Why Plyometrics are Awesome

Jennifer DiDonato: Hello and welcome to MadeFitTV. I am your host Jennifer DiDonato and this is episode number 37. MadeFitTV is everyone's source for health and fitness information and entertainment, so my friend, you came to the right place. Now today we are going to do an episode on plyometrics. It is why plyometrics are so awesome? That's basically the best title I can come up with because they are very awesome to incorporate into your health and fitness program and probably a movement that you don't know too much about sets when I tell you first. Before we get started, I just want to say hello to Dennis. He is from StartUpsLive.TV, check it out. He interviewed myself and Chris a few days age, so it is up under the February 20th episode, but he was so great to have us, so thanks so much Dennis, StartUpsLive.TV is great. So continuing on, we are doing plyometrics. But first, what are plyometrics? I know you have heard of -- may be heard of it, seen people jumping around, you are like, what are they doing? Well, plyometrics comes from a Greek word which basically means to increase and plyometrics is just to increase your muscle capabilities in the contracting. But first of all, I just want to run to really quick as to how your muscles contract. There are two different types of contractions. One, there is the concentric. So let's just say, I am going to demonstrate the bicep curl. Concentric means you are contracting the muscle, you are flexing the muscle and eccentric is the lengthening of the muscle but it's also still contracted as I am dropping it. It would be like you are holding a dumbbell and you are resisting on the downward but it's eccentric and it's so stretching and elongating the muscle. So what plyometrics does is that it forces a rapid contraction on the muscle and the concentric and then also on the eccentric on building that contraction when the muscles lengthen, it's pretty close. So we're going to start off first. I am going to show you first of all, just a basic jump squat. But before I do this, I just want to make sure that anyone who does this want to make sure that you are still a conditioned person that works out, you don't necessarily have to be an athlete but at least your squatting may be half your body weight or being able to squat, do good form, because I don't want you injuring yourself. So I want to show you a squat jump. I am just going to come off to the side. Chris, you can just kind of zoom out a little bit. I am going to show you a squat jump. Feet are going to be shoulder-width or hip-width apart, okay, and you are just coming down jumping and control on the downward, just like that. So see how I am controlling on the deceleration because now my muscles are lengthening. When I am jumping, my hamstring is contracting and when I am coming down, my hamstring is lengthening and then the same thing when I am jumping up or when I jumping up, my quad is extended but then when I come down, it's contracting okay. So another variation we can do, I am just going to swing around over here, you can do it elevated, this is awesome. You see those people, those boxes at the gym or even when you go to the park and you see people jumping on benches, perfect, elevated. You want to work on your vertically because my fiancée is working on this and I swear he is hit, what is it, you are playing basket ball and you aren't able to just rim. After a couple of weeks of doing the plyometrics, he is like clearing a rim, it's awesome guys, it's really good for your game. So this is going to be elevated squat jumps, you're just going to jump up, feet nice and square, come back down. Now the key is you want to make sure that your heels are hitting the box and you're also clearing the box too because I don't you guys wiping out, it's very dangerous okay. Keep the chest up, toes forward control. I don't want you just coming down and coming back down, I want you to control nice and leg power, okay. Like a Ninja, yeah, you want to be nice and light so no one sees you, no one suspects you. Next thing to do also with the backs or something like this is doing a lateral elevator jumps, going side to side, boom, nice and light, keep the heels down, push through the heels, jump as high as you can. Now I am at ceiling so and I am not going to go as high, but just make sure that you have enough clearance there to keep the chest up, work in the hand knees, work in the gluteus, and work in the quads. You want to make sure that, to begin with, you already have some sort of strength in your legs with good form and you also have some good strength in your quad, quad stability, quad functioning. You want to make sure you're not falling forward because that is going to injure you, also this is great for injury prevention too because it's requiring that quick reaction contracting so you want to control on the way down. Now the other movements we have also -- I am so wended, this is good for your cardio too. But I want you also do the elevated jump lunges. Bring it on back out Chris, I am just going to show you this way, face forward, jump lunges, you're going to switch as high as you can, bring that foot completely off, keep all the weight in the front, nice 90 degrees, 90 degrees. Yeah that was in the play ground episode, yeah, episode number 6 on MadeFitTV, I was doing on the side. Those are some movements you can do with your legs, just remember those key factors, making sure you're pushing through your heels, making sure you are keeping your chest up and you are clearing and hitting your foot on the entire thing. Now as a little kind of finale, what you can also do incorporating plyometrics is with push ups. Yes, I said push ups. I am sure you're seeing those guys doing clap push ups, hey I am awesome but you what, here is the start, I want you to do rooms and moving this the other way, it'll be good, okay, move this back, move to making some room for these push ups here guys. We want to do push ups but with a little jump. So I am going to have you first kneel on the ground and try it out, I want you to bring your palms just under your chest, I want you to come down, I want you to keep your back straight, your abs and tight, contract them like in a cording, like you're squeezing them in, okay, pressing that naval against your spine, down and up. Look at that push up like a half potato, half floor, half floor, half mike. See how my back is staying straight. I don't want you to lean back like this when you are coming up, I just want you to be boom, up, up. So then when you work your way up, you can do with the jumping push ups. Now I can't get much high because I did chest yesterday and a little windy and a little tired, little fatigue in the chest area but that is an awesome movement to do, just do it when you are kneeling. Just kneel on the ground, make sure that you are not out really wide. Don't think to jump very high to begin with, you want to make sure just getting a little bit of height off the ground but absorb through the heels of your hands, absorb control as the deceleration coming down and your muscles are in an extended state, you want to slow it down and boom, fire right back up. And incorporating this in your program if you are slightly conditioned already, I don't want any beginners starting thyself because you might get injured because this is actually a great thing to incorporate. Plyometrics is great for injury prevention so you want you get that point where this is going to be working in your favor versus causing injuries for you, so I just want you to keep that in mind. But incorporate this in your program guys because it's going to help you in building up those muscles than just lifting a weight or just running can do, I mean really changing things up and switching things up with the muscles is great in getting that overall functioning, overall strength and conditioning, and also overall tone, but just remember, don't do plyometrics with the same movement with same muscle groups two days in a row, at least take one day off because you will be pretty sore. I've been training for years and I am always very sore the next day after plyometrics, so that's just the tip for you guys so. I really hope you guys enjoyed this. Email me to Ask Jenny on MadeFitTv.com. Subscribe to these videos through MadeFitTV.com. Just plug in your email address and then it's going to send right out to you because everyone Wednesday morning is when we are posting these episodes. You can also watch us live on Ustream on typically every Saturday afternoon around noon 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Then I can actually chat with you after like I am doing with the folks right now, I'll be chatting with them after answering some questions. So also find us on iTunes MadeFitTV. Pop it up right on your iPod, it's really easy and you are really going to enjoy it and also on Viddler, Youtube, find me on Twitter, follow me at JennyDidonato, Facebook, Jennifer DiDonato. I am getting a lot of friends on Facebook and I really appreciate all of Twitter people. So find me, follow me, email me, jenny@madefittv.com. Tell me how the plyometric, is it okay? I'll see you all guys next time.