The Truth About Plyometrics: Part One

In part one of this three part series, I will answer some questions about the benefits of plyometrics and how they will help you become a better athlete. It seems that in recent times plyometrics has gotten such a large buzz and that more and more athletes want to try them, yet they do not know how to incorporate them into their training.

I am sure that almost everyone has heard the extraordinary claims of power development due to plyometric training; this is mixture of both truth and exaggeration. It stems from the very secretive Eastern Bloc countries where this style of training was referred to as ‘jump training.’ As the Eastern Bloc rose to the top in athletics, this ‘jump training’ received an enormous amount of hype which led to the stories of amazing athletic development.

This article is the first of three and in it I will answer some basic plyometrics questions that I have also touched upon in other articles. After this series, I will also put up an article on how to incorporate plyometrics into your upper body training.
Plyometrics are best described as “explosive-reactive” power training. This style of training utilizes very powerful muscular contractions as a response to the extremely rapid stretching of the musculature involved. As I have said before, these contractions are not purely muscular; they also have a very high degree of nervous system involvement. It is known as a neuromuscular event; a combination of an involuntary reflex, which is followed by a very fast muscular contraction. It actually isn’t as complicated as it sounds; we actually use it every single day of our lives.

Here is a real life example: have you ever gone to the doctor where they tapped your knee, causing it to jerk. Well that was a plyometric event; the tapping caused a stretching of the tendon surround the quadriceps, in which the quadriceps responding by explosively contracting. This stretch reflex is also known as the ‘myotatic reflex’ and is the premise of plyometric physiology. Two more natural examples involving plyometrics are sprinting or jumping.

This stretching of the muscles that occur prior to the contraction is known as ‘loading.’ The faster and greater the ‘load’, then the more powerful the reflex is and the contraction that follows.
Often times variations of power training is confused for plyometrics. This is a very common mistake, but plyometric training is only one form of power training. A true plyometric event must conation an extremely fast loading phase followed by a powerful contraction. Without those two motions occurring, then the movement is not plyometric.

This wraps up part one, part two will pick up exactly where part one left off. Make sure to come back and join us with part two about plyometrics!