So Im training for rugby in the spring. Right now Im doing the McMaster program for strength gains and the conditioning program outlined by the coach for the Virginia Rugby Union. Part of the conditioning program is plyometrics. The gym at my unversity does not have anything thats conducive towards effective plyometrics. I was able to do the depth jumps (180 and 360 degree) and that was it. Any suggestions for plyometrics with limited materials (there’s just one suitable bench I found in the gym for me to jump on, but with this I can not do pyramids box hops or barrier hops using 3 hurdeles)
jump squats
one legged hops
front/back and side to side jumps (one or two legged)
broad jump
lunge jump
sprints
depth jumps/drops
There’s a few that should help.
Skips for height
Skips for distance
Standing broad jumps - you can do these several ways
Repeated vertical jumps
Thanks so much for the feedback bros. Would you guys mind explaining broad jumps and lunge jumps?
Broad jump - feet in roughly the same stance you use for vertical jump, and jump off both feet striving for maximum horizontal distance. Use your arms to propel you and to help absorb the landing.
Break into this carefully at first. A lot of people I see doing this let their butts smack their heels on the landings. Don’t do this. Also don’t let your back cave when you are landing, I’ve seen this a lot too… terrible for your spine.
One thing my coach had me doing was to stick the landing to build stability and eccentric strength. You should be able to stick and control the landing before doing starting to do repeated broad jumps(immediately going into another jump after landing).
Good exercise. Don’t do too much. In general you want to break into plyometric training slowly. If you are a heavier athlete with not much background in this training you should start with lower impact exercises and work your way up.
Nasizzle,
What position do you play? That should probably influence what exercises you choose.
Lunge jump - Not too hard, couple variations though.
1 - Jump up a lunge position, and land in the same lunge position.
2 - Jump up a lunge position, switch your front leg to back leg and vice versa, and land in a lunge position. (You will end up going from right foot back, left foot front, to left foot back, right foot front.
3 - Do a regular standing jump and land in a lunge position, repeat.
I’m sure you could even make up some of your own variations with this as well…