Category Archives: Plyometrics

Apr 16 2012

5 Steps to Your Lean Body–Start Shaping It Today!

Start shaping your lean body now–what are you waiting on? There are no new magic lean body secrets out there! Be consistent with your fat loss and weight loss program and you will get and stay lean and toned—in time!

Here are 5 Lean Body building tips that always work, if you’re willing to work hard:

1. Jump exercises, and other high intensity exercises, burn more fat and shape your body better….period.

If your exercise program is stalling your progress, ramp up the intensity of your workouts. Jumps are good examples that help you burn more fat and lose more weight—sooner.

Mix up your routine a little with some jump training. Jump training has many benefits which include: burning body fat, strengthening bones and increasing power.

Jump training is high intensity training, placing great stress on the bones, joints, and connective tissue. Jump training places you at greater risk of injury than less intense training exercises. It is important to perform the exercises correctly before implementation of full-speed exercises.

Jumping and landing techniques should be mastered to avoid knee and low back injuries. Exercises should be performed on safe surfaces such as rubber mats, sprung floors, grass or sand. Concrete or other similar hard surfaces expose you to injury. And, you should have good core and lower body strength to reduce chances of injury.

A good place to start is with jump rope exercises. There are many variations of jumping rope: two legs, one leg, alternating legs, shuffles, slalom, etc.

You can progress to eventually jumping rope at full speed. Jumping rope is one of the best exercises for burning calories, burning fat, increasing bone density and improving coordination/balance.

Another good jump exercise is jump squats. Learn proper jumping and landing techniques before progressing to full speed execution of this exercise.

2. If you want fat loss, weight loss and a lean and toned body then you MUST eat for fat loss. Everyone needs a meal plan. You need to have some sort of idea of what you are going to eat for the day. If you don’t have a meal plan, you might eat anything at any time!

If you have a plan, you are more likely to follow it or at least eat similar foods. And, record what you eat in a food journal to hold yourself accountable.

3. Burn more fat by working large muscle groups, not by working out longer. Maximize your time in the gym and get the results you want! The quality of your workouts are better than the quantity of your workouts.

Shorten your weight training workouts to 50 minutes (3 days a week) or less and ramp up the intensity. Doing this will give you more fat burn and calorie burn during and after your workout.

Compound strength exercises (with weights or bodyweight) like squats, deadlift, lunges, standing bentover rows, squat-to curl-to press and bench press are great examples. Full-body core exercises like planks and side planks work well also. Spend less time posing on “mirror exercises” like bicep curls, calf raises and tricep extensions.

4. Do short, intense cardio workouts (about 20 minutes, 3 days a week). Sprint Intervals or similar cardio exercises activate and shape the bulkier, shapely fast-twitch muscle fibers. This type of cardio will also burn fat and calories like crazy and give you superior heart health!

5. Walk 30 minutes every day, especially on your non-workout days. Walking helps you to keep an active lifestyle.

Consistently do these 5 things and you WILL have the lean and toned body of your dreams!

Be sure and download my FREE 14-Day Accelerated Fat Loss Program and get started changing your body!

Mark Dilworth, BA, PES
Your Fitness University
My Fitness Hut
Her Fitness Hut
Sports Fitness Hut
Rapid Fat Loss and Six Pack Abs

Mar 13 2012

How to Use Plyometrics for Fat Burn and Body Shaping

Plyometrics, or jump training, will help you burn fat at a faster rate and shape your bulky muscle groups better (butt, hips, thighs especially). You need to include these exercises in your program regularly.

Power, which is improved with plyometric exercises, is often overlooked when women are strength training. Power is defined as the ability to exert maximum force in the shortest amount of time (rate-of-force production). This will help your workouts to be more efficient (get more work done in less time).

Long Jump

There are five purposes for power training (plyometrics):

1. Improve the excitability, sensitivity and reactivity of the neuromuscular system.

2. Improve the rate-of-force production.

MB Rotational Throw

3. Increase motor-unit recruitment.

4. Increase motor-unit firing frequency.

5. Increase motor-unit synchronization.

Power training teaches you how to activate the right muscles (prime movers and synergists) at the right time. Power training also provides you with optimal neuromuscular efficiency.

Plyometric exercises help you to increase leg power and arm power. Traditional barbell and dumbbell strength exercises do not allow you to move at the speeds necessary to improve power. Strength training gives you the muscular and nervous system development needed to develop optimal power.

So how does plyometrics work? Primarily through the use of two components: 1) elasticity of the muscles and 2) the stretch shortening cycle.

Plyometric exercises always follow the same order: a landing phase, an amortization phase and the take off. The landing phase starts when the muscles start an eccentric contraction. The rapid eccentric contraction stretches the elastic component of the muscle and activates the stretch reflex.

