On 10/28/99, Nicholas Farmer<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
<<I'm currently undertaking my physio honours project. I've decided to
investigate the intensity of several chest/shoulder plyometric exercises.
This is due to inconsistent intensity ratings being given to plyometric
exercises by various authors. I hope to clarify the difficulty of each
exercise and to produce a clear progression guide for clinical use.>>
***It is important to note that many articles and books on plyometrics are
not discussing or prescribing so-called 'plyometric drills' as they were
first conceived of by my colleague, Dr Verkhoshansky, the Russian pioneer of
modern "shock method" (the term that he prefers to use for "plyometrics").
In many cases, drills do not result in the very explosive and reflexive
concentric rebound phase that Dr Verkhoshansky stressed in true plyometric
training, as characterised by a very short coupling time between the
eccentric deceleration phase and the subsequent concentric phase. Instead
they often involve more eccentric amortisation and prestretch of the muscle
complex than elastic recoil, potentiation of neuromuscular processes or
powerful recruitment of the phasic stretch reflex.
Thus, any observed training effect often is not due primarily to
"plyometrics", but to eccentric training or muscle prestretch processes
(which operate even for much longer coupling times).
Your mention of different intensity ratings possibly is based upon Bompa's
classification scheme from his book " Power Training for Sport", which offers
as good a scale of intensities as any other sources.
However, the field of "plyometrics" (or "powermetrics", the less confusing
alternative term used in our book) actually comprises a whole group of
different types of rebound training methods that fall under the general
umbrella of impact plyos, non-impact plyos, supplementary plyos, preparatory
plyos, pseudo-plyos and so forth (Siff & Verkhoshansky "Supertraining" 1999
Ch 5).
<<I'm writing to find out if anybody on the mailbase uses upper limb
plyometrics clinically, and if so, which ones when, why and how effective
they have been.>>
***Dr Verkhoshansky and colleagues in Russia have used and researched
"plyometrics" both for training and rehabilitation of athletes for several
decades now. An important aspect of their research is that optimal progress
with powermetrics is obtained if it is used in specific complexes, together
with other exercises, a finding that Western researchers is also beginning to
confirm more recently. Its sole, premature or inappropriate use as a
rehabilitation or training method may easily lead to overload injuries.
Interestingly, some of the specific activation techniques which powerfully
recruit the myotatic stretch reflex in PNF provide regimes of rehabilitation
that are closely related to some plyometric exercises, so it has long been an
omission not to recognise that physical therapists have been using some
so-called "plyometric" methods in rehab.
A very important issue that most texts do not emphasise is the fact that
there is a major difference between plyometric ACTIONS and plyometric
TRAINING. The former happen all the time, quite naturally, during actions
such as running, jumping, throwing, jumping and hitting, so that the
prescription of special plyometric exercises may be quite redundant in many
cases. Plyometric training, on the other hand, is the formal prescription of
a collection of plyometric actions selected from the world of natural
movement.
If you wish to examine a great deal of Dr Verkhoshansky's original research
and applications behind plyometrics, together with a discussion of popular
views on the topic and its integration into periodised schemes of training,
there is a considerable amount of material on this in "Supertraining" (ISBN
1-874856-65-6).
One of the websites that offers the table of contents of this book is:
http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/8682/siff.htm
Dr Mel C Siff
Denver, USA
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