• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Breaking Muscle

Breaking Muscle

Breaking Muscle

  • Fitness
  • Workouts
    • Best Shoulder Workouts
    • Best Chest Workouts
    • Best Leg Workouts
    • Best Leg Exercises
    • Best Biceps Exercises
    • Best Kettlebell Exercises
    • Best Back Workouts
    • Best HIIT Workouts
    • Best Triceps Exercises
    • Best Arm Workouts
  • Reviews
    • Supplements
      • Best Pre-Workouts
      • Best Whey Protein
    • Equipment
      • Best Home Gym Machines
    • Certifications
      • ISSA Review
  • News
  • Exercise Guides
    • Legs
      • Back Squat
      • Bulgarian Split Squat
      • Goblet Squat
      • Zercher Squat
      • Standing Calf Raise
      • Hack Squat
    • Chest
      • Bench Press
      • Dumbbell Bench Press
      • Close-Grip Bench Press
      • Incline Bench Press
    • Shoulders
      • Overhead Dumbbell Press
      • Lateral Raise
    • Arms
      • Chin-Up
      • Weighted Pull-Up
      • Triceps Pushdown
    • Back
      • Deadlift
      • Trap Bar Deadlift
      • Lat Pulldown
      • Inverted Row
      • Bent-Over Barbell Row
      • Single-Arm Dumbbell Row
      • Pendlay Row
Fitness

Plyometric Training – Which Volume and Surfaces to Choose

Plyometric training is practiced by many athletes to improve explosive power. A recent study explored the best surface and volume for maximum effectiveness.

Doug Dupont

Written by Doug Dupont Last updated on October 3, 2013

Explosive power is something many athletes strive for. The ability to go from a standstill to an immediate burst of power in the fastest time possible is an advantage in many activities, but training this ability has always proven to be an elusive feat. It seems some athletes have it and others just don’t. Fortunately, the training method commonly referred to as plyometrics can help improve explosive power.

The term plyometrics refers to explosive exercises like drop-jumps (dropping off of a box and immediately jumping upon landing). These exercises are practiced in a wide variety of sports. However, although plyometrics are widely utilized, they haven’t been studied as much as exercises focused on strength, speed, or endurance. Most powerlifters have at least a general idea of how many times they need to bench press to achieve a bigger lift. Most runners know what surfaces they prefer to run on to get the most out of their mileage. But these aspects of plyometrics elude athletes and coaches, which is why they were tackled in a recent study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning.

Properly used, the term plyometrics refers to any activity involving the stretch-shortening cycle (SSC). The SSC is the term for the ergogenic effect of performing an eccentric contraction prior to a concentric contraction. These are a lot of heavy sports science terms, but it’s simpler than it sounds.

SSC is often described as a reflex that protects joints from harm. Any time a muscle is stretched it stores energy like a spring. If you engage that muscle right after it’s been stretched, it will be stronger than if you didn’t. This is why you wind up when throwing a punch. If the stretch is fast enough, the reflex kicks in as a joint-protecting mechanism. It’s like when you go to the doctor and they hit your knee with the hammer. This causes a rapid stretch of your patellar tendon similar to what an eccentric portion of a squat does, and the resulting reflex is the contraction of the muscles that control that tendon – the quads. This reflex results in a kick.

Now combine these principles into a training methodology and we have what we call plyometrics, or plyos for short. Although plyos apply to any exercise with an SSC, we usually only call the really explosive exercises plyometrics. In the study, the researchers looked at various volumes of drop-jumps and surfaces to see what had the greatest benefit on a variety of tests, like maximal strength, explosiveness, and sprinting.

Unsurprisingly, there were differences for both volume and surface. Out of the three groups that performed drop-jumps, two performed them at moderate volume – a total of 780 jumps over seven weeks – but on either a wood floor or a softer gymnastics mat. The third group was the high-volume group, performing 1,560 jumps total.

All the groups improved their drop-jumps, which makes sense because that’s what they trained. Only the high-volume group got faster at sprinting. The moderate volume group jumping on the wood floor demonstrated the greatest efficiency of all the protocols tested. Jump for jump, the hard surface showed the greatest results.

Ultimately, less is more. In this study, moderate-volume plyos performed on a hard surface were most effective in improving performance in all areas, except for sprinting in untrained individuals.

References:

1. RR Campillo, et. al., “Effects of plyometric training volume and training surface on explosive strength,” Journal of Strength and Conditioning, 27(10), 2013.

Photo courtesy of CrossFit Impulse.

Doug Dupont

About Doug Dupont

Having grown up at the foot of a forest covered mountain in rural Vermont, Doug was active from a very young age. Hiking, running, and climbing were a part of everyday life in the Green Mountains. This culture of exercise led to dabbling in martial arts as a teen, and also getting work in a local powerlifting focused gym. Doug continued to pursue knowledge and training in exercise, becoming a certified personal trainer while still a teenager. Once in college he began his hand at the business side of fitness, taking a management position at a large local gym. During that time he became a founding member of the UVM Brazilian Jiu Jitsu club, and was the first among their competition team. After only a few months he was assisting in coaching, and ran conditioning program for the club.

Out of college Doug set up his own training center. He grew his list of clientele including several professional MMA athletes, eventually going so far as to corner a world title fight. He has continued ­­­to develop his business into today.

View All Articles

Recommended Articles

medballslam
Power Up Your Training Inside and Outside the Gym
plyometrics
Ballistic Strength: Adding Velocity to Muscle
bwboxjump
Old-School Jump Training for Olympic Lifters
screenshot2015-04-24at121016pm
What Are Plyometrics? How the Pros Use Plyos

Primary Sidebar

Latest Articles

86-Year-Old Powerlifter Brian Winslow (60KG) Sets Deadlift Record of 77.5-Kilograms (170.8-Pounds)

Rauno Heinla Withdraws From 2023 Europe’s Strongest Man

Joe Mackey Crushes a 449-Kilogram (990-Pound) Hack Squat For 5 Reps

Lee Haney Explains Why He Retired Undefeated After 8 Olympia Titles: “There’s Nowhere Else To Go But Down”

Latest Reviews

ISSA Personal Trainer Certification Review

ISSA Personal Trainer Certification Review

Best Whey Proteins for Packing on Muscle, Shredding Down, Meal Replacement, and More

Best Pre-Workouts for Building Muscle, Running, Taste, and More

Best Home Gym Machines

Best Home Gym Machines

woman lifting barbell

Be the smartest person in your gym

The Breaking Muscle newsletter is everything you need to know about strength in a 3 minute read.

I WANT IN!

Breaking Muscle is the fitness world’s preeminent destination for timely, high-quality information on exercise, fitness, health, and nutrition. Our audience encompasses the entire spectrum of the fitness community: consumers, aficionados, fitness professionals, and business owners. We seek to inform, educate and advocate for this community.

  • Reviews
  • Healthy Eating
  • Workouts
  • Fitness
  • News

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS Feed

© 2023 · Breaking Muscle · Terms of Use · Privacy Policy · Affiliate Disclaimer · Accessibility · About