Prime Time Activation.

When you think plyometric training, I’m sure a few things pop up in your head… box jumps, that one vertical jump where you try and hit the flares at the top, or maybe jump some med ball throws. Whatever it is, you should be doing some exercises that fall into this camp. Mainly because they help keep your tendons healthy and stiff, maintain and increase reaction time, along with giving you overall power generation, and not to mention bone density from repetitive impact. Honestly, to simplify plyometrics, they have a key role in two domains: Athletic Performance and Injury-Prevention.

All of those benefits should be more than enough reason for you to begin doing some plyo-work, if you don’t already. The best part is that in general plyometric training is simple and effective. You can begin with some quick and powerful step-ups, some low single-leg pogos, and med ball slams. Then from there, progress the height, how/where you throw the ball, or implement the barbell or full jumps.

Anyway, I’ll touch on a full plyometric training system in another article. I’m really wanting to look at structure… specifically timing for this type of training and the one benefit I didn’t previously list that comes with it.

Alright, let’s get into structure. The National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) recommends that your power, speed, and plyometric work should come first in your session, followed by your primary compound lifts (squat, bench, deadlift, etc.), and obviously finishing with your accessory work.
The reasoning for this comes down to how your Stretch-Shortening Cycle (SSC) works. Basically it’s your muscle-tendon unit’s ability to store and release elastic energy fast, which is the whole point of plyos. That cycle needs max velocity to actually work. Drop your explosive output by even 5-10% from fatigue and the training stimulus you’re trying to work on falls short. Meaning that if you’re gassed from squats and then try to hit some box jumps, you’re not really doing plyometric training… it’s more of a cardio-based jumping exercise now.

To tie in why timing matters so much, we can look at the Central Nervous System (CNS) as well. Heavy lifting uses your phosphocreatine (PCr) stores and if you’ve ever put a heavy bar on your back and squatted it a few times, you’ll know that this creates a ton on CNS fatigue. Making it that much harder for your body to rapidly fire those high-threshold, fast-twitch fibers that plyo-work relies on.
So we avoid this by doing the plyometrics first, and your CNS is more or less decently fresh… allowing you full neural drive, stiffer and more reactive tendons, and the velocity needed to benefit from both training modalities.

The benefit is that a little low-to-moderate volume of plyo-work early in your session doesn’t just avoid burning you out, it actually primes you. Essentially you’re waking up your nervous system and stimulating muscle spindles without pre-fatiguing the muscles themselves.
Do your dynamic warm-up and then add a few explosive sets before you get into the big stuff.

Quick side note: There are training methods that call for pairing your big compound exercise with a plyometric exercise. This has been shown to be effective for some… however, still include a solid dynamic warm-up.

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