Plyometrics & Sprinting

[AussieRob]

Anyone use plyometrics with the aim of improving your sprint?

Anyone read Chu's Jumping into Plyometrics?

I am doing weights and was thinking about adding some jumping over the winter. The idea is to do something else for a bit and to, hopefully, pick up a mile or two an hour in the sprint come spring.

I am aware of the arguments for and against doing weights and other off the bike activities.

Thanks

Rob

 

[bikeguy]

The idea behind plyos is to enhance ability to develop high peak force, and enhance rate of force development. As far as I know no other kind of training is as good for this as plyos, undoubtedly because extremely high peak forces are involved in plyos. The peak forces during for example a depth jump from a height of 6 feet far exceed those involved in cleaning or snatching a 180 kg barbell. There is some evidence that plyos improve longer, less forceful movements because doing plyos will move the golgi tendon organ threshold farther back. The stretch reflex (unconscious) involved during plyos shuts down the golgi tendon organ temporarily, but if you do this repeatedly it undoubtedly moves it back for consciously performed movements. This threshold stops you from producing more force then what would damage a muscle, however it's set too conservatively.

I'm not currently training for sprints of any kind, but when I was a track athlete I did a lot of plyos (bounding onto boxes of various heights, one legged bounds and depth jumps from 4 to 6 feet + depth jump with an immediate jump out) Unfortunately my lack of flexibilty never allowed me to run good times but I could (and still can) run up a short set of stairs at a crazy speed. I also have great accelerative ability on the bike, and can climb almost any gradient of hill.

A combination of weight training and plyos is excellent for developing both sprint running and sprint cycling.