Plyometrics consist of stimulating the muscles by means of a sudden stretch preceding any voluntary effort. Kinetic energy and weights that are not heavy should be used for this, where the kinetic energy may be accumulated by means of the body or loads dropping form a certain ehight. Plyometrics can now be more rigorously defined as a method of mechanical shock stimulation to force the muscle ot produce as much tension as possible. This method is characterized by impulsive action of minimum duration between end of the eccentric braking phase and initiation of the concentric acceleration phase. It relies on the production of very brief explosive-isometric and eccentric-isometric phase which precedes the release of elastic energy stored in the tendons and other components of the series elastic componenet of the msucle complex during the eccentric deceleration phase. A useful visualization is to imagine the surface of the area being touched by the hand or feet during the plyometric contact phase being red hot, so that any prolonged contact would be dangerous.
