Plyometrics makes use of the myotic stretch reflex, the natural reflex of your body to prevent muscle tear during the rapid stretching phase discussed earlier.
It as an autonomous nervous system reaction, meaning it happens automatically and you don't decide to do it, like the beating of your heart.
The reflex works by your spinal cord sending a message to the rapidly stretched muscle to rapidly contract so as to prevent it from stretching too much and tearing.
This reflex is what plyometrics trains. Any decent jump will be the result of a sudden and rapid stretch of the jumping muscles.
For example, say your standing vertical jump is 27 inches. Your running vertical will then be about 33 inches, the extra 5 being the result of a faster stretch of your muscles.
So in summary, the unique benifit of plyometrics is that it trains the myotic reflex with a focus that is impossible to achieve with other forms of fitness training, such as weights.
Plyometrics Intro
In his own experience, weight training and skill refinement are the ways to see fast imrovements in your vertical jump. After that, plyometrics comes into the equation.
Plyometrics came about in the 70's after Russian high jump coaches started experimenting with different training techniques to get an edge.
The goal of plyometric training is to increase the amount of explosive power a muscle can exert by fooling its fibres to react to a higher reflex potential than what they would without training.To put it a bit more simply, think of a ruber band being stretched and released. Now imagine the band is your quadricep (the muscles above your knee and below your waist). Plyometric training increases the force which the band can be stretched by, (crouching down for a jump stretches the quadricep) and therefore contracted by too (jumping contracts the quadricep).
So how we do it? The most effective way to train this stretch reflex is by jumping. How convenient and fun! Plyometrics is really any activity that involves jumping, because it stretches the muscles a bit. But All the Real effective overload plyometrics involve jumping off somewhere higher than your measured vertical jump, landing, and then jumping up again.
Plyometrics came about in the 70's after Russian high jump coaches started experimenting with different training techniques to get an edge.
The goal of plyometric training is to increase the amount of explosive power a muscle can exert by fooling its fibres to react to a higher reflex potential than what they would without training.To put it a bit more simply, think of a ruber band being stretched and released. Now imagine the band is your quadricep (the muscles above your knee and below your waist). Plyometric training increases the force which the band can be stretched by, (crouching down for a jump stretches the quadricep) and therefore contracted by too (jumping contracts the quadricep).
So how we do it? The most effective way to train this stretch reflex is by jumping. How convenient and fun! Plyometrics is really any activity that involves jumping, because it stretches the muscles a bit. But All the Real effective overload plyometrics involve jumping off somewhere higher than your measured vertical jump, landing, and then jumping up again.
