Plyometric leg exercises help build leg muscles, burn calories and improve your power output. Why not add them to your home workout routine? These exercises require no equipment to do.
What are Plyometrics?
Plyometrics are exercises which provide the stretch-shortening cycle (SCC), where muscles stretch and then contract in the quickest time possible. The purpose of it is to increase your speed and power as a result of producing a quicker and more powerful contraction through this training. It is also known as jump training or plyos.
Plyometric Leg Exercises
I did this workout during the week, where I had to be somewhere and by the time got back, I knew that I’d be too tired to train. If you feel you don’t have a lot of time and want to get a quick and intense leg workout in, try this one out.
Duration: 10 minutes
Sets: 10
Reps: 30 seconds per exercise
Rest: 30-60 seconds per exercise
This is a HIIT workout where you alternate between each exercise, you will do 5 sets of each exercise in essence.
The initial idea was to get in as many reps as possible, but since I was chasing time, I stopped after 10 minutes. This is when my legs were not putting in maximum effort anymore, this is where you should stop. When the set is not nearly as good as the one before and you’re stopping mid-set, end the session.
The Benefits of Plyometrics
Plyometrics have benefits that are more than building agility, speed and power, which athletes use them for. These are the benefits of doing plyometrics:
- Strengthen muscles and tendons: the muscles that undergo the stretching and immediate contraction in the movement, become stronger and are able to produce force more quickly.
- Burn more calories: your body burns more calories during plyometric training, but also will burn calories at rest. This is because it improves your resting metabolic rate. The more calories you burn, the higher chance of losing fat.
- No equipment required: these exercises can be done anywhere, with their intensity, they might be the exercises you need to develop your legs and help you reach your fitness goals.
The challenge comes with plyos is it involves high-impact exercises. There is high risk of injury, because of the explosiveness that comes with the exercises.
Your joints in general don’t enjoy the landing that comes with exercises that involve your foot being off the ground and then landing on hard surfaces. This comes with running and jumping too.
Try this workout and watch how pumped your legs get. See how many sets you can go for and rest enough to maximise your effort on each set.
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