Bodybuilding.com - Is This A Good Plyometrics Program?

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Josh Henkin answers a visitor's question about plyometric training and exercises.

By: Josh Henkin

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Is This A Good Plyometrics Program?

I read your article on Plyometric Training. How come a person should not do Plyometric training more than once or twice a week? Can Plyometric Training stunt a person's growth? And also I've created a plyometric program that I use every week. Can you tell me if anything is wrong with it? Here is it:

Warmups

Jumping in Place 2 sets 25 Calf Stair Walk 3 sets

Monday/Thursday

Lunges 3 sets 25
Squat Jumps 2 sets 30
Calf Raises 2 sets 30
Calf Walk 5 sets back and Forth
Calf Jumps 100 (Increase by 25 each week)
Box Jumps 2 sets back and Forth

Tuesday/Friday

Squats 3 sets 15
Step ups 2 sets 25
Calf Raises 2 sets 30
Calf Walks 5 sets
Calf Jumps 100
Lunges 3 sets 25

Wednesday(Stair Plyometrics)

Stair Climbs 3 sets
1 leg stair climbs 3 sets
Every other stair 3 sets
Backward Stair 3 sets

Saturday(Calves)

Calf Raises 2 sets of 30
Tippy Toe stand-ups 3 minutes
Calf Walk 3 sets (back and forth)

Sunday

Bicep Push 3 sets 15
Squats 3 sets 15
Squat Walk 3 sets (back and forth)

Unfortunately I had a much longer and detailed answer to your question, however, my computer shut down and erased a great deal of work, thank goodness for the computer age, lol. I will in the near future do an article on plyometric training, but for now let me try to help you with your specific questions.

The first thing you must do is determine what your goal is with utilizing plyometric training? Plyometrics do not make you shorter, but do place the body and the central nervous system under considerable amounts of stress and can take a great deal of time to recover. So, performing plyometrics very frequently would definately set one up for injury, impede progress, and actually set one up for the many problems associated with overtraining.

The exercises in your program that can be classified as plyometric are squat jumps, calf jumps, box jumps, and jumping in place. Now, the last three exercises are more of supplementary or initial phases of sub-maximal plyometric training. These are not considered true plyometrics as they do not involve explosive rebounds and their coupling time (time from eccentric contraction to concentric) is too long. Typical plyometric training exercises involve a coupling time no longer than .15 -.2 seconds. So, these exercises can be done with a greater level of frequency.

Squat jumps should always be placed first in the workout and I would not perform them more than once a week. The repetitions should remain relatively low because quality of the jumps is far more important than quantity. In addition, make sure the load does not exceed 30% of your squat maximum as the coupling time and jump heights will be compromised.

The other obvious questions that arise are why are you training your legs 5 days a week? What is the overall goal of this particular program? If you are participating in a sport, are you doing this off-season or in-season? Do you have a lot of sport practice that requires high volumes of running and jumping? All these questions should be answered so we can determine if you need plyometric training, how much, and how often. Usually the average athlete will partake in only 2-3 sets of 5-8 reps of sub-maximal exercises once or twice a week.

Click HERE For The Main FAQ Page!
This is just one question out of many! View the full listing of FAQs here.

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