Plyometric exercises

[Deleted]

I'm looking to add plyometric exercises (lower body) to my offseason schedule, does anyone have experience with these? I'm looking to identify which exercises would be most beneficial and the rep range.

Thanks
J

[Deleted]

I used to do a lot of box jumps to different heights, being that they were concentric only, I was able to recover form them and they did seem to be fairly effective. I haven't done them recently, but have thought about incorporating them again.

[benburgess]

I found that squatting heavy gave me a pretty big box jump but not the other way around.

They are ok for fun and for some extra GPP but not gonna increase your lifts much IMhO.

[robwhite]

I think if you are a slow lifter (i.e 'grind it out' type), some speed work like this may help in theory, but TBH i havent seen it in practice. One of the guys in my gym was doing box jumps and depth jumps during his peaking (was doing it after his main lifting) for the IPF Championships in Birmingham a few years back, and it didnt do much for him.

[joeldibattista]

I'm dubious as to wether actually DE work with the lifts carry over to max effort lifts, let along plyometrics.

[Deleted]

I have to agree about the carryover. I did like box jumps and I think it did help increase my work capacity/conditioning, I did get faster, but did that carry over? it's debatable. Speed work (i.e., dynamic effort) never seemed to do a lot for me, when I dropped DE squats and added a second day of heavy percents, my squat got better. But I do think if your GPP sucks, it's not a bad thing. I know plenty of other people that would argue against me on this, just my opinion from my own experience.

[joeldibattista]

I think there are much more effective things you can do for GPP, but jumps may have their place in a proper GPP routine - but what do I know, my GPP is terrible.

[Deleted]

thx for your input guys...

Aug 3, 2009 19:48:20 GMT -5 @athos said:

I used to do a lot of box jumps to different heights, being that they were concentric only, I was able to recover form them and they did seem to be fairly effective. I haven't done them recently, but have thought about incorporating them again.

In what way did you find them effective athos?

[Deleted]

jonniesfw, keep in mind, I did these when I used to train using more of a Westside approach. That approach definitely worked for me, it helped me total elite, but I've since started using Sheiko principles and have taken all dynamic effort and plyo work out of my training and have increased my total. For me, there is no doubt that dynamic effort and plyometric work made me faster and more explosive with submaximal weights, but did that translate to a bigger max? I'm not willing to make that statement with confidence. I know a lot of guys that swear by it, but for me personally, I just can't say that. I asked Al Caslow his opinon on speed work and he said speed squats never seemed to help him, but some of the Westside guys I've talked to will say the opposite. So I guess my answer would be that I got faster and more explosive with submaximal loads, which was nice for other sports, but I can't say that that alone was a contributing factor to increasing my max lifts. Again, I'm not going to pretend like I'm an expert, just my opinion based off my own experiences. My best advice would be to test their effectiveness, throw in some weighted box jumps for a few weeks and see what it does for you.

[joeldibattista]

athos, I believe Eric and Dave have come to the same conclusion using data from the tendo unit - that DE work made them faster with submaximal weights, but not any faster at ME.

[Deleted]

I tried to get some time with a tendo unit, but no-go... so it is reassuring to know that they verified it scientifically! Appreciate the info Joel.

[benburgess]

Aug 11, 2009 8:11:33 GMT -5 joeldibattista said:

athos, I believe Eric and Dave have come to the same conclusion using data from the tendo unit - that DE work made them faster with submaximal weights, but not any faster at ME.

Y'know, IIRC the 'classic' WSB template has speed work in doubles or triples in waves of 55-60-65% for like 8-10 sets.

I remember reading recently that a lot of the people who train there now use a slightly higher %'age (say 75-80%) for a few less sets....

So some of these guys have found they get strong/stronger by squatting say 75% for say 5 sets of 3 reps...now that looks familiar

[joeldibattista]

A lot of the Westside guys at my gym (who are in contact with Louie Simmons etc.) will start off with a traditional DE weight and then keep adding weight until they go up to a pretty heavy lift, so yeah, basically just getting more work in I guess.