Having previously discussed the safety of weightlifting in youth, we will now look at plyometircs. Johnson et al 2011 completed a literature review on children using plyometrics. Similarly to how many fear children using weights, some fear them using plyometrics. This is even more irrational given that traditional games like hop scotch and leap frog [...]
Olympic lifters and power lifters have been at this debate for decades, arguing who generates more power. Every now and then sprinters, high jumpers and throwing athletes (hammer, shot, discus and javelin) poke their heads in on the debate. Data has repeatedly shown power lifters generating more total force while Olympic lifters generating more power. [...]
Garcia-Masso et al 2011 measured the various forces associated with different types of plyometrics pushups. They measured counter-movement pushups which involved accelerating as hard as possible against the ground, jump pushups which are like clapping pushups but without the clap and falling pushups in which one falls from the kneeling position and tries to rebound [...]
A quick note today, Markovic 2007 did a review of 26 studies of plyometrics and their effects on vertical jump height. In his analysis, it was found that plyometrics improved vertical height. Squat jumps improved it by 4.7% as did drop jumps, counter-movement jumps with arm swing by 7.5% and counter-movement jumps by 8.7%. This would [...]
We’ve all heard that stretching is good. Turki et al. (2011) set out to show dynamic stretching plays a role in vertical jump force. They divided their subjects into several groups- dynamic stretching with concentric warm up, dynamic stretching with isometric warm up, dynamic stretching with plyometric warm up, dynamic stretching with eccentric warm up, [...]
We have recently reported that a combination of plyometric training and resistance training develops superior leg power than plyometric training alone. Mixing both forms is known as complex training and usually assumes the form of a resistance exercise followed immediately by a plyometric exercise. An example would be a 10RM squat followed by 5 box [...]
We’ve all heard we should spend some time developing power and explosiveness. Very few people understand why. Many believe that strength and endurance will carry them to their goals. Power, speed and agility allow one to dictate the speed and intensity of play. Adams, O’Shea, O’Shea and Climstein compared weight training, plyometrics and weight training [...]
What have these popular training methods got in common? In short, plyometric training involves very dynamic or ballistic movements whereby the athlete jumps, hops, strides vertically or horizontally for multiple repetitions. A typical plyometric training session can involve 80-120 repetitions for an advanced athlete, or 40-60 for a novice. Both plyometrics and resistance training have [...]