Plyometric Exercises For The Lower Body

Plyometric exercises are not intended to create muscle mass or even to increase strength. They will however, subsequently, benefit your cardio endurance, but that is not the reason people train with these exercises either.

If you want to be faster, jump higher, or react faster what you need is not more muscle mass, but faster ability to contract your entire muscle. This is a hard thing to master, and is becoming more and more popular among professionals everywhere and among the young professional want-to-bes.

When we exercise our muscle by lifting weights or by running or any traditional means of exercise we are tearing the muscle to build more muscle mass. That is great if you want to look strong, and be strong.

But for performance you need to incorporate these plyometric routines. These will train your muscle to react and contract fast.

Thus giving you explosive starts, crazy speed and better endurance as well. If your only concern is building muscle, lie for those who wish to be body builders, there is no real reason for you to use these.

However, if you wish to perform better in your sports than these are a must, and will help you gain an edge over your opponents. The first exercise to start is the tuck jump.

That is when you jump off the ground as high as you can into the air, and then you lift your knees as high and as close to your jest as you can. The smaller the ball you can tuck in the better of a workout it will be.

Once you hit the ground do not pause and wait for your breath, but jump as soon after landing back on the ground as possible. Remember the purpose of these exercises is to get your muscles to react faster.

So you the quicker your response and ability to jump back into the air, the faster your reaction will become. Reaction is exactly what we are working toward.

The next work out to perform is the lateral box push offs. If you do not already own a box you may have to go buy one.

It should be around knee height, what you do is place one of your feet on the box. Then using both legs, jump off the ground to land on the other side of the box with your opposite leg then resting on the box.

This is a good one to get you to be able to jump higher and farther. This is a good exercise for basketball players who are trying to learn how to dunk.

Destry Masterson is an author who has written hundreds of articles. She publishes articles for http://www.nordictrack.com and recommends them for treadmills. Contact Info: Destry Masterson - MyOnlineArticleWriting@gmail.com - Twitter: @DestryMasterson