Plyometric exercises specifically focus on how quickly you exert a force. Regular strength training does help increase power by inducing adaptations in the nervous system and muscles. If you want to work on power training with clients, you'll need plyometric exercises. Why Using Plyometrics for Power is Essential Adding plyo once or twice a week will help any client make big power gains. A great tool for any trainer is plyometric training (sometimes called jump training). But it's not enough to make significant power gains. Traditional strength training, like lifting weights, has its place in developing muscle strength and power. With better reaction times, they will be able to react to losing balance and avoid dangerous falls. But good reaction time is valuable for everyone.

For your athlete clients, this is obviously important for performance. When you can move more quickly with strength and force, you improve reaction times. Greater Power Means Better Reaction Times This produces the 'afterburn' effect of an elevated calorie burn up to 24 hours after the workout. This is because you use big muscles in an explosive way, like your quads and glutes when doing squat jumps. Power moves also torch calories as compared to other kinds of exercises. Learn more: Fast-twitch muscle fibers help with greater, more explosive power. The quick contraction of muscles involved in power moves recruits and builds up the fast twitch muscle fiber, leading to greater strength gains than slower movements can. Working on power improvement also helps build muscle strength. The more power an athlete can generate with their muscles, the greater their performance will be in these and other sports. Others also need upper body power, like basketball, tennis, volleyball, softball, and golf. Some sports are mostly dependent on power in muscles of the lower body, like sprinting, soccer, basketball, hockey, and football. The more powerful that movement, the faster they can run the race. With just 100 or 200 meters to cover, they need to be able to launch their bodies quickly off the start line. Nearly every sport relies on power in movements. Greater Power Improves Athletic Performance So what does explosive strength have to do with your clients? There are a few reasons why doing exercises and workouts to improve power will benefit them. Greater power means applying a force more quickly. If you can do that squat in just two seconds you generate 225 foot-pounds per second of power (450 foot-pounds/2 seconds).īut, if it takes you five seconds to do that same exercise, you're only generating 90 foot-pounds per second of power (450 foot-pounds/5 seconds). If you perform a weighted squat by rising up three feet with a 150-pound barbell, you have done 450 foot-pounds of work (150 pounds x 3 feet). The faster you perform a movement, the more power you generate. In sports and exercise, we tend to think of strength or speed as the only measurable factors. Work is the amount of force generated over a particular distance.

It is a measurement of the amount of work done in a period of time. What is Power? And Why Should Your Clients Care?

Just be sure that you start clients out safely and progress at a pace that makes sense for each individual to avoid injuries. Plyometrics are crucial exercises for developing and improving power.įrom plyo pushups to jumping squats, these moves target the big muscle groups, harnessing the elastic energy in the stretch shortening cycle of muscle contractions to build brute power.Īny client can benefit from improving power, including your athletes and beginners. There is much more to plyometric jumps than the joy of leaping, of course. Who doesn't want to jump and leap? It almost feels like being a kid again, and if you can make workouts fun, why not? Plyometric training and exercises are just plain fun.

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