Plyometrics-The Real Performance Enhancer
Summer is rapidly approaching, and if you are a student athlete you may get a break from the daily grind of the classroom, but you will be working extremely hard to get into shape for the upcoming season. If you are looking to add strength, and add it quickly, then adding plyometrics to your training program is something worth considering. You may have heard the term plyometrics, but may not be sure what they are. Plyometric exercises work on the principle that a concentric muscular contraction is much stronger if it immediately follows an eccentric contraction of the same muscle.
Jumping rope and push-ups where you lift yourself off the ground a clap your hands are examples of plyometric exercises. The effect of a plyometric exercise is a bit like stretching out a coiled spring to its fullest extent (the eccentric contraction), then letting it go (the concentric contraction); large amounts of energy are released in a split second as the spring recoils. Take a rubber band and pull it back an inch, hold it for about ten seconds and release. Now take that same rubber band and quickly bring it back to the exact same spot and let go of it immediately. You will notice that the second time the rubber band went farther. Your muscles are like rubber bands because the are elastic and store energy. If you isolate and hold then energy you have starts to dissipate.
Sports is about speed and your training needs to simulate, if not exceed the speed of sport. Adding plyometrics trains your central nervous system to fire rapidly just as it will during competition. Plyometrics enhances your strength because you are training them to fire quickly with great force. For more examples of plyometric exercise view our library of exercises.
