Plyometrics for Runners: What They Are and How to Use Them
By Dave Chanter
Plyometrics is a term that can make a relatively simple form of training sound more complicated than it needs to be.
Quite simply, we are talking about jumps, hops, skips and bounds. And I am reminded of a lyric from a song: “Remember the days in the old schoolyard, we used to play a lot.”
For those of us of a certain age, that play might have included hopscotch, skipping rope and plenty of jumping around. Sound familiar?
Yet put the word plyometrics in front of those movements and suddenly they can acquire an aura of complexity. Athletes and coaches sometimes misunderstand what plyometric training is, how it should be used and, importantly, how much of it is appropriate.
For runners, plyometrics can provide a useful way of developing some of the qualities involved in running. But, like any form of training, the key is not simply doing more. It is choosing appropriate exercises, progressing them sensibly and performing them well.
What Are Plyometrics?
To trace the origins of the term plyometrics, we need to go back to the early 1970s.
The term is generally credited to Fred Wilt, an icon of athletics who had also coached Buddy Edelen, the first man to run a marathon in under 2 hours 15 minutes.
Wilt had observed the training methods being developed in Eastern Europe, particularly the depth-jumping work pioneered by Soviet coach and sports scientist Yuri Verkhoshansky during the late 1960s.
These methods subsequently acquired something of a mystique as a “secret Russian training method”, and Wilt used the term plyometrics to describe what he had seen.
But was the idea itself really new?
You could argue that Emil Zátopek bounding through the forests around Prague in the 1940s was incorporating a form of plyometric training. Arthur Lydiard's famous hill training, with its springs and bounds, also used movements we would now recognise as plyometric.
Over the following decades, plyometrics became increasingly popular. Unfortunately, popularity also brought misuse. Some athletes and coaches introduced too much volume or exercises that were too demanding for the athlete performing them.
As a result, plyometrics developed a reputation in some circles for being a particularly high-risk form of training.
It doesn't have to be.
Good plyometric training is about progression, appropriate loading and quality of movement — not exhausting an athlete with endless repetitions.
How Do Plyometrics Work?
Now for the sciency bit.
Two important elements help explain what happens when we jump, hop and bound.
Firstly, plyometric movements place a strong demand on the neuromuscular system — the communication between the nervous system and the muscles responsible for producing movement.
Secondly, they make use of what is known as the stretch-shortening cycle, or SSC.
The easiest way to understand the principle is to think of an elastic band. Stretch it before releasing it and it can produce considerably more energy than if it were simply slack.
Our muscles and tendons can also store and release elastic energy during movement. In running, this happens repeatedly as the body absorbs force when the foot contacts the ground and then produces force to move forwards again.
Plyometric training uses rapid stretching and shortening actions to challenge this system.
That is one reason why plyometrics can be particularly relevant to runners: running itself involves repeated stretch-shortening cycles with every stride.
Running repeatedly uses the stretch-shortening cycle as the body absorbs and returns energy with each stride.
Plyometrics for Runners
Having established what plyometrics are, how do we integrate them into training?
I use three golden rules:
- Build your progressions.
- Quality over quantity.
- Make it appropriate.
Those principles matter more than simply collecting an ever-growing list of exercises. If you are looking for practical examples, our guide to plyometric exercises for runners explores the individual movements in more detail.
1. Build Your Progressions
When we talk about progression, we need to consider how complex and demanding an exercise is.
Let's start with jumping.
A jump is generally a two-footed activity, giving the athlete greater stability than a single-leg movement. But even within jumping there can be an enormous difference in demand.
Skipping rope, for example, provides a relatively low-level introduction to plyometric movement. It can be incorporated into a warm-up or used as a stand-alone activity, while also introducing the challenge of coordination.
For developing athletes, that coordination can be particularly valuable. Lower-level jumping and skipping can also be useful for older athletes, for whom maintaining strength, coordination and elastic qualities becomes increasingly important.
At the other end of the spectrum are exercises such as depth jumps, which place much greater demands on the muscles, tendons and joints.
