So, I have to confess, I do not practice what I preach, at least not always. I haven’t done plyometrics since my high school track days. But in my research for this post, I have decided I will start them up again. There really is no reason other than laziness that I haven’t been doing them, so from here on out, I plan to skip, hop, and jump through my marathon trainings.
If you aren’t familiar with plyometrics, they are essentially different ways to jump or leap, for more speed, strength, and running economy. If you played football, basketball, soccer, volleyball, really any sport in high school or college, you most likely did some form of plyometrics during your drill workouts. Plyometrics teach your body to push off the ground with more force, building more lower body strength, balance, and flexibility. This in turn, increases your running economy, or reduces the energy you use while running. This can result in less fatigue and a faster run time. Some studies have even shown plyometric training to have better results for runners than traditional strength training.
Use caution when adding plyometrics to your workout routine. You will want to gradually increase the amount of these drills that you add to your training. They are generally high-impact, so there is a risk of injury if you overdue it, or land in the wrong way. Trying to explain the different jumps over a blog seems a little daunting, so I have included some links to sites describing different plyometric drills and moves. I plan to add a plyometric session to my speed days, or if you’re lucky and have P90X workout videos, you can do the plyometrics video (the P90X one is a killer workout!!!) on a cross-training day.
For detailed plyometric drills or more information check these links out:
Video Examples (Many of these are meant for sprinters, but the bounds, the box jumps, and the split lunge jumps are good for distance runners as well.)
Runner's World: Get a Jump On It
SpeedEndurance (Article summarizing research that plyometrics may be better than tradition weight training for distance runners.)
Next Week: Hit the Trails
Happy Running,
Genevieve
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