What are plyometric exercises? How all that hopping and jumping builds strength, speed and power

If you’ve ever seen people at the gym or the park jumping, hopping or hurling weighted balls to the ground, chances are they were doing plyometric exercises.

Examples include:

• box jumps, where you repeatedly leap quickly on and off a box
• lateral skater hops, where you bound from side to side like a speeding ice skater
• rapidly throwing a heavy medicine ball against a wall, or to the ground
• single leg hops, which may involve hopping on the spot or through an obstacle course
• squat jumps, where you repeatedly squat and then launch yourself into the air.

There are many more examples of plyometric exercises.

What ties all these moves together is that they use what’s known as the “stretch shortening cycle”. This is where your muscles rapidly stretch and then contract.

Potential benefits

Research shows incorporating plyometric exercise into your routine can help you:

• jump higher
• sprint faster
• reduce the chances of getting a serious sporting injuries such as anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears
• build muscle strength
• improve bone mineral density (especially when combined with resistance training such as weight lifting), which is particularly important for women and older people at risk of falls.

Studies have found plyometric exercises can help:

• older people who want to retain and build muscle strength, boost bone health, improve posture and reduce the risk of falls
• adolescent athletes who want to build the explosive strength needed to excel in sports such as athletics, tennis, soccer, basketball and football
• female athletes who want to jump higher or change direction quickly (a useful skill in many sports)
• endurance runners who want to boost physical fitness, run time and athletic performance.

And when it comes to plyometric exercises, you get out what you put in.

Research has found the benefits of plyometrics are significantly greater when every jump was performed with maximum effort.

Potential risks

All exercise comes with risk (as does not doing enough exercise!)

Plyometrics are high-intensity activities that require the body to absorb a lot of impact when landing on the ground or catching medicine balls.

That means there is some risk of musculoskeletal injury, particularly if the combination of intensity, frequency and volume is too high.

You might miss a landing and fall, land in a weird way and crunch your ankle, or get a muscle tear if you’re overdoing it.

The National Strength and Conditioning Association, a US educational nonprofit that uses research to support coaches and athletes, recommends:

• a maximum of one to three plyometric sessions per week
• five to ten repetitions per set and
• rest periods of one to three minutes between sets to ensure complete muscle recovery.

One meta-analysis, where researchers looked at many studies, found plyometric training was feasible and safe, and could improve older people’s performance, function and health.

Overall, with appropriate programming and supervision, plyometric exercise can be a safe and effective way to boost your health and athletic performance.

Justin Keogh, Associate Dean of Research, Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, Bond University and Mandy Hagstrom, Senior Lecturer, Exercise Physiology. School of Health Sciences, UNSW Sydney

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.