Plyometrics

I have here a plan for a plyometric training program taken from a 2003 article by Spurrs, Murphy, and Watsford about the benefits of plyometric training to trained endurance runners. The take home point of the article is that plyometric training makes previously very well trained endurance runners more "economic" in their running (running faster at a lower energy cost). The article goes on to explain the increases by showing improvements in musculotendon stiffness, increased force of isometric contractions (stronger), and some other stuff...

In a 6 week program, you don't actually "build" muscle because of any type of training (cardio, weights, plyometrics, etc...). You learn to use the muscle you have - recruiting greater numbers of motor units per contraction (motor unit = muscle + nerves that attach to it).

In a past life (high school, as sad as that sounds) I was very strong, much stronger than I am now. While there is some deterioration of muscle over time if it isn't used, it's still a very resource intensive thing to build up, so your body is reluctant to get rid of all of it... I plan on starting this 6 week program to see if I can't quite literally shock my muscles into waking up in 6 weeks and see if I can't produce the same change in running, biking, hiking, and whatever else economy.

I should, I think, actually have a much greater improvement than exhibited by the trained distance runners in the study because of my much lower starting point due to a lack of any recent training... We'll see. I'll let you know when I start the program and when I end it, and any changes I make to it between now and then.

Week/Session	Jump Squat	Jump Scissor Kick	Double Leg Bound	Alternate Leg Bound	Single Leg Forward Bound	Depth Jump	Double Leg Hurdle Jump	Single Leg Hurdle Jump	Total Contacts
1/1	2x10	2x10	2x10						60
1/2	2x10	2x10	2x10						60
2/1	2x10	2x10	2x10	2x10					100
2/2	2x10	2x10	2x10	2x10					100
3/1		2x12	2x12	2x12	2x10				136
3/2		2x12	2x12	2x12	2x10				136
4/1			3x10	3x10	2x12	2x6			150
4/2			3x10	3x10	2x12	2x6			150
4/3			3x10	2x15	3x10	2x8			156
5/1				2x15		2x8	2x10	2x10	136
5/2				3x15		2x10	2x10	2x10	170
5/3				3x15		2x10	2x10	2x10	170
6/1					3x10	3x10	3x10	3x10	180
6/2					2x15	3x10	3x10	3x10	180
6/3					2x15	3x10	3x10	3x10	180
	RW Spurrs, AJ Murphy, ML Watsford
	The Effect of Plyometric Training on Distance Running
	2003