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Episode 37: Plyometrics—Get More Bang for your Bones
1.1k Plays1 year ago
Welcome to Episode 37 of the Movement Logic podcast! In this episode, Laurel and Sarah talk about the connection between plyometrics, impact training, and bone building.
You will learn:
- The difference between plyometrics and impact training.
- What we need to consider if we are using plyometrics and/or impact training to increase bone density.
- What the stretch-shortening cycle is and why it is important for plyometric exercise.
- The phases of the stretch-shortening cycle, and why the amortization phase must be short for an exercise to be plyometric.
- The differences and similarities between ballistic exercises and plyometric exercises (according to scientific and non-scientific sources).
- The mechanical and neurophysiological components of the stretch-shortening cycle.
- Exercises that utilize the stretch-shortening cycle and whether or not they are conducive to bone-building.
- Exercises that are not plyometric, but still build bone density.
- How to modulate intensity in plyometric exercise.
- What the appropriate volume is for plyometric exercise for beginners.
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Transcript
Introduction to Plyometrics
00:00:00
Speaker
If these terms are new to you, if it's like, you're like, oh my God, I just listened to like 15 minutes of science and my brain is breaking. These are going to be multiple examples explaining what we just, giving real life examples of what we were just talking about. So it should make it make sense. Okay. Ready to play? Always. All right.
00:00:19
Speaker
Welcome to the Movement Logic Podcast with yoga teacher and strength coach Laurel Beaversdorf and physical therapist, Dr. Sarah Court. With over 30 years combined experience in the yoga, movement, and physical therapy worlds, we believe in strong opinions loosely held, which means we're not hyping outdated movement concepts. Instead, we're here with up-to-date and cutting-edge tools, evidence, and ideas to help you as a mover and a teacher.
Plyometrics and Bone Health
00:00:56
Speaker
Welcome to the Movement Logic podcast. I'm Laurel Beaversdorf, and I'm here with my co-host, Dr. Sarah Cort. This is our very first episode about plyometrics, and I've been very excited to get into it in an episode with you, Sarah, since it's become quite a popular topic, or movement mode, amongst longtime yoga teachers, now that many of us have realized that we may want to do more than just yoga, specifically for musculoskeletal health, not least of which includes bone health.
00:01:25
Speaker
Sarah, what is the connection between plyometrics and bone health? There is none. I'm just kidding. There's not none. There is a connection. Well, thank you for joining us on this podcast. The shortest episode we've ever done. I think most people think of plyometrics as jumping.
00:01:47
Speaker
And so, but, but as it turns out, tiny spoiler, that's not the automatic definition of plyometrics. We're going to get into, however.
00:01:57
Speaker
impact training, which does involve some amount of jumping-ish movements. It definitely involves landing. It involves landing. It has been shown in a lot of very well-created research to improve bone density. It's that and it's one other thing that improves bone density. Do you know what it is? Heavy
Understanding Plyometrics
00:02:20
Speaker
strength training. No. Yes. Were you going to say, I don't know. I don't know what I was going to say. Hamstring stretching?
00:02:28
Speaker
Not that. I mean, I wish it was napping. Right. That'd be wonderful. If you could take a nap and wake up with more bone density. I'd do that. I would too. Unrelated but slightly related. Astronauts, because there's no gravity in space, have problems with bone density. Right. They get on the ship for a couple months. They come back and they sometimes have had to be carried off the ship.
00:02:53
Speaker
because their bones are not strong enough to support their body weight, which tells us a little bit about what we need, which is we need to experience forces. And so when we talk about impact, we're really talking about a type of force called a G-force, right? That sounds like some sort of, like, anime. G-force! Yeah, well, G-force is ground reaction force.
00:03:19
Speaker
What does that mean? Well, actually, that's GRF. G-force could be G, usually is the letter they use for gravity, right? It is. It's a certain number, acceleration meters per second. It's 9.8 meters per second. It's about 10. We'll just say 10. Let's round up to 10. Can we round up to 10? We can. It's 9.8. We can round up to 10. It's 9.8. Well, it actually depends on where you are. So if you're on top of a mountain, it's going to be a little different than if you're at sea level. So yes, 9.8. OK.
00:03:49
Speaker
When you land, when you land from jumping off of a box or jumping up into the air and you land, your body mass hits the ground, the ground pushes back up against your body and that is the impact. Standing on the ground doing nothing is 1G, just your body, the mass of your body times gravity, 1G. When you jump up any amount that force on landing,
00:04:16
Speaker
that impact on landing increases. So depending on a number of variables which we'll get into, you can increase the force of impact and at a certain threshold that could be enough to cause your bones to make themselves stronger in some respect, right? So we're interested in this because plyometrics involves a lot of jumping. It involves potentially some impact.
00:04:37
Speaker
I think the word plyometric is something most people have heard, but that maybe some folks aren't really sure what it means, what it includes, what it excludes, and I have to say that I've noticed online, especially on the Instagram, that there is some debate. Why did you say Instagram so weirdly? The Instagram. Well, you called it the Insta-webs. I think you did. I might have. Anyway, it's what the cool kids are saying. Which one?
00:05:02
Speaker
You and I. Oh. So there is some debate about what plyometrics includes and excludes. So we are going to talk about what constitutes a plyometric exercise according to primary sources, according to authorities on exercise, like the NSCA, the National Strength and Conditioning Association, for example.
00:05:25
Speaker
But first, I'd love to talk about the etymology or the root of the word plyometric. Plyometric is of Greek origin and it means increased measure. So this implies that the measurement of something is increased through plyometric activity. To me, this is the coolest thing about plyometrics because of the way our body is
00:05:52
Speaker
the energy we put into a plyometric motion results in more output than we had to put in. And so we get more for what we paid. We get more for our money, something like that. It's like a buy one, get one. It's a buy one, get one. We get more out than we put in, and we'll talk about how this happens. Basically, plyos as, again, the cool kids refer to it.
00:06:19
Speaker
are largely about our tendons and the relationship to our muscles. And together, this is called the series elastic component. So it's about how the series elastic component is affected during what is called the stretch shortening cycle. I have a question. Yes. So the series, what is it? Elastic. That's the muscle and the tendon together. In series.
00:06:45
Speaker
Got it. That component is specifically what we're looking at. And then, of course, also involvement from the neurophysiological aspect of it, which we'll also talk about. This is what we are really focused in on when we talk about plyometric activity. So let's get into it. The series elastic component is the muscle tendon and the stretch shortening cycle. And so, Sarah.
