Plyometrics are explosive workouts aimed to improve power and burst force. These types of exercises are typically given to athletes in sports that require quick power or movement. Plyometrics for athletes are used to improve an athlete’s Rate of Force Development (RFD). The RFD is essentially how quickly an athlete can load up (i.e contract) their muscle for use. For explosive power, you are looking at muscle loading taking place within 250 milliseconds.
Previous studies have reviewed strength generated between one leg and both leg activiations. The findings determined that one legged exercises produced more strength in that leg than the same exercises done with both legs. These studies were solely done on strength moves and not explosive moves.
A study was done at the University of Athens to specifically look at explosive power between single and double leg exercises. The study used 15 physically active participants between the ages of 18 and 26. All participants completed a test on single leg jumping and double legged jumping before and after the study. Participants were split into two groups, one for single leg and one for double leg exercises. Each group completed 8 exercises twice a week for 6 weeks.
After the 6 week training session the participants all completed the same single leg and double leg jumps as they did at the start.
Figure 1 shows the initial results for each group and the percent change for each group at the end of the study. The white bars are the bilateral or the double leg group. The black bars are the unilateral or single leg group. The first graph shows the average results for each jump and each group followed by the percent increase for each jump and each group. Both groups saw a similar increase in their double legged jump performance. However, the single leg group saw a 15.6% larger improvement for the single leg jumps on average, which is 5 times more improvement!
Figure 1: Post study testing results
These results can conclude that single leg plyometrics is great for increasing single leg jump performance as well as double leg jump performance. Double leg plyometrics is great for increasing double leg jump performance, but less effective at improving single leg jump performance.
A possible explanation for the greater improvement in single leg jumps is due to the nature of the movement. It has been observed that single leg movements are slower than double leg movements. The slower speed allows more of the muscle to contract, which leads to a greater force during the movement. This could explain why the single leg group performed better in the single leg jump test, since they were training more of the maximum force in their legs.
The take away from this study is that athletes should be incorporating single leg plyometrics in their training to improve lower body explosive power.
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