Three, PR-Boosting Plyometrics for High Jumpers
Hey Jumpers,
It's interesting, as the season progresses, the questions I receive
come in themes. First it's about form as jumpers struggle to get
back to where they were last year, then, like clockwork, everyone
starts asking about strength and fitness.
In other words, everyone is ready to jump higher.
I think weight training has it's place, but I LOVE, and I do mean
LOVE, plyometrics because I attribute much of my success to it.
What are plyometrics? Dr Wikipedia says, "Plyometrics is a type of
exercise training designed to produce fast, powerful movements, and
improve the functions of the nervous system, generally for the
purpose of improving performance in sports."
Let me sound a quick warning that you WILL be sore the day after you
start training this way. But, it WILL pay off...big time.
Here are three plyometrics exercises I used in my own training as
illustrated by a few guys on YouTube:
1) Box Jumps (note: uber-baggy shorts are NOT required ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoueTJ_RPuQ
2) Bounding
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUIsmLrtVpk
3) Hurdle Hops
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr1pRx-uHz4
You may want to set aside days just for plyometrics at first as
they can wear you out pretty good at first. Start with a good
warmup and then do a few sets of each exercise followed by a
cool-down as well.
Best of luck!
Gregg
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