00:07:14
Speaker
Can you tell us what the stretch shortening cycle is? Because we have to understand that if we're going to understand what is plyometric activity and what is not. Sure. So the stretch shortening cycle refers to what's sometimes called the pre-stretch or the counter movement action that we observe during human movement like jumping. And I think the easiest way to think about it is if you imagine yourself standing completely straight
00:07:44
Speaker
And then from there, try to, without going down, try to just jump up with no down. It would be very hard and you wouldn't get very high. We all intuitively understand. Nobody said to you, hey, stretch shortening cycle. You just understood from experience that if you first crouch down into a squat,
00:08:06
Speaker
That is going to then create, as Laura was saying, more bang for your buck when you then try to jump up in the air. You're going to go higher and you're going to go faster. You need the windup. Exactly. Exactly. There's three phases to the stress shortening cycle. There's the eccentric contraction, which is you getting down into that squat, the getting ready. The lengthening. Yes. Then there's something called the amortization or the transition phase, which is
00:08:35
Speaker
where your body is taking that and getting ready to transfer it into the jump, which is the third phase, the concentric contraction. The shortening phase. Exactly. So it's like compressing a spring, right? So the eccentric as you smash it down,
00:08:53
Speaker
in that smashed down version of itself, it's got this stored energy. As soon as you let go, it goes flying back to where it was. Yes. However, a spring is a different structure than a tendon. So a spring is a coil and actually when we wind up a spring, we make it shorter from end to end. But with a muscle, when we wind up a muscle, we make it longer from end to end. So a spring
00:09:17
Speaker
and an elastic material, think of it like a resistance band, they both store energy but they look different when they're doing it. Or the other one that I really love as an example is, do you remember those cars when you're little where
00:09:53
Speaker
if you pulled it backwards, and it went click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click
00:09:58
Speaker
But with the way that the stretch-sorting cycle works with our brain and our central nervous system, we have a very, very short amount of time in that amortization phase to make the transition. And if the transition is too long, we don't get that increased measure. We don't get that passive stored energy released as an additive to the active energy that we generated muscularly speaking. Right. So that amortization phase, that transition phase, has to actually be
00:10:26
Speaker
quick. And then it doesn't just apply to jumping. So the stretch shortening cycle is present during walking fast, running, et cetera, things like that. So it's often broken down into a fast stretch shortening cycle and a slow stretch shortening cycle. So depending on your activity, so walking, for example, is a slow stretch shortening cycle.
00:10:48
Speaker
and then running is fast. The determining feature is the amount of time that you are in contact with the ground. When you're walking, your feet spend more time in contact with the ground. When you're running, it's much shorter. Then the other thing to think about is that rapid pre-stretch, it causes a reflexive neurological force output, which means
00:11:15
Speaker
your nerves, some very specialized nerves called muscle spindle that are inside your muscles, send a message to your spine about the amount of stretch that they're experiencing. And as a result, the reflex is to contract the muscle. Once you're stretched at a certain rate? Yes. Certain length? Yes.
00:11:33
Speaker
And it's self-protective because the idea of it is that it protects you from overstretching, over-lengthening too quickly, right? But it is also occurring when you're getting ready to do your job. Also,
Identifying Plyometric Exercises
00:11:45
Speaker
muscle spindles are very important proprioceptors. Yes, they are. Okay. Here's a definition of plyometric exercise from the NSCA.
00:11:52
Speaker
Essentials of Strength in Conditioning textbook. Pliometric exercise refers to those activities that enable a muscle to reach maximal force in the shortest possible time. It goes on to say plyometrics are a quick powerful movement used as a pre-stretch or counter movement that involves the stretch shortening cycle.
00:12:15
Speaker
The purpose of plyometric exercise is to increase the power of subsequent movements by using both the natural elastic components of muscle and tendon as well as the stretch reflex. Sometimes they call the series elastic component the mechanical side of the SSC, the stretch shortening cycle, and the stretch reflex as the neurophysiological aspect or component of the SSC.
00:12:43
Speaker
Now, this plyometric exercise is to increase the power of subsequent movements. Power is force times velocity. So the more force, the more power. The more velocity, the more power. The more of both, the more power, right? So if you have less velocity of less power,
00:13:07
Speaker
If you have less force, you have less power. So here's how we're going to be able to determine why, for example, faster, shorter hops are lower intensity than higher hops, stronger hops. Because to get off the ground to overcome gravity, you're going to have to use more force, potentially more speed as well. So that's a higher intensity hop versus little short hops is a lower intensity hop because you don't need as much force. You're not jumping as high or not overcoming gravity to the same extent.
00:13:37
Speaker
and you're probably not pushing the ground as hard, you're probably contacting the ground for a little bit longer. All right, the purpose is to increase power. So this is why plyometric exercise is a very, very important component of athletic training.
00:13:51
Speaker
Let's play a game. I love games. All right. We're going to play a game for the rest of the episode. This game is really to root everything you just heard us say, which may have been new information, in the context of movement that you may, some of it, be very familiar with and some of it not be very familiar with at all. But it's going to give us an opportunity to really look at this in context. And I think as well.
00:14:14
Speaker
you know if these terms are new to you if it's if it's like you're like oh my god i just listened to like 15 minutes of science and my brain is breaking these are going to be multiple examples explaining what we just giving real life examples of what we were just talking about so it should make it make sense okay ready to play always all right sarah yes deadlifting traditional deadlifting plyometric yay or nay no why it is slow
00:14:44
Speaker
There is nothing fast about it. OK. So therefore, we don't get that rapid pre-stretch. Right. The immortization phase is not even a thing. Not even a thing. You pick the weight up, you put it back down. That's it. There's no time component, necessarily. So is it good for building bone density, though? Yes. Under what conditions? Under very special conditions. Does it sound like?
00:15:10
Speaker
You know when a student gives you an answer and you're like, here's a question that's gonna give you a better, more accurate answer than the answer you just gave me. It is good for bone density as long as the amount of weight is what's called heavy, meaning something like 85, 90% of your one rep max. Basically, you couldn't lift this thing more than five, six times.
00:15:36
Speaker
That's heavy. So not plyometric. No. But yes, potentially good for building bone density. Good for bone density. All right, Laurel, it's your turn. Ready? Yeah. Box jumps. Box jumps. What kind of box are you jumping off of? Well, you're jumping up onto one. Oh, a mailbox? A cardboard box. Box of crackers. A box of crackers. Beat box.
