I’m trying to research and learn more about plyometrics. I am curious to see what your thoughts are on plyometrics training, and when they should be done. More in regards with weight training, should they be done before, after, or totally seperate. I’ve read about complex training also, but I would like to hear some thought on how people add plyometrics with their weight training.
I’m big on plyos. There an absolute must to get faster and jump higher. Weight training alone will only give you a bigger engine. Plyos will fine tune that into a faster quicker and higher jumping athlete.
I have set aside days when I do only plyos and sprinting.
Looking at some of Kelly Baggett’s programs, he suggests doing Plyo’s on a seperate day if possible. If not, just do light weight training and then do your plyos.
As a sprinter, I don’t do a lot of traditional plyos outside of sprinting. On my sprint days, I run about 400-500M of total volume and then do a few sets of one legged bounds or something similar.
For doing them in the weight room, I set aside 2-3 weeks ever 2 months or so in which I really focus on pushing my power up. I drop all heavy lifts and focus mainly on jump and reactive squats, power snatches, depth jumps, and altitude landings. I always do plyos first.
And remember, there’s no need to continuously implement plyos. Do them for 2-3 weeks every couple of months. And during that time, reduce or eliminate strength work.
Anyway, that’s my two cents.
RJ
I think the key to plyos is to do them when you can apply 100 percent effort. That means not after sprints or strength training and not on days your body needs to be recovering.
I would say prior to weights, prior to sprints or complexed with sprints or weights or a separate day are all good methods. I doubt anyone really knows for sure what method would be ideal so switch it up.
[quote]kellyc wrote:
I think the key to plyos is to do them when you can apply 100 percent effort. That means not after sprints or strength training and not on days your body needs to be recovering.
I would say prior to weights, prior to sprints or complexed with sprints or weights or a separate day are all good methods. I doubt anyone really knows for sure what method would be ideal so switch it up.[/quote]
good post.
to RJ24…You can, but I don’t think you HAVE to drop or elimate any strength work while focusing on plyo’s. I’m pretty sure you want to incropate heavy lifts one day…another day work on all your plyo stuff…you can do strength-speed, or speed-strength work, depending on what motor quality your trying to improve. I also think its beneficial to do some work with the strength but ypour primary fouc and emphasis being towards the plyo’s and such. One day heavy squat, but dont over-do it at all…the other day youll do your jump squats, and what not.
[quote]dl- wrote:
to RJ24…You can, but I don’t think you HAVE to drop or elimate any strength work while focusing on plyo’s. I’m pretty sure you want to incropate heavy lifts one day…another day work on all your plyo stuff…you can do strength-speed, or speed-strength work, depending on what motor quality your trying to improve. I also think its beneficial to do some work with the strength but ypour primary fouc and emphasis being towards the plyo’s and such. One day heavy squat, but dont over-do it at all…the other day youll do your jump squats, and what not.[/quote]
I know it’s not necessary to eliminate heavy lifting, but if you replace heavy squats of deadlifts with speed-strength or strength-speed lifts the plyos will be much more effective.
I find that mixing max, or near maximal effort work and plyos, even on separate days, diminishes the effect the plyos have on the nervous system. Also, I use these plyo weeks as a sort of unloading from my frequent heavy lifting.
RJ
I agree with RJ. I recent used a “shock block” style plyometric block where I spent a few months working on building up strength and force absorbtion and then spent 3-4 weeks doing power absorbtion and production work. It definitly yielded good results.
Some great posts so far.
Rj has a point. I do believe that if one has great strength and lacks speed or power(because they lack speed!) then it would be beneficial to work on plyos and do minimal (maintainence…bad spelling?) or even no strength movements.
I like to do both!
As mentioned before, do your plyos before anything. You want to train your body and CNS to do the plyo movements as fast as you can. That way your body is adapting to the speed involved in the plyo training (which is the point of plyo training). By doing plyos after training, your pretty much training your body to do jumps or what have you slowly, or slower than you’re capable of. This can be counter productive, why do plyos at all if you’re going to do them after any exercises. Do them first!
[quote]Velvet Revolver wrote:
I’m big on plyos. There an absolute must to get faster and jump higher. Weight training alone will only give you a bigger engine. Plyos will fine tune that into a faster quicker and higher jumping athlete.
I have set aside days when I do only plyos and sprinting.[/quote]
I use the engine analogy all the time when people aproach me at the gym about my “weird” stlye of training. I use the engine reference like this.
Say you have an engine (your body). You want to increase power (strength x speed). Strength is (can be) the limiting factor in power. Strength is like the heads of an engine (heads sit on top of the engine block and have exhaust and intake ports). The larger the ports (more strength), the more horsepower you can create. Speed is another compenent of strength. All of the other parts of the engine besides the heads (and of course the size of the cylinders) are the speed.
The most important aspect of power is limiting strength or strength capacity. Once you have a good base of strength (big engine cylinders and head ports) then you add a big intake, a big non restrictive exhaust, larger fuel injectors or carberator, and a supercharger and then you have maximized your strength capacity by adding other things that amplify (strength x speed) power.
If you get bigger engine heads and do nothing else you’ll get some good horsepower but it won’t be maximized. If you add an intake, exhaust, better fuel system with out the heads, you won’t be maximizing power either. You should do both to maximize power.
Think of the pistons as your bones. To much power, torque and snap!
Ok hey, this might not make sense unless you drag race a car, or rebuilt an engine and work on your own body’s power output.
Anyone else own a 5.0 mustang?
This post is probably laughable. It’s better in person!