Plyometrics – Defining Plyometrics – Facts and Fallacies
March 23rd, 2011Plyometrics (or more correctly Pliometrics) is a term that abused more often than most terms. While many people simply refer to jump training or anything done explosively, this is not correct. The original Russian researchers use the word ‘pliometric’ to mean the same as Western’s use eccentric (or the ‘negative’) portion of a repitition or movement. Although when referring to pliometrics as a method of training, the Russians were very specific about what it meant and how to use it, For lower body training, they recommended that people be able to squat at least twice their bodyweight before the commence true pliometric training
Plyometrics or the ’shock method’ means precisely that – a method of applying mechanical shock to force the muscle to produce as much tension as possible. Depth jumps involving an explosive rebound after a relaxed drop from a height onto th
e ground are the best known form of lower body plyometrics. However, this shock loading may be imposed by any explosive action of the upper or lower extremities involving sudden changes of direction, not just with the legs. For example, a typical upper body plyometric drill is the rapid rebound throwing of a medicine ball between two athletes or off a mini-trampoline.
The plyometric method is characterised by impulsive action of minimal duration between the end of the eccentric braking phase and initiation of the concentric acceleration phase. It relies on the production of a very brief explosive-isometric and eccentric-isometric phase which precedes the release of the elastic energy stored in the tendons and other connective tissues of the series elastic component of the muscle complex during the eccentric deceleration phase. If the transition phase is prolonged by more than about 0.2 second, the action constitutes ordinary jumping and not classical plyometrics. A useful visualisation is to imagine that the surface being touched by the hands or the feet during the plyometric contact phase is red hot, so that any prolonged contact would be dangerous.
For more Facts and Fallacies of Fitness get the book from here
Facts and Fallacies of Fitness