00:15:59
Speaker
A beatbox isn't an actual jukebox. Okay, no, none of the above. Well, I guess maybe. You could. A plyo box. A plyo box. So a box designed hopefully to be sturdy enough for you to jump up onto it.
00:16:12
Speaker
So this is an exercise that I do a lot in CrossFit. And so you stand in front of a box at whatever height. It could be as low as you want, as high as you want. You wind up, right? So I'm going to crouch down really fast, throw my arms behind me, and then I'm going to explode upward and hopefully land on top of the box. With your feet. That's almost the hook. Not your mouth. Or my shin. So that's a box jump. Is that plyometric? Yes, it is, because it involves a rapid pre-stretch.
00:16:40
Speaker
That's going to help you get up onto the box, otherwise you're going to have a hard time. So that is that stretch shortening cycle fully happening. You've got the wind up and then you've got the jump. Yeah. Now then, okay, it's plyometric. Is it good for building bone density? I don't know that it would be bad. What I start to think about though is that
00:17:00
Speaker
Box jumps for someone who's never done them before can be kind of intimidating. You're going to have to get comfortable with jumping up and landing on a platform that is relatively smaller than the floor.
00:17:16
Speaker
Also, if you think about, we want impact. And we want that impact to be above, I've heard, 3 or 4G. So that's 3 or 4 times body weight. But in this case, in a box jump, we're jumping from a lower surface to a higher surface. It'd be different, say, if we were jumping from a surface back to that surface.
00:17:36
Speaker
we would land harder in that case because we would be landing from a higher height. When we jump up into a box, we're actually landing on that box from a lower height than we would if we were jumping just straight up off the floor and landing on the floor. Can you visualize that? Yes. Or if we were jumping from on top of the box down to the floor, or even if we jumped up off of the box and then down into the floor, can you see how those would actually result in higher impact?
00:18:03
Speaker
Yes, because gravity is then additive. When I'm jumping from the ground to the ground, I am going with gravity. Gravity is pulling me back down. Same if I'm jumping from something high to something low. When I'm jumping up, I'm actually going against gravity. And so when I land, I'm not getting that additive. Right, because there's less distance that you're covering on the descent.
00:18:28
Speaker
Yes, especially if I only just barely make it onto the box. There's almost no distance. There's very little room for error, too, because as you fatigue, the risks of missing the box go up. I don't know if it's the most foolproof starter plyo that I would go with. No, I wouldn't start people, necessarily. But I think it's a wonderful exercise, and I personally love them.
00:18:53
Speaker
Sarah, walking. Yes. Yeah, your knee. Plio? It is plyometric. OK. Because there is that counter movement. But it is not, it is, we talked about this a little bit earlier, it's a slow stretch shortening cycle. So it's not an especially explosive movement. It's a very slow and steady movement. Low, low intensity. Very low intensity. Now, if you're walking faster, slightly higher, but still probably nowhere near like jogging or running. Or sprinting. Right. Nowhere near that. OK. Bone density building?
00:19:24
Speaker
I mean, is it better for your bones than lying down all day? Sure, but... That's a low bar. It's a low bar, and there's way better things you could be doing that will be much more effective than walking. Much, much, much. Much, much, much more. All right, my turn. Laurel, you ready? My favorite activity, jumping rope. Oh, really?
00:19:50
Speaker
I like to fake rope. Pretend you're jumping rope. Well, I pretend there's a rope. You mime. I jump with an imaginary rope because usually what happens when I jump with a regular rope is I trip over it and then me and the rope are a puddle on the ground and I say to myself, that's right, I hate this. I won a jump roping competition with my best friend in third grade, so I love jumping rope. How did you win the competition? We did a doubles routine. We made it up. It was very fancy.
00:20:16
Speaker
like on what like a double dutch rope or two you know you need a minimum of three people for double dutch right this was a one person rope was probably a little bit longer it was the one with like the plastic beads oh yeah yes long plastic beads and we created this routine where we would like keep jumping simultaneously so you're both under the same yeah and we were like crossing the rope and jumping together and handing
00:20:41
Speaker
rope off to each other and we had a whole thing worked out and we won. We won the school competition. I mean, I would give you a ribbon just listening to it. We really were into it back then on the playground as well. I love double dutch. So jump roping is my jam. Is it plyometric? Sure is. Sure is. I mean, it's jumping, right? Sure. We're going to talk about a jump that's not plyometric, but for the most part jumping tends to be plyometric.
00:21:03
Speaker
And or hopping could also be considered hopping depending on how you're defining those terms and you'll notice there there are trademark plyometric brands online on Instagram if you start following some of these accounts they've got very specific kind of narrow definitions what everything is.
00:21:18
Speaker
which is really common in the trademarking of movement world. Let's make it really specific so that we sound like we know what we're talking about. Let's really narrow down the meaning of things and then we can say that these other ways of doing it are incorrect and are ways right. Yeah, so Marketing 101. In some ways it
Home Gym Setup for Bone Health
00:21:40
Speaker
overcomplicates and over-specifies what is actually happening.
00:21:45
Speaker
It uses the stretch shortening cycle. It is plyometric. Is it good for building bonercy? That depends, because there are a number of different ways to jump rope. You could jump rope quickly, and so if you're jump roping quickly, you're not leaving the ground for very long, and so you're not jumping very high, and so the force on impact isn't going to be lower.
00:22:07
Speaker
If you are doing double unders, a double under is where you spin the rope twice per single jump. So in other words, it's jump, under, under, jump, under, under, jump, under, under. So you got to spin the rope really fast, but you have to actually jump much higher. So when I practice my imaginary jump rope and my imaginary double unders, I'm just going to have to whip my hands faster.
00:22:29
Speaker
Your hands whip faster and you must jump higher. And what's great about that is I will still make it without tangling myself up in the rope. Are you sure though? The imaginary rope. Okay, good luck.
00:22:44
Speaker
I have a question. So if I'm interested in bone density, and I know that impact training is one way, but I also know that lifting heavy weight is another way, and let's say I'm interested in getting involved in lifting heavy weight, I just don't know where to start, what to buy, what I need, what should I do? Well, if you're trying to set up a situation where you can engage in the habit of heavy strength training at home,
00:23:10
Speaker
We have a barbell guide available for you for free via the link in our show notes. And this is basically a PDF that you will have delivered directly to your inbox in exchange for your name, your first name, and your email address. It's going to land in your inbox immediately after you sign up. And it is a list of everything you might want to consider getting, starting with what are the priorities if you're interested in training with barbells.
