Free Workout Guides

(Vertical Leap 31+ inches, Squat at least 1.5 times bodyweight, more than 1 year training experience)

Weeks 1-3 & 5-7 (Week 4 & Week 8 - Cut Volume In Half And No Friday Workout, Testing Vertical Leap, Squat And Bench Press On Friday Of That Week):

Monday:

Ankle Jumps - 5 Sets x 3 Reps (3 Sets x 3 Reps Week 4,
High Depth Jumps - 4 Sets x 5 Reps
Drop Jumps - 4 Sets x 5 Reps
40 Yard Sprints - 3 Sets
Weights:
Explosive Box Squats - 8 Sets x 2 Reps @ 50% (Rest 1 minute between sets)
Power Cleans - 6 Sets x 2 Reps (Rest 2-3 minutes between sets)
Bench Press - 6 Sets x 3-5 Reps
Chin-Ups - 4 Sets x 10-12 Reps
Click Here For A Printable Log Of Monday.
Click Here For A Printable Log Of Monday Weeks 4,8.

Wednesday:

Incline Bench Press - 4 Sets x 10-12 Reps
Barbell Curls - 4 Sets x 8-10 Reps
Skull Crushers - 4 Sets x 8-10 Reps
Barbell Shrugs - 4 Sets x 8-10 Reps
Lateral Raises - 3 Sets x 8-10 Reps
Click Here For A Printable Log Of Wednesday.

Friday:

3-Steps + Jump Bilateral Jumps - 5 Sets x 3 Reps (3 Sets x 3 Reps Week 4,
High Depth Jumps - 4 Sets x 5 Reps
Drop Jumps - 4 Sets x 5 Reps
40 Yard Sprints - 3 Sets
Weights:
Explosive Box Squats - 8 Sets x 2 Reps @ 50% (Rest 1 minute between sets)
Power Cleans - 6 Sets x 2 Reps (Rest 2-3 minutes between sets)
Bench Press - 3 Sets x Max Reps @ 65-80% of 1RM
Chin-Ups - 3 Sets x 10-12 Reps

This 8-week cycle would be used right before the season begins in order to maximize athletic ability when you need it. You would need to take a week off after this (preferably 1 week before the season) in order to maximize your gains.

Benefits:
What are the benefits of plyometrics?

To clear a myth up, plyometrics are not made for improving conditioning or endurance. They are specifically designed for improving reactive strength, explosive strength, and the like. Plyometrics offer a wide array of benefits ranging from improved vertical leap, improved sprinting speed, better explosiveness, improved ability to absorb force, and better agility.

Plyometrics are meant to be performed very fast and with long rest periods for those reasons. Too often you see athletes trying to do 5 sets of 10 depth jumps with 1 minute of rest in between. In the long run, you would not be able to benefit at all from plyometrics if you trained this way.

Who Benefits The Most? Who would get the most benefit out of plyometrics? Any specific athletes?

Generally speaking, basketball and football players usually get the most out of plyometrics due to the nature of both sports. Basketball itself is inherently plyometric because of all the jumping and short sprints involved during a game.

In football, plyometrics would be most valuable to wide receivers, running backs, tight ends, safeties, and similar positions because the most running and jumping is done from those positions. Track and field athletes also benefit greatly from plyometrics because it allows them to take all their strength that they build in the weight room and improve certain abilities that sprinting cannot do on its own.

Surprisingly, there is one group of athletes that most people think cannot benefit from plyometrics. However, if used correctly they can see incredible gains. These athletes are also known as bodybuilders. There is one other benefit of plyometrics that usually only works for bodybuilders - muscle growth.

Bodybuilders are so used to slow training in the weight room that after a while the body becomes used to it and shock methods must be employed to stimulate further growth. One of these shock methods that bodybuilders almost never use is plyometrics.

Plyometrics stimulate the fast-twitch muscle fibers, which as we all know have the greatest potential for muscle growth. Dr. J. Simoneau and Dr. C. Bouchard said that you can control 40% of your muscle fiber type which means that you can convert a lot of your slow-twitch muscle fibers into fast-twitch fibers with proper training.