Turning Strength into Power through Plyometrics:                 

Once you’ve got your core muscles conditioned and your legs trained for strength it’s time to start training explosiveness directly. The best way to do this is through plyometrics. Plyometric exercises are explosive motions repeated in rapid sequence as quickly as possible. Simply jumping straight up as high as you can over and over again as quickly as you can is a simple and effective plyometric exercise. Plyometrics work differently from weight training. When lifting weights the focus is on increasing muscle strength. With plyometric training, the focus is less on training muscles and more on training the nerves that connect to muscles.

For a muscle to fire it has to be stimulated by a nerve. The strength and power that a muscle can contract with isn’t only a function of the size and density of that muscle – it’s also highly dependent on how efficiently the nervous system communicates with that muscle. This is referred to as “neuromuscular” efficiency. Most people – even most trained athletes – have pretty poor neuromuscular efficiency. Their nervous system doesn’t link up to all of the fibers in their muscles, and where it does link up, it doesn’t coordinate the contraction of muscle fibers optimally.

The good news is that neuromuscular efficiency is easily improved. It takes a lot less time and energy from the body to link up nerves with additional muscle fibers than it does to increase the size or number of muscle fibers. As a result, neuromuscular training translates into rapid improvements in performance capacity. Plyometrics are all about increasing neuromuscular efficiency.

The key to effective plyometric training is to choose 3 to 5 plyometric exercises, perform a limited number of sets (2-4 sets each) and perform all reps at the maximum possible pace. Unlike strength training, you never want to push a plyometric exercise to the point of fatigue. The idea with plyometrics is to train the nervous system to coordinate muscle contractions as quickly and explosively as possible. As a result, you only want to perform bursts of plyometric exercise up until the point where you start to slow down. For most people this occurs in 6 to 8 seconds. Weather you are doing vertical leaps, forward hops, skips, or ice skaters (see below for descriptions of these exercises), the minute you start to feel the least bit tired and start to slow down its time to stop. Pushing plyometrics too long is counterproductive. Once your muscles start to fatigue, you won’t be able to move at maximum velocity, and you’ll no longer be training your nervous system to create explosive motions.

Plyometric Exercises

Look to perform a plyometric routine two or three times per week in the early pre-season (6 weeks before games start) and once or twice per week during the season. Take a day off after you work legs with squats before training with plyometrics. In general it’s best to do plyometrics at the beginning of workouts after a brief warm up. Since the idea with plyometrics is to train your nervous system to move as explosively as possible you want to be fresh.

Vertical Leap

This is the simplest plyometric exercise and one of the most effective. Starting with feet shoulder length apart, simply jump straight up, reaching as high as you can with your arms at the top of your jump. As soon as your feet touch the ground explode back up into another leap. Emphasize getting off of the ground quickly, rather than gathering yourself in an attempt to jump higher. In general 6 to 10 jumps is ideal. As we discussed above you want to stop jumping the minute you start to slow down and lose height off of your jump. Perform 3 to 4 sets. After three or four weeks add a medicine ball or a plate to increase challenge and further develop explosiveness. For basketball players especially, practicing the vertical leap with a heavy medicine ball or 25lbs plate is invaluable. The vertical leap plyometric improves both quickness and leaping ability.

This exercise can also be performed with weight for added challenge. Hold a dumbell or plate at chest height, and thrust the weight up over your head as you leap. Bring it back down to chest height as you land.

Forward Bound

This exercise is similar to the vertical leap except instead of leaping straight up you’ll be leaping forward. That’s the only real difference. Really throw your body forward as far as you can, while jumping as high as you can. As soon as you land, take off again. Perform 2 or 3 sets of 6 to 10 jumps, being sure to stop as soon as you’re fatigued. As with the vertical leap, you can add in a medicine ball or 10 or 25 pound plate to increase challenge.
  

Power Ice Skater

This exercise is designed to increase lateral quickness. It’s called the ice skater because when performed correctly the motion resembles speed skating. The idea is to jump from side to side, moving from one foot to the other, as quickly and powerfully as possible. Unlike with balance jumping, the emphasis here is on speed and explosiveness. Jump as far as possible, as fast as possible every time. As soon as your foot touches the ground at the end of a jump, explode back the other way.

Perform 6 to 8 jumps in each direction through 2 to 3 sets. When you’re first getting started limit this to once or twice per week. It is highly effective at targeting the muscles on the side of the hips, and it can leave you a bit sore.