That illustrates why progression matters.
Someone new to plyometrics does not need to begin with the most dramatic exercise they have seen another athlete performing. Develop the fundamental movement first, then increase the challenge when appropriate.
Hopping
Hopping introduces a different challenge because it is a single-leg activity.
Rather than alternating between legs, we might hop right-right-right or left-left-left.
Again, there are numerous ways to progress the movement. We can begin with small, controlled hops before progressing towards hopping for distance, height or in different directions.
Changing the nature of the exercise changes its demands, including the amount of force involved and the length of time the foot spends in contact with the ground.
Bounding and Skipping
Bounding and skipping are particularly interesting for runners because they are alternate single-leg activities and therefore have obvious similarities with the running action.
Bounding can, in simple terms, be thought of as an exaggerated running movement with longer ground-contact times.
There are many variations of bounds and skips that can be incorporated into training and progressed according to the athlete's experience and objectives.
The important point is that jumping, hopping, skipping and bounding are not interchangeable simply because they can all be described as plyometrics. Each places different demands on the athlete.
2. Quality Over Quantity
Plyometric training should not become an endurance competition.
The objective is not to fatigue the muscles through large numbers of repetitions. We are looking for a neuromuscular response and effective use of the stretch-shortening cycle.
That means quality matters.
Once technique begins to deteriorate, simply completing more repetitions is unlikely to improve the session.
One way of monitoring plyometric volume is by counting ground contacts — essentially, how many times the feet contact the ground during the exercises.
For example, a session might include three sets of 15 alternate bounds or skips, with a walk-back recovery between sets. An experienced athlete may eventually build towards a larger number of ground contacts across a session, but that number should never become a target that overrides movement quality, training experience or the needs of the individual.
More is not automatically better.
3. Make It Appropriate
The final rule is to make plyometric training appropriate for the athlete.
Different exercises suit different sports and events. Hopping, for example, has an obvious relationship with events such as the triple jump, while bounding and skipping have much closer similarities to running.
The age, development, strength and training experience of the athlete also need to be considered.
So does the environment.
A very hard surface such as concrete may be unnecessarily unforgiving for repeated jumping. At the opposite extreme, a very soft surface such as deep sand changes the nature of the exercise and may not be appropriate when the objective is to develop short, responsive ground contacts.
Grass, a suitable sports surface or gym flooring can all have a place depending on the exercise and the athlete.
The exercise should serve the purpose of the training — rather than the athlete simply performing an exercise because it looks impressive.
Do Runners Need Plyometrics?
No individual training method should be viewed in isolation or treated as essential for every runner.
But plyometric training can be a useful part of a runner's overall strength and conditioning programme when it is introduced progressively and used for a clear reason.
Running is itself a repetitive series of contacts with the ground. The ability to absorb, store and return energy efficiently is therefore highly relevant to the running action.
Plyometric exercises give us another way of challenging those qualities away from normal running.
That does not mean jumping as high as possible, performing huge numbers of repetitions or immediately introducing advanced depth jumps. For many runners, relatively simple jumps, skips and bounds performed well may be entirely sufficient.
Keep It Simple
There is plenty to consider when using plyometrics, whether you are a coach or an athlete.
But far from being the mysterious “secret Russian training” it was once portrayed as, much of what we now call plyometrics resembles something most of us practised instinctively as children: jumping, hopping, skipping and bounding.
The training terminology may have become more sophisticated. The movements themselves haven't.
So if you are going to introduce plyometrics into your training, remember the three principles:
Build your progressions. Keep the quality high and the quantity appropriate. And make sure the exercise has a purpose.
About the Author
Dave Chanter holds an MSc in Exercise Science & Sports Coaching and is an England Athletics Event Group Coach (Endurance), Lydiard Level 3 Coach and BMC Coach. He also holds a Diploma in Sports Therapy.
Dave brings together sports science and practical coaching experience, with a particular focus on endurance running and athlete development.
