Train your muscles to increase power output

But did I listen to Jeff?

Oh no, I did not, I had to go and injure my right hamstring a week and a half to the D-Day.

That set me back on my training but after extensive physiotherapy by our estate quack I decided to downgrade it to half marathon, largely to save face because I had announced my intentions to the whole world.

Last Sunday during the Nairobi Marathon, the injury recurred half way through the run.

I slowed down and seriously considered calling it a day.

When the ambulance people appeared, a beautiful young woman disembarked and suddenly I no longer wanted any assistance.

I hobbled away, afraid that the cute little thing would think I am an ageing loser.

I slogged on in pain and miraculously finished without once stopping , even for first aid.

Maybe I should have listened to Jeff and done more stretching exercises every time before embarking on my training and I am sure if I had added plyometrics I would most likely have been waxing lyrical about my accomplishments instead of giving pathetic reasons why I could not go the whole hog.

Plyometrics is the lofty name given to exercises and drills that train muscles to use explosive movement to reach maximal strength in the shortest time possible.

The training acts on the nerves, muscles and tendons to increase your power output.

The aim of the training is to use your muscles’ inherent elasticity and reflexes to enhance the speed and distance your body or an object that you might throw will move.

Plyometric exercises involve explosive types of activities like jumping up and down from objects, bounding up and down stairs on one or both feet.

Throwing balls around is a good plyometric exercise but an even better plyometric is stone throwing by university students, police and MPs (like Embakasi’s Ferdinand Waititu) because it serves both fitness and utilitarian purposes.

But even when you simply sprint, jump, catch or throw something you perform a plyometric exercise.

Plyometric exercises should always be done with expert guidance because injuries are quite common due to their explosive nature.

Be sure you have a good level of physical strength and flexibility before you embark on a plyometric exercise and then be careful to maintain the proper posture when you are doing it.

If you have puny little muscles in your legs don’t try to do jump exercises until you have done enough squats to build them or choose a safer exercise — like kicking an inflatable ball.

But before you get that far get an instructor to show you the proper technique for the exercise.

When done wrongly they can cause terrible injuries which will compromise your fitness training because they place considerable stress on the body.

Gyms are littered with exercisers who can no longer do step aerobics because nobody taught them how to stabilise their knees and ankles prior to impact with the step or the correct heel-to-toe rolling action of the foot.

When you are doing plyometrics keep your shoulders parallel to the ground and whichever exercise you are doing, the emphasis should be on speed without compromising the technique.

There are basically four types of plyometrics.

The in-place jumps are low intensity high volume jumps performed without any aids like ropes.

Short bounding exercises are low to medium intensity exercises like standing long jumps, triple jumps or hops.

Extended bounding or hopping exercise involve longer distances and depth jumps are high intensity low volume jumps like box-standing long jump combinations.

Ideally you should increase the intensity of these exercises and decrease their volume with time.

Because plyometric exercises are high intensity and can easily cause injury you are advised to create variety by employing horizontal, vertical and circuit activities from time to time.