08/02/2024
A case for using plyometrics with distance runners.
We use portions of the rudiment hop series, but slow it way down and use wickets for spacing. Instead of implementing it prior to running when muscles are fresh, the runners complete this series after their hardest runs of the week, when muscle fatigue will highlight existing instabilities.
As Altis suggests, this series serves as a means to support the stretch-shortening cycle and healthy tendons.
“During activities that require energy production, such as jumping, tendon springs allow for an increase in muscle work output and better performance. During energy dissipation, such as in landing, power attenuation by tendons may protect muscle from damage.” (Roberts 2016)
As the latter portion of that statement suggests, plyometrics can serve as an excellent movement screen. A lot of times, distance runners (even some of the best ones!) are inherently unstable in certain positions. By observing how runners are both leaving and making contact with the ground, stability deficiencies or asymmetries between limbs become extremely apparent.
Runners that are unstable in certain positions often are more prone to muscular or skeletal injury due to a lack of proper muscle recruitment.
In this way, runners are both strengthening their ability to produce and absorb force, as well as problem solving through neuromuscular learning in order to remain stable in potentially unstable scenarios, leading to an overall improvement in tendon, muscle, and joint health.
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#1500 #1600 #3200
