Plyometrics Explained

The following is a transcription from a video on the freeverticaljumptraining Youtube channel. This video is about understanding plyometrics and how to use the technology of plyometrics to increase your vertical jump and your quickness. Most people are doing plyometrics incorrectly. Why is it that they don’t understand the correct way to do it? First, it’s not easy to understand. If you go out and do research, you’re gonna run up into a lot of jargon and a lot of difficult-to-understand language—it’s gonna make it hard for you to understand how to correctly implement plyometric training. Above that, research is still being done to understand the effects of plyometric exercises. However, aside from all of that, I really don’t understand why ninety-seven percent of people out there are doing plyometrics incorrectly. One thing is certain: plyometrics will dramatically increase your explosion potential, and your vertical jump, and your quickness. One thing’s also sure is that research has proven that plyos mixed with resistance training produces optimal results. So either technique isolated—plyos or resistance slash weight training—is not gonna be near as effective as they will be combined. So, plyos done incorrectly, will not yield good results; but together, this complex training is the best possible results your training can produce. Ok, we’ve got some pictures to help us understand how this works and how to use it in our training. By the end of this, you should have a clear idea of how to improve your training. Excuse my depictions of the leg—I know they’re not the best. This is the thigh; this is the calf; and this is the foot. This is what we’re gonna be using throughout this little tutorial. Now, if you’ll notice, when it extends, this is what makes you jump. When your calf and your thigh, when it all extends—when you skeletal system extends—that’s when you’re gonna be exploding upwards. Here’s what you need to know about your muscles and your bones. Your muscles are not rubber bands; but your muscles do have elastic qualities. So, bones are like simple levers, and your muscles can briefly store elasticity. So notice here—imagine that is a rubber band—when that shortens, your foot is driven downwards, and you explode upwards. Talk about muscle loading and exploding. Now, before we start, I wanna, in this one slide, I have shown the complementing muscle—so that’s the one in yellow; I’m not gonna show that muscle throughout the other slides; but it’s important to understand that that muscle inversely effects the explosion. So when this muscle shortens, the calf muscle shortens, the anterior tibialis is going to lengthen and vice versa. Okay? You load the muscle—when the toe is pointed upwards—this muscle is stretched and lengthened, and there’s elastic tension there. Now, when you contract this muscle or shorten it, and it points the toe downwards, and there’s a snap back, and the elastic quality is used. You can see the animation here. This load-and-explode process is not only taking place in the calf and foot, it’s taking place all over the body. And so correct plyometrics use this load-and-explode process to maximize the effect of the technique. One other variable: it’s load, amortization, and explode. Let’s talk about how to load first. Now, loading your muscle can be done using body weight and gravity—jumping off of a box, jumping into the air. And the loading causes what’s called an “eccentric contraction.” And I’m gonna tell you what that is. Now, an eccentric contraction makes your muscle work as it lengthens. So think about pushing your hand with your other hand, and making your arm extend, but you’re forcing your hand against it; so it’s making your bicep work. But your bicep muscle is still lengthening. Look at this slide. Now, the arrow represents a force pushing against your toe. And that force is wanting to extend or lengthen the calf muscle. But imagine that you’re pushing your toe against that force, so the calf is struggling against that force of weight, yet the muscle is still lengthening. So the muscle is attempting to contract but it’s still lengthening. Amortization is the moment in between lengthening of the muscle and shortening—otherwise known as the moment between an eccentric contraction and a concentric contraction. Now “amortization” is a French word. It has French roots. “Amortisseur” in French is a “shock” for your car, so it’s kind of the moment where your body is absorbing the shock and then exploding. So, amortization is really the number one reason for incorrect plyometrics; and this is really the key to effective plyometric workouts. Ok, amortization: the key to effective plyos. First key is: the amortization must be as short as possible in order to utilize the stored elasticity of the muscle. So that elasticity that is the tension of the lengthened muscle is not gonna stay there for a very long time and must be released as soon as possible. So the second key is that the amortization must be followed by an intense contraction to reap full benefit of the neurological conditioning. You see when that snap-back of the elasticity is combined with the contraction, your muscle is now having more stress on it, which is a good thing. And it’s moving faster than it could if it was just being contracted alone. A lot of common errors with amortization: pacing or too many reps. Now, when you pace the exercise, you’re gonna lower the intensity, and consequently, you’re gonna lower or even eliminate the effectiveness of the drill. Some people put an extra bounce in there. I’ve seen so-called gurus showing how to do plyometrics exercises, but instead of load, amortization, explode, it ends up being more load, little tiny hop, then explode. And that’s not gonna be effective. Here’s what your leg looks like before the loading process. Now as the ground hits it, your muscle loads—it struggles against the force of the ground against the muscle. Then that calf muscle is lengthened, stretched, and there’s tension there. There’s a brief yet unavoidable amortization phase, and then there’s a snap-back, a shortening contraction of the muscle, and that elastic quality is put into play. And then you’re propelled upward. Ok, the key is again: you must explode at full intensity. You’ve loaded it. There’s gonna be that unavoidable amortization phase, and then you must explode at full intensity. The explosion combined with the release or the snap-back of the stored elasticity allows your muscles to train in a quicker environment than it could possibly train it. So that contraction being initiated while the muscle is loading or lengthening, it puts additional stress on the muscle. So you’re basically struggling against a muscle that is lengthening and trying to contract at the same time. So this is gonna give you additional growth and development into the muscle. A sum-up of an effective plyo is gonna be a proper load. You’ve gotta have a loading time, and that load is usually gonna be done with gravity. Never attempt to do weighted plyometrics unless you’re very experienced. So the brevity of the amortization phase is also very important. You need to try and eliminate that pause—although it’s impossible to completely eliminate it. It’s just the laws of physics. And also the intensity of the following contraction is going to determine how effective your plyometric is. Keep your reps below fifteen. I usually keep my reps somewhere between eight and twelve. And two to four sets per exercise. You don’t wanna do more than twelve to fifteen sets per session. And you need—you absolutely need—to give yourself proper recovery to ensure that you don’t burn yourself out. Every time you break down that muscle, it has to be followed by an equal and opposite build-up phase. And if it’s not completely built back up, you’re just continuing to deteriorate that muscle without strengthening it. So, you also need to couple the plyometric training with correct resistance training to reap the full benefit. Here’s some results in conclusion: correct plyos result in stronger muscles that twitch much faster. So you’re gonna be jumping higher and running faster. You’re training your muscles in an environment that they can twitch faster than ever before, and you’re training them to twitch that fast, after the plyo. It’s a new environment for your muscles to train in. Now, incorrect plyos result in lack of results—it frustrates you. So plyos are effective. Resistance training is also effective. But plyos plus resistance training—complex training—is the most effective training technique.