Squat jumps

A high level of eccentric strength is needed during the landing phase. Inadequate strength will result in a slow rate of stretch and less activation of the stretch reflex. The amortization phase, the time on the ground, is the most important part of a plyometric exercise.

It represents the time between the landing and the take off and is critical for power development. If the amortization phase is too long, the stretch reflex is lost and there is no plyometric effect. The take off is the concentric contraction that follows the landing. During this phase the stored elastic energy is used to increase jump height and explosive power.

Plyometrics represent high intensity training, placing great stress on the bones, joints, and connective tissue. While plyometrics can improve your speed, power, and performance, they also place you at greater risk of injury than less intense training exercises.

It is important to perform the exercises correctly before implementation of full-speed exercises. Jumping and landing techniques should be mastered. Exercises should also be performed on safe surfaces such as rubber mats, sprung floors, grass or sand. Concrete or other similar hard surfaces expose you to injury.

You should have good core strength and lower body strength to enhance the plyometric effect and reduce chances of injury.

The training exercises should mimic the movements in your sport (mechanical, physiological and metabolic similarity), if you play a sport.

Training progressions should follow this path:

1. Simple to Complex
2. Stable to Unstable
3. Body Weight Exercises to Resistance Exercises
4. Low Loads to High Loads

Signs of over-training include:

1. Prolonged foot contact with the ground
2. Lack of control
3. Decreased vertical height or horizontal distance
4. Longer rest periods are needed

Safety concerns during plyometric training are:

1. Proper footwear
2. Proper training surfaces (hard surfaces should be avoided)
3. Program design and supervision by a fitness professional

There are literally dozens of plyometric drills and exercises that can be tailored for your goals, whether fat burning and/or athletic.

Be sure and download my FREE 14-Day Accelerated Fat Loss Program and start burning body fat now!

“Exercise is not my life…..exercise makes my life better!”

Her Fitness Hut is featured on EmpowHER, a great health issues website for women! Her Fitness Hut has also been named in the Top 50 Personal Training Blogs by Physical Therapy Assistant Schools!

Check out my other great blogs:

My Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as a Top Health Blogger! Quite an honor coming from that institution!

Sports Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as the #1 Sports Fitness Blog and NursingDegree.net as one of the Best 100 Health and Nutrition Blogs for Athletes! The blog has also been named one of the 50 Best Sports Medicine Blogs by Masters In Healthcare! It is an honor to be recognized by those in the health and academic fields! Afterall, health is number one for everybody—including athletes!

Nov 17 2011

Shape Your Buns Faster with Top Exercise

So, you want to shape your buns faster? Do the following exercise more in your workouts……

The squat jump is a power exercise meaning that it is done at full speed. Power exercises activate your bulkier fast twitch muscle fibers which will shape and tone your butt, hips and legs better.

Shorten and intensify your workouts with more jump training exercises (plyometrics). Plyometric workouts also burn more fat and calories during and after your workout. Exercise Post-Oxygen Consumption (EPOC) causes your body to burn more calories and fat after a tough workout. Your body has to work harder to get back to its pre-exercise state.

A certain amount of strength (core and overall) is needed to enhance your jumping power. Quadriceps, hamstrings, hips, glutes and calves are targets for improvement if you want your lower body to look great in 3-D space! Squats, lunges, leg presses, step ups, hip abductors and calf raises are all good exercises to improve lower body strength.

A female should be able to squat about 75% of her body weight 8-10 times. If you are not able to squat, then you should be able to leg press about 1.5 times your body weight 8-10 times.

Plyometrics is high intensity training, placing great stress on the bones, joints, and connective tissue. Jump training places you at greater risk of injury than less intense training exercises. It is important to perform the exercises correctly before implementation of full-speed exercises.

Jumping and landing techniques should be mastered. Exercises should be performed on safe surfaces such as rubber mats, sprung floors, grass or sand. Concrete or other similar hard surfaces expose you to injury.

I recommend doing plyometric work 2 times a week . Strength work can be done 3 times a week. You should do your plyometric work on the same day that you do lower body strength training. Lower body plyometrics would be done before your leg strength work because plyometrics are done with maximum effort. Therefore, you need to be fresh.

Add squat jumps to your exercise routine…..your buns and legs will look great!

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“Exercise is not my life…..exercise makes my life better!”

Her Fitness Hut is featured on EmpowHER, a great health issues website for women! Her Fitness Hut has also been named in the Top 50 Personal Training Blogs by Physical Therapy Assistant Schools!

Check out my other great blogs:

My Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as a Top Health Blogger! Quite an honor coming from that institution!

Sports Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as the #1 Sports Fitness Blog and NursingDegree.net as one of the Best 100 Health and Nutrition Blogs for Athletes! It is an honor to be recognized by those in the health and academic fields! Afterall, health is number one for everybody—including athletes!