Plyometric exercise to improve your athletic performance

Plyometric exercise is a popular form of training used to improve athletic performance. It involves a stretch of the muscle-tendon unit immediately followed by a shortening of the muscle unit. This process of muscle lengthening followed by rapid shortening during the stretch-shortening cycle (SSC) is integral to plyometric exercise. The SSC process significantly enhances the ability of the muscle-tendon unit to produce maximal force in the shortest amount of time. These benefits have prompted the use of plyometric exercise as a bridge between pure strength and sport-related power and speed.

As plyometric training techniques have evolved, the description of this training and the related terminology have undergone a metamorphosis. Because the term plyometrics is a later creation in American training literature, much of the early physiological research on this type of training described it by other names. The term used by researchers in Italy, Sweden, and the Soviet Union for the type of muscle action involved was the stretch-shortening cycle. Coaches in these countries simply referred to the use of such exercises in their training programs as jump training. Based on original forms of training described by Yuri Verkhoshansky, the Russian national jump coach for track and field, plyometrics were originally developed as a shock method of training.

The Plyometrics exercises can be useful if administered carefully considering the capability of an individual.

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