00:23:41
Speaker
Barbells are exceptional tools for heavy string training because we simply can mix and match those plates in any way that we want to to progress over time to be able to lift a much heavier weight than we'd be able to find with a kettlebell. I mean, the 26 pounders are like $100.
00:23:58
Speaker
don't even ask me what the 75 pounders cost. And by now, I can lift a lot more than 75 pounds on my deadlift, so wow, I would really be out of a lot of money if I didn't have barbells. So if you're interested in just taking a look at what's involved with a barbell set up at home that is space saving, financially it's not going to break the bank, then check out the link in our show notes. That sounds awesome.
00:24:31
Speaker
So double unders require that you land with greater impact. It's possible that those could be bone building. We should also talk about the fact that the surface of the ground you're jumping on is going to totally make a difference, maybe even the shoes you're wearing, all kinds of stuff. The thing about jumping rope though is it is one of those activities where you can really rack up a lot of reps very quickly, kind of like running, the steps in running.
00:24:56
Speaker
It turns out that your bones get bored with the same old thing over and over and over again. This is called cellular accommodation. So after about 100 cycles of impact, bones start to get a little bit bored and they stop sending the message to create
00:25:13
Speaker
a stronger bone. So I only have to jump imaginary rope a hundred times and then I can stop. Jump high. Sure. Imaginary double unders. Double under. And you don't need to do more than a hundred in about. Fantastic. Yeah, it is kind of cool, right? Yeah. I like solutions that don't take a lot of time. But here's the thing. If you're doing double unders, you probably can't jump more than a hundred in about before you are completely wrecked. Unless you're in great shape. I'm going to get real. I probably can't do more than 30. And so you start with that and you build from there. Nice.
00:25:41
Speaker
All right, Sarah's squatting. We're talking traditional weightlifting here. Okay. Playa metric, yea or nay? Nope. Same for the same reason. I notice you never say nay. You always say nope. Oh, it's okay. I'm just noticing. Whoa, girl. I mean, woman.
00:26:03
Speaker
I mean, sophisticated lady. Am I a girl boss? Okay, so for the same reason that a traditional deadlift is not plyometric, a traditional squat where you're lifting weight is not plyometric either because, again, it's just too slow.
00:26:18
Speaker
Agreed. Now, you can do jump squats, but that's a different thing. Totally different thing. Also, the way that I would squat a light weight in CrossFit, they are going to give me some ridiculous rep range and do 20 squats as fast as possible. What I might do with that is I might actually bounce out of the bottom of the squat, in which case it becomes plyometric. But when we're talking about traditional weightlifting, we're talking about slow, potentially heavy strength training.
00:26:46
Speaker
The bigger the weight, the slower you're going to have to move to get that weight away from the ground. How about in terms of improving bone density? They're great for improving bone density for the same reason that deadlifts can be and under the same parameters, which means the load has to be heavy. It has to be 85 to 90% of your one rep max. And again, probably when you're working at that level, you're not doing more than five or six because you can't. That's how heavy it is. There's a relationship between force and velocity. It's called the force-velocity curve.
00:27:16
Speaker
Oh yeah, as force goes up, velocity goes down.
00:27:21
Speaker
And as velocity goes up, force goes down, which means basically that if you're truly lifting something heavy, you will have no choice but to lift it slowly because your muscles require time to create cross bridges to generate the tension to lift the weight, which is called force, muscle force. And so if you're moving fast, the opposite is true. Your motor units are firing very, very rapidly, which is called rate coding. And there's only a very short amount of time that you're
00:27:51
Speaker
cross-bridges can be formed before they have to de-disconnect in order to continue forming along that shortening fiber. The faster you're moving, the less force your muscle fibers at the fiber level are generating, and that is by design. You are then able to shorten your muscle fiber quickly. Think about it as a straight line dead sprint.
00:28:19
Speaker
you wanna shed as much weight as possible from your body, so maybe even take your clothes off and sprint naked. Because the lighter you are, no, I'm just kidding. But if you're wearing a backpack, if you're carrying something, set that down. Because any additional weight is gonna make you go slower. This makes total sense to us when we put in these types of contacts. But it's true too for strength training that when you go to pick up a weight and you can move it quickly, that is a sign right there that that is probably not a heavy weight.
00:28:47
Speaker
Right. So when you're lifting heavy, the first rep to the last rep, one to four to five, whatever it is, every single rep is slow. Yes. Because it's a heavy weight. Because it's heavy. Yeah. Okay. I have one for you. Okay. That I think is going to be a little interesting for our listeners because it may not be exactly what they think it is. And that is the kettlebell swing. Laurel. Yay or nay. Is it plyometric?
00:29:17
Speaker
Okay. Okay. But wait a minute. I'm not jumping. Right. See, this is where there is a little bit of debate or I guess like a different language is used to talk about what a kettlebell swing is versus say what a box jump is or hopping is.
00:29:35
Speaker
Everyone could pretty much unanimously agree that box jumping and hopping are plyometric, but not everybody would be on board if I told them that kettlebell swing was plyometric. But here's the deal, the kettlebell swing involves the stretch shortening cycle. Oh, tell me more.
00:29:50
Speaker
Well, visualize the backswing, so the kettlebell, let's say you're doing a Russian swing, you swing that kettlebell up to shoulder level, and then you basically allow the kettlebell either to fall along a pendular path all the way down toward the floor between your legs, and you follow that kettlebell basically at the speed that it's moving before you then reverse its path back up along that pendular
00:30:17
Speaker
line of motion to shoulder level and that transition phase, that amortization phase at the bottom of the backswing and the beginning of the frontswing needs to be fast. Otherwise the kettlebell is literally just going to fall on the ground and damage your floors.
00:30:32
Speaker
So
Plyometric vs. Ballistic Exercises
00:30:33
Speaker
you're taking that kettlebell through a rapid pre-stretch of your posterior chain, and then you're redirecting its force with the help of that series elastic component, that stretch reflex, and that elastic stored energy, that additive energy from the tendon. So it's very cool. It is very cool. And a lot of folks on
00:30:54
Speaker
the Instagram would refer to that as a ballistic exercise. And they're not wrong. I think ballistic is really just another way of saying this is an exercise that utilizes the stretch shortening cycle. However, I don't think we need to use different language necessarily, but there may be some value in creating that distinction because a kettlebell swing is not impact training.
00:31:22
Speaker
not the classic kettlebell swing. So here's another way to think about this. In the NSCA textbook there are plyometric exercises for improving very common staple sporting moves like throwing or like rotating powerfully through the trunk if you can visualize like what a boxer needs to be able to do.
