinely for about eight to 12 weeks and can squat about one and a half times your body weight. Perform a 10- to 15-minute warmup prior to each plyometric workout to ensure your muscles are prepared for the intense activity. Focus during plyometric workouts should be on quality instead of quantity, and workouts shouldn’t be completed more than twice per week.