I've Always Been A Fitness Nut

For those of you who may doubt my claims that I have seriously been into training since I was in high school, here is a little gem my sister found on an old computer from my senior year in high school. Enjoy this fine mini-essay on plyometrics...

PLYOMETRICS

   As an athlete, you may wondering, "What can I do to become faster, quicker, stronger, and more powerful?" If you are a football player, a volleyball, basketball, or soccer player, you know that speed, power, and quickness can help you tremendously in competition.  One of the most effective, and quite possibly one of the most inexpensive ways to improve your speed and power is by the use of plyometrics.  Plyometrics are any exercise where the muscle is contracted eccentrically then immediately, concentrically.  In simpler terms, the muscle is stretched before it is contracted.  A good example is a basic squat and leap.  Your muscles in your quadriceps (your thighs) are elongated by the squat and downward force of the motion, then you must immediately contract the muscle to bring yourself up and jump as high as you can.  This is just one variation of a plyometrics based exercise.  It doesn't take state of the art equipment, a gym pass, or much of anything to do plyometric exercises.  All you need for some basic plyometrics is a pair of legs and some stairs.

   What does all this mean to an athlete?  When you life weights, you lift mostly to gain strength.  In some cases, such as Olympic lifts, the lifts are designed for strength and power.  Power is similar to strength, except that in power you are adding a time factor.  How quickly can someone perform a resistance movement will determine their power.  What you want to concentrate on is not just the contraction of the muscle, but how fast it contracts.  It has been scientifically proven that a muscle will contract its fastest when it has been loaded.  That’s why, when doing plyometric exercises, you always stretch or "load" the muscle, before contraction.  This is better known as explosion.

   I know, enough with the weird scientific talk.  You want to know what kind of exercises you can do to run faster and jump higher.  Depending on how serious you are and what you want to get out of the work out, there are a number of things that you can do.  Some low intensity exercises would include two foot ankle hops, one foot ankle hops, or zig zag ankle hops. Hops can be stationary, or moving forward or laterally. You want to hop up and down using only your ankles and calves, but concentrating on exploding as high as you can, as fast as possible, yet under control.  Intensity can be increased.  Box drills are extremely beneficial and get some great results.  Box drills would include any drill where a box is used as a platform for landing, or a spot to drop from and assist in the loading process.

   As an athlete myself who has trained with plyometrics, I would highly recommend training this way.  Plyometrics are relatively safe and inexpensive because no weights are involved.  I have seen tremendous results in short amounts of time and also in long training periods.  Any athlete serious about training, or even athletes just slightly interested in improving should look into training with plyometrics.