00:31:43
Speaker
or definitely stuff like throwing, rotating upper body and trunk related plyos. These don't definitely involve a takeoff and a landing either, yet they're still plyometric because they include that stretch shortening cycle. Is that like a pitcher, a baseball pitcher in the windup? Yeah. Just watch a baseball pitcher on YouTube and you'll notice that there is this almost whole body
00:32:10
Speaker
everything happening on one foot wind up. There's a point at which that is then reversed into the pitch, and this is why we get 100 mile an hour plus throws. Now, takeoff and landing is incredibly common for lower body plyometrics in the context of sporting because running, sprinting, various forms of jumping are also staple sporting movements, but notice that in the Venn diagram. I love a Venn diagram.
00:32:35
Speaker
If we have the stretch shortening cycle, and the large circle, we have
00:32:44
Speaker
takeoff and landing in a smaller circle inside of that. And then another smaller circle inside of that would be exercises that don't involve a takeoff and landing. So that could be upper body and trunk plyometrics as well as the kettlebell swing. I have a very smart personal trainer who I have the privilege of being able to text message every once in a while with these type of questions. He has his master's degrees in exercise science. His name is James Lederach. And I texted him because they're like, hey James, what's the deal with
00:33:14
Speaker
This idea that plyometric exercise involves a takeoff in the landing or always involves impact. And is there a difference between what people are referring to as ballistic exercise versus plyometric exercise? And he said, haha, I think these debates are kind of funny because the language, while important, is simply an organizational and communicative tool.
00:33:35
Speaker
I'm not sure it would ever change exercise selection, since we know what adaptations these tools create, regardless of what they're called. James specializes in training athletes. With that said, it does seem useful to have a more specific cutoff for what constitutes plyometric. The SSC definition you're referring to from the NSCA is definitely broad.
00:33:59
Speaker
Therefore, I see no problem in calling exercises without ground contact ballistic. That seems practical, but the overwhelming majority of practitioners, still at the very least, break ground contact times into two categories, fast and slow.
00:34:19
Speaker
So if we are having a landing, a ground contact time, meaning there's a finite amount of time, obviously like in the course of the exercise, we're going to be on the ground for a short amount of time and then we're going to take off again. I have no idea what we gain by restricting the definition
00:34:36
Speaker
of a plyometric to a shorter ground contact time and not allowing something with a longer ground contact time to be a plyometric. So this is where we started talking about the fact that, okay, your feet are on the ground the whole time like a kettlebell swing, technically according to the primary resources and authorities on exercise, that is a plyometric because it involves the stretch shortening cycle. But then we also have these camps on Instagram saying that actually it's not even a plyometric,
00:35:01
Speaker
unless the ground contact time is shorter than 0.25 seconds. James expressed that he always sees the distinction between less than 0.25 seconds and greater than
00:35:17
Speaker
0.25 seconds as just being a way to talk about a longer versus shorter ground contact time, but both of these contact times are plyometric. And then I wrote him back the following, aha. So the NSCA textbook gets more specific actually about time, not with ground contact time, but with regards to the amortization phase. So again, it's all coming back.
00:35:40
Speaker
to that amortization phase. They write, it's the duration of the amortization phase which must be kept short. If the phase lasts too long, the energy stored during the eccentric phase, that rapid pre-stretch, it dissipates as heat and the stretch reflex will not increase muscle activity because the rate of stretch wasn't fast enough.
00:36:01
Speaker
to result in more force or better force output. So I wrote, this makes me think that the ground contact time is getting conflated with the amortization phase. So whether the feet are on the ground the whole time, whether on the ground for more than 0.25 seconds, or whether there are the ground for less than 0.25 seconds, these could all be considered plyometric. It's fine to call the ones where the feet never leave the ground ballistic, sure, OK. But it's really about the amortization phase.
00:36:29
Speaker
if ground contact time is longer for what I've heard called deeper plyos. So an example of a, sorry, I just like, do we need deeper plyo? Like what? There are deeper plyos. Let me give you an example of why. So in a split squat, your knees are bent, both knees are bent to around 90 degrees. One foot is forward, one foot is behind. The foot that's in front, the knee of that limb is somewhere over the foot. And the foot that's behind the knee of that limb is somewhere under the hip.
00:36:58
Speaker
gotcha your torso is pretty much upright you're gonna go from that position jump up into the air switch legs land and go back down into that same lunge where your knees the back knee is maybe a little bit off the floor the front knee again is over the foot right so that's a pretty long amount of time it's gonna take you do that because you have to
00:37:21
Speaker
Do a bunch of stuff while you're in the air. Traverse a pretty big range of motion. You have to scissor switch your legs. You have to let both knees bend from maybe fully extended to 90 degrees. The ground contact time will by necessity be longer. But if you take too long at the bottom and you don't reverse out of it fast enough, you're not actually going to get
00:37:44
Speaker
the increased measure. You're not going to get the plyometric. So to bring it all back, the kettlebell swing technically is a plyometric. The split squat jump technically is a plyometric. If we're letting that amortization phase be fast and jumping rope, that's a much faster, probably ground contact time. But all these exercises have to have a fast amortization phase for them to be
00:38:10
Speaker
plyometrics.
Exercise Analysis and Benefits
00:38:11
Speaker
So the kettlebell swing, I'm gonna say yay to plyo, yeah, but is it good for improving bone density? I wouldn't be my first choice because again we go back to that force velocity curve. I'm swinging kettlebell fast by necessity because I'm letting it fall at its slowest rate downward. It's falling at the acceleration of gravity. I could even over speed it and push it down and get it to go a little faster and then I've got to take that reverse it and send it back up quickly.
00:38:37
Speaker
So anytime you're moving the weight quickly, you are by necessity probably not exerting as much force as you would be, right? Because you can't, right?
00:38:49
Speaker
That makes sense. I would say it's also debatable, more research is needed. There hasn't actually been a great deal of research on kettlebelling, but I think we could logically conclude by someone we know about what bones need to grow themselves stronger. Kettlebelling is probably not nearly as good as a heavy deadlift. That makes sense. Sarah. Yes. Jogging. Plio. Yes or no?
