Plyometrics

My weight loss was crazy and my determination just kept me going. I was skinny fat due to my training, it was mainly plyometrics and HIIT. After meeting my current boyfriend, KJ, he helped me overcome my fear of going into the gym by encouraging me, but my over motivation caused me to overtraining, which caused some injuries on the way. I learned the hard way at first and slowly did my own research on how to do things.

The rest of the week is split into 2 x leg sessions that would include a warm up with some acrobatics and flow movements followed by plyometrics and lower body strength, at the moment focusing on knee strengthening and overall health of the lower body. I am following a program from ATG Check them out!

One worth mentioning is a studio in New York called The Salt Drop – it’s an incredibly fun, beat driven workout that incorporates yoga, pilates, plyometrics, and an intense cardio burn.

Depending on the clients goals, I cover a wide range of workouts. I do everything from weight/strength training, High Intensity Interval Training, Circuit Training Stability/Core, plyometrics, cardio, etc.

The program that has given me good results is Plyometrics, working the glutes medium, shoulder rehab, neck injury prevention and not overtraining!

We do a lot of plyometric and body weight exercises i.e. dips, pushups, v-ups etc… Also, the act of doing our jobs/training our jobs is a workout within itself.

To combat that I’ve had to tried to add in more ‘work to fatigue’ body weight strength work and adding explosive plyometric to my body weight workouts (plyo pushups, broad jumps, box jumps).

Most of my favorite exercises are based in the plyometric group. I love jumping around and doing exercises that help improve athleticism. I was hesitant for years to strength train being afraid of what I’d look like on a skateboard. I later realized my misconception of strength training vs bodybuilding.

I had a great plyometrics workout the other day at the park. You get creative when you can’t go to the gym, but it has been fun and a good switch up. Stretching and Yoga has come more into play at home as well.

However, every day started with a conditioning circuit to warm up our bodies. This included plyometrics and bodyweight exercises. We would spend 20 minutes of a running circuit that included a mix of leg exercises, core, and upper body. After the 20-minute cardio warmup, we would stretch for about 10 minutes, starting with our necks and working our way down to our ankles.

I did a lot of resisted sprinting with multiple different resistances (a process I describe in this article), as well as a lot of short distance sprints (mostly 10-20yds), and I even threw in some one legged hopping and few other low/medium intensity plyometric drills to help improve my reactivity and decrease my ground contact times.

I train five to six days a week. At times I will train using HIIT principles (High Intensity interval training) coupled with plyometric training. Short bursts of sprints are a must for me whether on the track, skipping or through functional training. A stopwatch or timer is my best friend and I love the feeling of pushing my heart rate to its max point.

Friday: Full body HIIT/Plyos

All sports require speed, precision, and focus. To reach another level you have to eat right, get in the gym and lift. Like I mentioned earlier I work out at LVAC Las Vegas and there are a lot of pros in there. I watched how these bodybuilders would eat and train, combined that with some track & field sprint workouts, a few plyometric drills and I was golden for the stage.

On the other hand, when it comes to fat loss, adding in more cardio, HIIT, and workouts like plyometrics, metabolic, tabata, etc. will help you sharpen up and burn more calories.

Then I go for main lifts like deadlift or squat, paired with either shoulder presses or pull-ups. To this point, I keep my reps low, anywhere from 3-5 on the plyos and from 4-6 on the main lifts. Cleans and snatches anywhere from 1-3 reps- not really interested in complexes here.

My philosophy is more intuitive in nature where I constantly seek new limits and experiment with different techniques. I go to the gym five to six days a week, and I alternate between upper body pull (my favourite!), lower body anterior chain (quads, glutes), upper body push, and lower body posterior chain. I throw in core and a ton of HIIT and plyometrics every day.

Other times I warm up on the stepmill, crush legs from every angle and finish with plyometrics and stepmill sprints.

In terms of specific fitness and weight training, I’ve been doing this for around 17 years – I started properly working out at 14 years old, this was to help me improve my Ice Hockey. I did things such as plyometrics, agility work, and lightweights.

For the upper body I do bodyweight exercises and for the lower body I do weighted exercises or plyometrics.

Basketball and kickboxing give me all the leg and cardio training I need right now. They are both explosive, plyometric activities and help with agility, flexibility and speed.

I love plyometric training, for the lower and upper body, and in recent times I have been practicing animal flow, I’m still a novice but improving my skill set all the time.

What I do and teach is mainly endurance training but there are some plyometric and power training so it gives me moderate cardio work.

I train five to six times a week for 60 to 120 minutes. While the weekends are mostly dedicated toward skill development and plyometrics, the weekdays are more for powerlifting and traditional strength training.

I normally train two body parts a day. I run sprints 5 days a week with plyometrics in the mix.