Plyometrics are very commonly used by personal trainers and sports performance coaches alike. If you’re not familiar with plyometrics, it’s an exercise method that focuses on maximizing the stretch reflex of muscles via jumping, bounding, or a another explosive method. Plyos are great drills that are effective and also a very simple method to increase speed, power, and overall athletic performance.
The Problem
Many NYC personal trainers popularize it as a conditioning drill or within a strength workout via contrast training. This is where the slippery slope begins, plyometric drills can spike the heart rate up VERY quickly, with that comes inherent risk of injury. The client becomes fatigued and the movement can become very sloppy = high risk of injury. This is where a qualified personal trainer and performance coach comes into play. Unfortunately, there are just too many personal trainer that are more focused on getting the client’s heart rate up instead of their overall safety. With that said, let’s go over a few common plyometric mistakes I see personal trainers make with their clients:
Weighted
*this isn’t weighted…still funny 🙂
Weighted plyometrics are great to overload athletes, both in the loading and unloading phase of the jump. But is it beneficial for general population clients? It could be with the proper foundation and preparatory phases. This means that you should have a strong foundation in whatever movement is placed in the phase you’re about to jump into – get it “jump” into.. :p
Let’s go over an example: Weighted Continuous Hurdle Hops.
If you’ve never done hurdle hops, let alone continuous hurdle hops, I would HIGHLY recommend that you do not add a weighted vest to this exercise drill. The risk of a client clipping their ankle on the hurdle and tumbling forward is very likely, therefore the personal trainer did not prepare this client properly for such a movement. Outside of skill set, the continuous high impact with loaded weight can create a lot of stress on the client that isn’t prepared for this type of impact.
Generally speaking, I don’t believe that any weighted plyometric drills are beneficial for most general population clients. I rarely use them with my own athletes, the benefits vs reward for a general fitness client just isn’t worth it, at least in my eyes.
Too Much
We’ve all heard the quote “too much of anything is bad”, this goes right with plyometrics. Even if they are low intense and lower impact plyometric drills. The total volume accumulated throughout the week and even the workout can potentially be too much. In either case if your workout only consists of bunny hop variation over mini hurdles and sprints you probably should find a new personal trainer.
Bad landing
Most injuries don’t come from jumping but from the landing phase. This is one of the most important aspects for a personal trainer or sports performance coach to teach any athlete or client. If you see someone land like the above pic, that’s REALLY bad. I see this too often where a personal trainer sees a cool youtube video and wants to implement it to their unprepared client. Like so:
The above example is a specialized exercises that the athlete needs to be properly prepared to to land and absorb such impact. If you’re starting to get into high skilled and impact plyometrics make sure that you’ve gone through a strong foundational phase that has taught the basics of landing, force absorption, and reaction.
Plyometrics for Athletic Performance
Plyometric exercises for athletic performance is a WHOLE different ball game. Generally speaking, athletic performance is focused on quality of work vs. “getting the heart rate up”- of course athletes do have to be conditioned, but we’re talking about plyometrics for performance training. It’s very comparable to sprint practice, if you’ve never watched an elite level sprint practice, the sprinters will run for a very short time or distance, then rest for a very long time- doing various dynamic stretches, mobility movement, or just resting :). Plyometric for athletic performance is the same boat.
The purpose of longer rest periods is to allow the athlete to focus on positioning and fully recover. The coach is now having the athlete focus on quality reps for transference to their specific sport demands.
Example: Say the performance training coach decided to have the athlete do 30yard bounds with 10sec rest x10 sets, by the 3-5th set, I’m pretty sure the athlete’s bounds will now look extremely sloppy…hell the bounds may look like reaching walks! But say you had a qualified performance coach and the coach decided to give the athlete the proper rest, the athlete can then recover and work at their full potential for the best gains.
Final Point
If you’re going to do plyometrics for fitness or for athletic performance there needs to be a progression and a general physical preparation phase that has prepared you for the upcoming demands. Don’t just go straight into a high demand plyometric phase, otherwise you’re asking for injury that’ll set you back a good bit. Slow and steady my friend…
“Train smart, not just hard”
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