In the early 1970's, plyometrics was exposed to the American athletes. Initially utilized by the Soviets to bettertrain their athletes for more power and quickness, American coaches and the rest of the world later realized it's valuable uses. Unfortunately, plyometrics have not always been implemented in the proper manner such as the Russians had first devised. It was cycled through their other training methods to stop it from being used too much but it did give them excellent results.

Shock training is also known as plyometrics exercises. It works by making use of the stretch shortening cycle, which is the active stretch of a muscle that is followed by an immediate shortening. This can have excellent benefits to the lower body for explosive power training.

Before beginning any shock training or plyometric you should already have a good base of strength already developed. You should be able to perform a squat at least one and a half times your body weight. Landing on your feet when doing plyometric can be stressful and having enough strength will assist you to prevent injury. If you want to try doing any plyometrics before you reach the one and a half times body weight squat, keep the jumps from boxes at a very low level. Maybe no higher than your current jump height.

The depth jump and drop jump are two of the more known exercises. The height of the box to utilize during depth jumps should be low enough to allow for a good high jump immediately after stepping to the ground. Jump out away from the box about the same distance as the box is high. For a drop jump you just want to stop where you land. Coming back to the ground with knees bent will take away some of the shock. You can get more information on this at the How To Dunk

Five to Eight reps per set and 3 to 5 sets is about what we suggest. Take a rest up to thirty seconds between reps and up to ten minutes between sets. It would be best to jump onto a surface that is soft such as a grass surface or a rubber pad.