00:39:15
Speaker
Yes. Sorry, I answered for you. Well, I mean, I was going to say, yay. But now it's yes or no. It's not yay or nay anymore, so I'm very confused. I'm keeping you on your toes. You sure are. So yes, jogging is plyometric. It's got that stretch shortening cycle, as we've established. It's faster than walking, so it's a slightly faster stretch shortening cycle, but jogging
00:39:41
Speaker
It does not imply a great deal of speed. It's just a bit more than walking. So yes, it is plyometric. Is it a good way to build bone density? Wouldn't be my first choice. But again, it's probably better than walking, and both of them are better than lying down for bone density reasons. I really like lying down. Or for napping reasons. Flying into space on a rocket ship. Either one.
00:40:10
Speaker
static jump okay this is that jump i wanted to talk about so we think jumping we think yeah definitely plyometric well this is the static jump so can you explain what that is yeah so i played a lot of volleyball in high school i played a lot of volleyball starting in like sixth grade and i was a hitter and so i was playing at the net and when i was playing defense i was a blocker
00:40:31
Speaker
So I was blocking the hits from the other team, those players at the net. So I'm watching where those players are going. I'm tracking them. I'm shuffling left and right. I've played middle hitter for a while, right? So I'm shuffling in between, you know, both sides of the net. And I see, okay, this hitter's about to approach the setters setting this hitter the ball. A lot of times to give myself a faster reaction time, I would pre-squat and wait.
00:41:00
Speaker
And then at the right time, hopefully, I would explode upward. I often would probably do that quick pre-stretch, squat down quickly, then leave the ground immediately after that. But the static jump is an exercise that actually is used in athletic training a lot of the time.
00:41:18
Speaker
to train these types of sporting positions where what you do is you squat down, you stop, and then you explode upward. You basically don't get to utilize that amortization window of opportunity. Because, remind me, the amortization phase has to happen quickly, right? And if it doesn't happen quickly, then what happens to that energy that I stored up? That energy that I stored up, I no longer get to use as an additive to my kinetic energy. It dissipates as heat.
00:41:47
Speaker
Like, I just start sweating? I mean, I'm not really sure exactly the details of that, but I do know that energy is neither created nor destroyed. Aren't you smart? It just does other things depending on things like timing, right? So it's got to happen quickly, and a static jump doesn't allow for that. You could get down there quickly. You could get up there quick. You got to get up there quickly. Right. But you're not going to change from down to up quickly.
00:42:15
Speaker
And so that's really interesting. That's why it's called static. Because then, are we calling it plyometric? No. Because it doesn't have that amortization phase. Exactly. So that's really the key. It is. I'm learning a lot. I'm so glad. Because, you know, I want us both to be benefiting from this relationship. Oh, 100%. I learned a lot from you. I'm so glad. I have a second question for you about static. Okay. Jumping. Yes. Is it good for bone density? Yes, it is. Why is that?
00:42:42
Speaker
because what goes up must come down. So there is impact. There is impact. And impact is that part that we really want. Yeah, and in fact, compared to other sports, volleyball is a court sport, it's actually a really good one.
00:42:58
Speaker
It's above average for building bone density. Because it's a small court and there's six players on it. So basketball is a big court and there's only five players on one team, right? There's six on each side of a volleyball net. You can't run around a whole bunch. You're pretty much staying in one area of the court, most players are. And so you're not running around, you're not burning out all your energy to meet cardio respiratory demands. You're burning a lot of your energy to meet those more anabolic demands. Think, when you think anabolic, just think strength,
00:43:27
Speaker
or speed energy that needs to be produced very rapidly and so it's not like you're sedentary or standing around in between your jumps you do an awful lot of jumping which is a very power centric move
00:43:40
Speaker
And then you're saving up all your energy to be able to just basically max out probably if you're a hitter, especially if you're a blocker, especially you want like single max efforts on your jumps almost every single time. Cause the higher you can get about the net, the more of a weapon or a better defensive player you are.
00:43:57
Speaker
Now, something that's kind of cool is the static jump is often used in athletic testing. So sometimes coaches all run their athletes through a battery of tests, or maybe in the preseason when they're choosing who's going to play, who's going to start, who's going to set the bench rate. They're looking for specific athletic qualities, and the static jump test is used to test concentric power output.
00:44:21
Speaker
which is really just output without the help of the pre-stretch, right? So we kind of eliminate the variables that might be allowing an athlete to get off the ground, and we look at like, actually, how quickly are their muscles, just their muscles, capable of producing force? That's going to tell us a little, something a little different about their athletic capacity than someone who's going to do that rapid pre-stretch. Now they're relying a lot on the tendon and the soft tissues as well.
00:44:45
Speaker
Okay, Sarah hopping. Yes. Is it plyometric? Yes. Okay. You are going up in the air and you're coming back down. All right. Is there a rapid pre-stretch? Probably. Is there a fast amortization phase? I would think so. Okay. But this was interesting because you and I actually, I think hopping is on one leg. What about hopscotch?
00:45:08
Speaker
The scotch is the two leg part. Oh, is it the... I'll take a double. Exactly. Rocks, no ice. No, that's rocks and ice are the same thing. Correct. Rocks, no ice. Just go outside rocks. Just go outside rocks. I'll write some actual rocks for my scotch of my hop. Yes, so hopping can be one or two likes. This is a great opportunity to talk about.
00:45:30
Speaker
how plyometrics are categorized. So the NSCA categorizes plyometrics using area of the body. So we already mentioned that there's lower body plyometrics. These are the vast majority of plyometric exercises that are presented in this textbook, but there's also upper body and trunk plyometrics. And all three of these categories can range from low to medium to high intensity. So I'm going to share right now some factors that would make a plyometric exercise low intensity,
00:45:58
Speaker
maybe toggling it up to moderate to even high intensity. So here are some things to think about. Points of contact. So when you think points of contact, think what's touching the ground? Is it one foot touching the ground during the exercise or two? One point of contact is more intense than two. It's actually twice as intense.
00:46:18
Speaker
because the ground force reaction that that limb is meeting is the body weight just over that one limb, whereas if you're hopping off of two feet, it's the body weight distributed to two limbs. So it's half the amount when you're hopping with two feet. Two points of contact, more points of contact is lower intensity,
00:46:38
Speaker
fewer points of contact, like one foot hopping is higher intensity for that reason. Higher forces. Just think higher forces. When you hear intensity, think higher forces. Speed of movement. So we have points of contact, now we have speed of movement. This has to do with things like speed of the counter movement. So is the pre-stretch fast or slow? In walking, it's slow. In sprinting, it's fast.
00:47:00
Speaker
and this has to do with ground contact time. Is it a shorter amount of ground contact time or a longer amount of ground contact time? Shorter ground contact times are higher intensity. Longer ground contact times are lower intensity. Again, it's because likely as you're landing, say from a split squat jump, your feet touch the ground and you're then absorbing a lot of that impact through the distension
00:47:30
Speaker
of your soft tissues, the fascia, the tendons, and so you're not actually taking as much impact through the feet.
