This discussion from the Supertraining list may also be of interest here:
<Can anyone give any hard evidence through research etc that the "Shuttle
MVP" is a good way in which one should rehab and strength train in terms of
plyometrics etc? I would like to see some research involving this machine.
Is training horizontal to the ground beneficial to keep pressure off the
joints etc? ....>
*** Rehabilitation is a progressive process determined by the patient's
response to loading of gradually increasing demands, so that "plyometric"
type activity may occupy a later stage of this process. No machine is
necessary at all for imposing "plyometric" loading, since many daily
activities like jogging, hopping, skipping, jumping and running really are
what we may call "plyometric actions". "Plyometric drills" are simply a
selection of normal daily or sporting rebound actions chosen for
supplementary sports training, while "plyometric training" is nothing more
than a collection of these drills. If one is to be totally frank, many of
the intricate and entertaining "plyometric drills" advocated in popular books
or on training seminars are a waste of time and largely redundant in a
well-constructed conditioning program, especially if one is using impulsive
lifts like the jerk and push press.
In fact, if you wish to make your own "plyometric machine", simply construct
(or buy) a kiddies' swing, place it close to a wall and swing from a suitable
height towards the wall and propel yourself with your feet off it. You can
also stand on the ground and perform plyometric upper body drills against the
falling swing or a punch bag swung from different heights (I often used to do
that for martial arts training).
Lying supine on a plyometric sled (the first one that I saw was specially
designed pneumatically-controlled) one being used at the Wingate Institute in
Israel in the late 1970s) does NOT keep pressure off the joints. If you are
using inertia, acceleration, elastic bands or any other means of forcing the
joints to experience any form of landing and rebound activity, then the
joints are going to be experiencing force or pressure. ALL plyometric
loading is meant to impose shock loading on the joints and muscle complexes
of the body, so if you wish to protect any patients from mechanical shock,
then you must keep them away from any form of "plyometrics."
If you wish to use "plyometrics" during later stages of rehab, then you don't
need to waste money on any machines or sleds, since you can devise your own
as I described above - or even more simply, use small hops, push presses or
push jerks, gentle skipping, light jogging, jumping in water and so forth as
the primary stage of this process, combined with normal progressive loading
with weights. Then, just apply the good old familiar principle of gradual
progressive overload with any of these methods. However, don't overdo the
intensity or volume, since that can hinder or reverse the healing process.
Guidelines on many myths and facts about "plyometrics" appear in Ch 5 of
"Supertraining", as well as methods for safely using "plyometrics"
(pp272-275).
Note that it is not even necessary to formally use any "plyometrics" for
rehabilitation, provided that the patient trains first with no added loads in
free space, then with weights, and finally progressively eases into any
actions that involve rebounding (such as jogging, running and hopping).
Total avoidance of shock loading in the long term, however, is not sensible,
because research has shown that this sort of activity can enhance joint and
skeletal strength (I wrote a letter about this some months ago). It is
equally unintelligent to impose large volumes of heavy standing or lying,
lower or upper body, plyometrics on a rehabilitating patient. Whatever you
do, don't fall for any marketing hype associated with the use of special
rehabilitation devices. In the vast majority of cases, rehabilitation
devices show no significant advantage over progressive resistance training
and graded normal sporting activities in multi-dimensional space.
Dr Mel C Siff
Denver, USA
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Supertraining/
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