Part One in a New Interview Series

PLYOS BY STEFAN Part One In a New Interview Series What are Plyometrics?

Stefan:

Exercises that involve strong eccentric muscular contractions.

BES:

Stefan:

An Eccentric Contraction is a stretching out of the musculature. This initiates a stretch reflex that allow muscles to contract at a very high rate of intensity.

The speed of the stretch is more important than the force of the stretch. BFS:

C’mon Stefan! Maybe I’m stupid but I need some concrete examples of that textbook jargon.

Stefan: If I were to jump off a 6 foot box, the impact of the landing is exactly equivalent to the force exerted in a 6 foot vertical jump. (Newton's third law of motion) BFS:

But Stefan even you don’t have a six foot vertical jump.

Stefan: Exactly! Try this experiment yourself. Measure your vertical jump. Then climb up on a box or bleacher twice your vertical jump height.

Now jump off and simply land. At the landing, which should be easy, you have absorbed through the muscles a force well above result: your vertical jump force. BFS:

OK, but will that help me as an athlete? now 470 pounds!

Stefan: It will and especially if you combine this stretching of the musculature with a shortening or contraction.

BFS: from a stand up on a 58 inch box! At Mayfield, Kentucky, Stefan put his head There you go again. You lost me.

6 inches from the rim at his Graves Co.

Stefan: Well Greg, the exercise would look like this. The athlete jumps offa box. At the landing he or she tries to jump up as fast as possible to from a complete stand! In his first meet land on yet another box. This can be done in a series of several boxes or with any two boxes. The boxes should vary in height. Usually feet. Tops in the world so far this year.

We wish Stefan the best at Seoul. "SE: by Bruno Pauleletto Tennessee Strength Coach movement safely without a spotter. Many coaches have BFS:

I’m beginning to understand but what benefits said that even using our spotting techniques the Dead can I expect?

Lift can be grueling especially on 5 x 5 day. Here’s how you could use the Trap Bar. Do it on week two and four Stefan:

Your ability to overcome resistance will of our Wednesday’s workout in place of the Dead Lift. increase. This means you will be more explosive Keep the BFS spotted Dead Lift on week one and three. with a greater power output. You can expect an This variation should help bring on new Dead Lift highs. vertical jump, sprints, power clean, lateral In addition, the Trap Bar can be used as a movement, standing long jump etc. This is also Squat variation lift. So now an athlete can utilize a Box movements.

Front Squat or Trap Bar to help stimulate faster development. Coach Rick Anderson of Bigger Faster Stronger really likes the Trap Bar. He states, “It’s half BFS: way between a Dead Lift and a Squat. It gets my legs Do you have any guidelines for the height of boxes for a high school program? and hips in a different way. I really don’t like doing Dead Lifts personally but I do enjoy the training feeling Stefan: A perfect set up would be a course consisting of of the Trap Bar.” five 20 inch boxes placed about three feet apart Al Gerard maintains, “When you work on my Trap in a row. A sixth box would also be placed in Bar, you should think Squat or Leg Press not Dead Lift.

this row but it would be 30 to 40 inches tall. The Although, you will see some big increases on your max object is to jump as fast as possible from box to Dead Lift, think Squat while using the Trap Bar. One of box. The last box requires an explosive powerful my training partners Robert Washington expects to contraction. You could also turn around and break the world record in the Dead Lift towards the end come back. of May at the nationals in Alabama. He’s made some amazing gains training with the Trap Bar.” Some of our BFS:

How about Depth Jumping? readers may remember that we featured Robert Washington in our May 1986 issue as History’s Strongest Stefan: For most athletes this is excellent. Start with Linebacker. Robert did 750 then and now is closing in on Depth Jumping of 12 inches over the athletes 865 in the 220 to 242 pound class.

Vertical Jump and progress to twice the height The Trap Bar also lends itself to doing shrugs in a of the athletes Vertical Jump. The first phase is superior way because there is no bar contact with the just to land. The second phase is the jump thighs. Dave Williams the strength coach at Liberty quickly and explosively straight up after University says, “The Trap Bar is a tremendous training landing. The final phase is to jump up to tool, besides the Dead Lifts and Shrugs our football another box immediately after landing. players also do high pulls from the hang position and upright rows.”

BFS:

I did 5 sets of eight reps going up to 375 pounds. It Could you develop a manual and video showing us how to do this exactly? took much less time than a squat workout: only 8 minutes. I was really sore the next day. My Glutes, Stefan: Sure, but it would have to be after the Olympics.

Hamstrings and Traps were deeply affected. I could I could even build a compact series of Plyo hardly walk. It was just like what happens after a heavy Boxes for coaches. We could call it Plyometric squat workout when you haven't squatted for awhile.

Package.

My lower back felt great. I was impressed!

BFS:

That's a pretty good idea even for a Swede. See you in September and good luck in the Discus at WE RECOMMEND IT!

Seoul.

BASKETBALL INFO. John Stockton of the Utah Jazz broke the AllTime NBA Season Assist Record. He was also 3rd To Order Write:

805 West 2400 South Salt Lake City, Utah 84119 54 in the NBA in Steals. John was featured in Sports Illustrated in April. John Stockton benches 2x per week in season. Not heavy, just consistently. We feel all athletes | should work with weights in season.

From BFS Magazine — May/June 1988. Part of the BFS Magazine Archive (1980–2014).