Plyometric Training

Martial arts often requires power and speed of the lower body. There are many plyometric drills for the lower body but to help reduce stress to the lower back ankles and knees, these exercises should only be done on a soft surfaced such as sand or grass.

The simplest plyometric drills benefit speed and rhythm and can also be used for power plyos such as the hop jog. As I've already posted in previous posts, its essential that basic plyometrics are carried out before starting more intense exercises. This ensures coordination and muscular adaptations needed for the more intense drills.

As a rule of thumb, never try intense exercises on your first day of training, it WILL result in injury. Highly conditioned, coordinated athletes may be ready to start more intense drills such as speed and power plyometrics on the second day, but generally less intense workouts should be carried out for the first few days of workout.

Below I will list some good martial arts plyometric drills for increased lower body strength and speed:

Rhythm Hop Jog
A slow jog where every time a foot contacts the ground, you leap off it as quickly as possible.

Power Hop Jog
Start from a slow jog and after three or four steps, hop off the right foot as high as possible with an explosive step up

Speed Hop Jog
The same as the power plyometric drill explained above except with more speed.

Two-Legged Speed Hops
Similar to the two-legged power hop but perfomed repeatedly at speed, all movements are kept short and quick.

Two-Legged Power Hops
Two-legged power hops are similar to a kangaroo hopping at full speed..

Box/Platform Hops
An advanced exercise where you jump off a one or two foot high platform. This exercise can be hard on the back and knees and therefore should only be done on a soft surface.

There are many different ways to help you jump higher. Here are just a few tips that were helpful for me to increase my vertical jump:

1)Before you start,  warm up properly to get your muscles started correctly. You need your muscles to feel loose so that you can reach your full work out potential.

2) Do some power exercises which are important for building muscle strength in your legs. Leg plyometric  exercises include explosive stretching and jumping drills such as depth jumping and explosive drop and holds are excellent. Both these drills are high intensity so be sure to perform them correctly to avoid damage.

3) Add some cardiovascular exercises to help improve your vertical jumps. The Jump rope and jogging are two exercises that are an excellent compliment to plyometrics and will speed up the results and really help you to jump higher.

4) Increase stamina for enhanced sprinting help you jump higher because it will stretch your muscles in multiple ways. While you increase muscle strength in your legs, the sprinting will give you added flexibility. You'll quickly notice that you're jumping higher because of the sprinting.

5) If you really want to jump higher, you have to take your workouts to the next level.  Pylometric drills such as Double Jumps, Explosive Jumps and Elevated Jumps are all beneficial to include within your vertical jump training.

These are just a few tips that will help you to jump higher. If you really are serious about increasing your vertical jump there are many programs available online.  I recommend The Jump manual which helped my friend increase his vertical by 19 inches in 6 months!!

One thing to remember with these jumping exercises is not to do them 7 days a week. Four maybe five days is enough. Doing them every day may result in you giving up after a week or two and that is not going to do your jump any good at all and is not what these types of plyometrics are about. The idea is to keep exercising for months or even years, consistently to provide solid strength and bursts of speed to help you to jump higher.

There is no doubt that plyometric training is hands down the best form of training to increase vertical leap. Martial arts experts, basketball players, track and field athletes and football players all turn to plometric training drills to increase their vertical.

A good friend of mine who is also a great basketball player managed to gain 19 inches in 6 months which lets be honest, is a great achievement. He achieved these results using information and training examples found in The Jump Manual.

Ultimately the best vertical leap plyometric workout for you depends on your ability. The most intense plyometric exercises are depth jumps and depth drops, these though are reserved for those who can squat at least 1.5 times their bodyweight. If you can't do this, you probably won't get anything out of them except a possible injury.

However, plyometric exercises are extremely effective for increasing your vertical leap. Any workout should always include some form of plyometrics but remember, plyometric leg exercises are supposed to be done fast, slow training will get you nowhere.

Three excercises to get you started with increasing your vertical leap include Slalom Jumps, Squat thrusts and low box depth jumps. These three excercises formed part of my friends routine which helped him to increase vertical leap.

In addition to the three excercises above, it's important to increase lower body power by way of leg plyometric excercises which includes Bounds, Hurdle Hopping, Single Leg Hopping, Box Jumps, Depth Jumps, Tuck Jumps and Two legged Hops.

I’m often asked what plyometric training is and what the benefits and objectives of a plyometric training program are. So I thought I’d right this post to explain:

Plyometric training is a type of exercise designed to increase muscle power. Athletes, basketball players, footballers and sometimes boxers incorporate plyometric training into their training schedule, with the aim of adding additional explosive power to their game. Athletes can gain a huge  advantage using plyometric training, so long as the exercises are done safely.

Muscles move because of contractions and athletes have noticed that when the muscle is contracting while being stretched, the contraction is much more powerful.  Amongst other things, this results in athletes running faster, boxers punching harder and basketball players jumping higher.

The main objective of a plyometrics training program is to shorten the time between muscle stretching and contraction. Plyometric training includes high intensity drills such as jumps hops and bounds which results in explosive bursts of power and speed.

Its absolutely necessary that you do a complete and proper warm up before doing a plyometric workout.  The muscle contractions can result in pulled muscle injuries. It is easy to perform these types of exercises incorrectly which in turn often results in injury such as pulled hamstrings.

To summarise,  plyometric training stretches muscles while they contract. When properly done, these workouts will increase speed, power and vertical jump. For those of you looking into plyometric training, I highly recommend Jumping into Plyometrics by Donald Chu. This little gem covers everything from the history of plyometrics, to plyometric warm-ups, complex training and advanced plyometric training.

A friend asked me the other day if you can do plyometric training and weight training at the same time. The simple answer to this question is yes.  Actually they are a very good mix and more people should mix the two.

When mixing weight training with a plyometric training program, it’s best to start off with the weight training to build your strength. Then when your muscles are worn, go straight into some basic plyometrics such as clap pushups and explosive squats and try to do as many as you can.

Plyometric training athletes who mix with weight training often benefit from arm routines such as push ups, dips, inverted pull ups and hand stand push ups.

Plyometric means that you stretch the muscle prior to contracting it rapidly.  To compliment weight training Plyometric press ups will work the triceps and pectorals by lowering slowly and thrusting up so your hands leave the floor. This is a great drill for the triceps.