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Pump up the power of your workouts with plyometrics! Plyometric exercises, which is just a fancy term for jump training, enhances explosiveness, power, and body control. They’re a great way to implement some cross-training into your workout routine. They also help you become a better athlete by becoming more balanced and symmetrical. This benefit can carry over to your everyday life. Plyometrics are even a great way to burn fat due to their high intensity quality.

What is it?

Plyometrics are composed of three different phases. First, your muscles rapidly lengthen during the eccentric phase. Then, during the amortization phase, there is a short rest period. Finally, during the concentric phase, there is a an explosive shortening of the muscle. This phase is conducted by the athlete as fast as possible. The ultimate goal of plyometric exercises? To decrease the time between the eccentric and concentric phases. This leads to becoming faster, stronger, and more powerful.

How to Start

There are a TON of different types of plyometric exercises. However, if you’re a beginner, let’s go through a guidelines.

  1. If you haven’t worked out in a while, you might want to start off by engaging in strength, flexibility, and cardio training. This is because plyometrics are intense and put a great amount of load on your joints.
  2. Start slow. Focus first on performing the exercise in a controlled and correct manner before increasing speed or intensity.
  3. Always warm up! This could be through light cardio or stretching.
  4. Limit plyometrics to about 2 days a week.

Sets & Reps

Perform 3 sets of 12 reps to begin. Allow for adequate rest between exercises.

Types of Plyometrics:

  • Power Skipping
  • Plyo Pushups
  • Box Jumps
  • Single and double-leg bounding
  • Traveling Pushups
  • Scissor Jumps
  • Skater Jumps

Written by GUADS staff member Angelina with contributions from breakingmuscle.com, artofmanliness.com, and stack.com