00:47:39
Speaker
as you would be if you say hopped, let's say you jumped off of a elevated surface, we'll say it's a foot off the ground and you landed kind of with a stiff legged landing. So you didn't let your ankles, your knees, your hips, your spine absorb some of that force on impact and you really just tried to kind of stick the landing. Think about how gymnasts land.
00:48:03
Speaker
they land as stiff as possible because that's what they are scored highest for. That's right. So gymnastics is the absolute best form of physical activity organized sport for bone density for that reason. Gymnasts have fantastically strong bones. Amazing.
00:48:24
Speaker
Height of the drill. Okay, so are you jumping off of a six inch box? Are you jumping off of a 12 inch box? Are you jumping off of the ground just so that the rope can go under your foot one time? Are you jumping off of the ground so that the rope can go under your foot feet two times? Are you jumping on one foot and double under that? Oh my god, that sounds very high intensity. Alright, so I've got a question for you. Alright.
00:48:46
Speaker
Medicine ball work. Okay, so there's medicine ball, slam ball. They usually have a little bit of weight to them. They're big balls we use for exercise.
00:48:54
Speaker
Or are they plyometric? Can I say that? Sure. Okay. Yes, they are. You've said way worse. Well, you can use them for non plyometric exercise. I have said way worse, haven't I? Yes. Nay! Yay! So picture it, you've got a medicine ball, you lift it up over your head and then you slam it down onto the ground to get all of your aggression out. In this case, you are potentially using that rapid pre-stretch, you take your arms up quickly and boom, slam it down. You could also stand with your maybe left side body
00:49:24
Speaker
facing a wall, holding that medicine ball in front of your torso, you're gonna wind your trunk up into a twist.
00:49:32
Speaker
turning your chest away from the wall, and then you're gonna snap back as hard as possible and throw that medicine ball into the wall. Hopefully it's a slam ball, because the medicine ball might actually create a hole in your wall, hole in your wall. You slam that ball against the wall. This is an example of a maybe combination, both of these examples, upper body and trunk plyometrics. You could also use the medicine ball like I often do or the slam ball like I often do in CrossFit. It's actually called a wall ball in CrossFit to do wall ball sit-ups. So you can hold onto that.
00:50:02
Speaker
wall ball, you're going to lie back onto the floor, bonk that ball onto the ground over your head, and then you're going to whip that ball back up, your whole body sits back up, and you're going to bonk that ball down into the ground between your legs. And you're going to do that as quickly as possible. In order to be able to do that as quickly and as energy efficiently as possible, you're going to try to use that stretch shortening cycle of the anterior abdominals, the lats, the flexors,
00:50:27
Speaker
called a wall ball, when you're not hitting the wall with the ball. I know, because there's another plyometric exercise called wall ball shots. We're gonna stand, this one you would love. Listen to it. Okay. Listen, it involves throwing and catching.
00:50:41
Speaker
I say this in jest, you stand close to the wall, you got the ball right in front of your chest, you're going to squat down, hopefully bounce out of the bottom of that squat, and then you're going to throw that ball up to however high you're supposed to throw the ball, 9 feet maybe, 10 feet, 11 feet.
00:50:58
Speaker
and then it's gonna come falling back down, you're gonna catch it, and you're actually gonna let the catch of that heavy ball send you back down into the squat, over speed, to bounce back out of the bottom, and use your legs, and use your arms, and use that stretch shortening cycle to toss that ball back up. It sounds sort of like a kettlebell swing on crack. It's like a, if you've ever done a thruster. It's a thruster. It's a high velocity thruster.
00:51:27
Speaker
So, okay, yes, these are plyometric. Well, thrusters are high velocity, but this is higher velocity because you're probably using a ball that weighs about 10 pounds versus a kettlebell or barbell that weighs more than 10 pounds in any event. Both of these medicine ball exercises that you're describing are plyometric. Yes, they are. But do they build bone density? Probably not, because again, it's probably a 10-pound ball, and the ball is what's taking the impact, not your bones. In all of these examples, your body actually never leaves the floor.
00:51:55
Speaker
I mean, it never lands on the floor with any amount of impact, I should say. Sarah Burpee. Ugh. Sorry, that's just my personal opinion of Burpees. It's a fast sun salute, that's all. Says you. It's a form of torture, in my opinion. I don't like them, but part of it is because it... lots of reasons that I don't feel like going into. Are they plyometric? Yeah, if you do them the way you're supposed to, which is you jump up in the air.
00:52:20
Speaker
and then you land and you kind of absorb that land to put your hands down and jump back into the bottom of a push-up and then you immediately push yourself back up, jump back forwards and then you jump back up in the air again and if you're me, you're doing it and you're yelling, I hate this so much. Well, you must not be working that hard if you can yell.
00:52:43
Speaker
Well, I have no intention of doing very many of them. That's why I'm yelling. I do maybe three, and then I say, that seems like plenty. That's enough. For the rest of my life. Cool. What do you think? Phone density building, yay or nay? I mean, there's impact.
00:52:58
Speaker
So, yeah, probably. But I would say, you know, if we're picking bone density exercises specific for people who need bone density building, it's kind of a complicated movement. It requires a lot of range of motion and the ability to move through that range of motion fast.
00:53:17
Speaker
So it wouldn't be my first choice, but I think as an activity, it's got enough impact that there probably is a bone building component. Yeah, and it's actually one of few exercises that I can think of where there's actually impact on the upper body. Yeah, exactly. All right. You ready? Yep. So a depth jump, which to me sounds like something that comes out of a submarine.
00:53:41
Speaker
No, a depth charge you're thinking? A depth charge. Okay, yes, that's a different thing. Is a depth jump plyometric? It is. In fact, can you tell me what it is? Yeah, it's pretty high intensity plyometric, depending on what you are jumping off of or the depth of your jump. Basically, you start on an elevated surface, like a plyometric box or a plyo box, and then you jump off of it. Okay. So you could actually just drop off of it. You could jump up out of it, right? But in either case, right, you're going to be working with a different height.
