Usually targeted toward a highly trained athletic segment of fitness enthusiasts, plyometric training involves a challenging set of aerobic exercises. Plyometric workout is adopted by those who are at the peak of their athleticism due to the strength and persistence that it takes to exert your muscles to get through the reps. Aimed at increasing speed, muscle strength, and tenacity, plyometric exercises demand maximum exertion in short spans of time. The reason why only advanced level athletes perform the plyometric workout routine is because of the stress it applies on areas like knees, ankles, ligaments, and tendons.
If you haven’t acquired the strength to perform the sets involved in the plyometric training, then the chances of you undergoing a potential health hazard increases. Only those who have achieved the required fitness to perform the plyometric workout can do these exercises safely to reap their maximum benefits.
If you are someone who wants to improve their fitness level and add plyometric exercises to your workout routine, increase the intensity, duration, and difficulty level of it, gradually. Trying to dive headfirst into the plyometric workout only increases the chances of physical trauma.
Plyometric Exercises for Your Legs
These powerful plyometric exercises for your legs help in increasing your overall strength, endurance and power. Incorporate these into your workout routine to strengthen your legs:
- Squat jumps
- Reverse lunge knee-ups
- Explosive star jump
- Skater lunge
- Lunge jump
- Frog jump
- Donkey kick
- Long jump
- Plank to squat
Plyometric Exercises for Your Arms
If you want to develop elastic strength in your upper body, then these arm plyometric exercises must be integrated into your workout routine:
- Chest pass
- Power drop
- Incline push up depth jump
- Incline chest pass
- Vertical toss
- Catch and throw backhand
- Warm-up and cool down
Benefits of Plyometric Training
Listed below are some of the benefits of plyometric training that are worth reaping:
1. Increases Strength in Muscle Fibres
The ultimate objective of the plyometrics workout is to increase strength and power. In order to do so, plyometrics exercises help in maximising muscle contraction, which in turn, leads to an increase in the strength of muscle fibres. The strengthening of muscle fibres not only helps in developing power but also converts strength into unimaginable speed. These fibres are known as the fast-twitch fibres and plyometric exercises strengthen them. So, the stronger the fast-twitch fibre, the faster the speed of muscle contraction leading to an increase in your overall speed and power.
2. Increases Strength in Tendons
Only strengthening your muscle fibres won’t help. You have to simultaneously work on increasing the strength in your tendons to accompany the contraction in your muscle fibres. With a stronger tendon, comes reduced chances of injuries. Plyometrics exercises work constantly towards improving the elasticity and strength of your tendons by placing controlled stress on them.
3. Improves Neuromuscular System
Plyometric exercises introduce a stretch-shortening cycle in your muscles due to vigorous training and stretching of spindles in your muscles. When our body detects this, a signal is immediately sent across from our brain to the muscles, initiated by our neuromuscular system. Plyometric exercises ensure the smooth transmission of this signal by making our neuromuscular system more efficient. Due to the speed and strength plyometric training induces in us, the faster we are able to contract and relax our muscles, the faster our neuromuscular system can convey the signal.
4. Increases Agility in Other Workout Segments
Plyometric exercises bless us with benefits like speed, strength, endurance, and power. These benefits, when combined, make it easier for athletes to get through other explosive training programmes that require high levels of strength and power.
Conclusion
Even though it may sound arduous, implementing plyometric training to your daily workout can give you results that will translate into your performance in other sections of your life, especially if you are an athlete or a fitness enthusiast. Attaining that level is not a one-day procedure. However, gradually increasing your strength work by not overworking yourself will help you prep your muscles and ease into the routine.