00:54:10
Speaker
and or intensity right for that reason then once you land on the ground you immediately take that rapid pre-stretch that you got from literally just falling to the ground or maybe even jumped up and fell from an even higher height to the ground and you turn it into a very explosive jump upward or forward or to the side or whatever it is that the
00:54:35
Speaker
you know, drill is helping you to improve your ability to do. So I'm not jumping back up onto the box. No, you're actually jumping off of the box to get even more velocity, even more of a rapid pre-stretch than you would potentially be able to create just by kind of doing that crouch down counter movement. Cool. And then taking that and turning it into that movement, that concentric that is potentially going to be a lot, actually a lot higher of a jump or longer of a jump.
00:55:05
Speaker
because of that rapid pre-stretch. That's very cool. Yeah, and it's one of the more in high intensity drills only because now what we're doing is basically we're taking the additive of the acceleration of gravity or gravity and adding it to
00:55:20
Speaker
what's gonna allow that pre-stretch to be even more rapid, right? And so we have to hopefully be trained and ready for that amount of force, but it is considered to be a pretty effective drill for certain types of athletic skill and movement. Now, is it a bone building activity? 100%.
00:55:40
Speaker
Yeah. Because you're going to be hitting the ground probably harder than you are for most plyometric drills. You're jumping off of a box. Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. And so it involves a takeoff, a landing. It involves probably a significant amount of impact. And it kind of reminds me of drop landings that this wonderful study out of Australia did with a group of osteoporotic
00:56:06
Speaker
or women with osteopenia as well, like low bone density women who are post-menopausal, a large percentage of them with a history of osteoporotic fracture, this study called the LIFTMORE trial, took a group of women and had them do some exercises to help them build bone density over the course of eight months. It was a very, very successful
00:56:27
Speaker
intervention, many of them saw market very statistically significant improvements to their bone density. One of the exercises they were doing was a jumping pull-up where they would jump up and take that momentum and pull themselves as high up over a bar as possible and then just drop from that height and land as stiffly as possible.
00:56:48
Speaker
Depth jumps remind me a little bit of that, although the goal for athletes doing depth jumps and these ladies doing this impact training, these drop landings were totally different. The same idea is that you're actually starting at an elevated place and then using gravity to create that force and to feed that bone, that information that it actually needs to be stronger. All right.
00:57:16
Speaker
Here's the takeaway. Pliometric exercise bestows a lot of benefit to our body. It's a very different mode of exercise than heavy strength training or strength training in general, although heavy strength training and strength training, even if it's not heavy, are complementary to your ability to do plyometric exercise, mostly because it's gonna prepare your tendons to be able to take that rapid pre-stretch.
00:57:44
Speaker
prepare your muscles to be able to generate high forces. It's going to even potentially, heavy strength training specifically, going to make your bones stronger to be able to sustain that impact. But it is a different capacity, one that plays more toward the capacity of power, of the ability to generate force
00:58:02
Speaker
and speed together, which we might think is just only something athletes should be able to do, but it's a basic human dynamic way of moving that if we don't maintain, if we don't use, we lose. So there's a lot of benefit beyond just bone density.
00:58:20
Speaker
for plyometric activity. Some plyometric activity, in fact, a large portion, especially lower body plyometric activity, involves impact. It involves takeoff and landing, but not all plyometrics necessarily have to by the strict definition of it only needing to evolve the stretch shortening cycle, like the kettlebell swing, for example, or lots of upper body and trunk plyometrics don't involve a takeoff and landing. We get that sneaky little static jump that involves a takeoff and landing but is not a plyometric because there is not that fast transition, that short amortization phase.
00:58:50
Speaker
Okay, cool. Let's go back to rooting plyometric activity into everyday life. Sarah, are there any ways that you personally draw on your own plyometric capacity or you maybe work on it in exercise that you're doing? How do you find maybe plyometrics playing a role in your day-to-day life, in your exercise routines? Well, I have to say that it actually doesn't as much as it should. Oh.
00:59:20
Speaker
And at the moment, especially because right now I'm focusing on this powerlifting, because I'm thinking about plyometrics in terms of impact training, in terms of bone density. However, I know that I definitely could stand to be doing more imaginary jump rope than I am. And especially that imaginary double under. I can already tell it's going to go really well. Cool.
00:59:45
Speaker
I absolutely love plyometric exercise. It's actually one of the things that I've probably found most enjoyable about starting to do CrossFit, which is that there's quite a bit of plyometric activity in CrossFit. We'll do sprint training, we'll do box jumps, we'll do double unders, we'll do over-the-bar burpees, we'll do lots of burpees, and I absolutely love it because I actually spent a good portion of my childhood
01:00:08
Speaker
playing sports
Personal Experiences and Conclusions
01:00:09
Speaker
and so it makes sense that that's a very familiar way of moving to my body. It's one that actually comes really easily to me and I feel wonderful during and after. So I think everybody's going to have a different relationship to this idea of, you know, for example, jumping around. But know that it's something that everyone's capable of doing. It all comes down to progressive overload. That's right. So you start with low volume.
01:00:37
Speaker
And so here's where it might be good to talk about how the NSCA recommends that you begin with plyometric exercise. If you're a beginner, you have no experience training plyometrically, they recommend that you start with no more than 80 to 100
01:00:56
Speaker
contacts. So that could be foot or hand contacts depending on what type of plyometric you're doing. That's 80 to 100 contacts in a workout. So you would break up those 80 to 100 contacts into sets.
01:01:10
Speaker
with substantial rest in between. But 80 to 100 is really all you need, and then start with low intensity plyometrics. Let me give you just a couple of examples of what those could be. Something like skipping, different ways of skipping. There's something called a power skip, just a regular prancing through the field skip. That's my favorite. I love a prance.
01:01:33
Speaker
jump roping is a nice low intensity plyometric. What about like a jumping jack? Jumping jack, I would say, would be a wonderful low intensity plyometric. So these are a couple of examples of what you could start with. All right, Sarah. I hope that you and our listeners enjoyed this conversation because oh boy did I. That it's given you some new ideas around plyometric training.
01:02:03
Speaker
And for those of you interested in building bone density or bone strength, how plyometrics might fit into those efforts. A note to you listeners that you can check out our show notes for links to the references we mentioned in this podcast, like our equipment guide, our equipment guide, our barbell guide. You can also visit the movement logic website where you can get on our mailing list to be in the know about sales on our tutorials.
01:02:29
Speaker
Thank you so much for joining us on the Movement Logic Podcast. Finally, it helps us out a lot. Really, it does. If you like this episode, just hit subscribe. If you want to go the extra mile, give us a rating. If you want to go even another mile further past that, review us. We would be so, so appreciative. That's all we have for you, and we will be in your ear next week. Goodbye. Goodbye.