Many athletes overlook the importance of doing the foundation work to improve their athletic performance.
For athletes that are triple jumpers, it is important that they maximise the amount of strength and power that they can execute in the runup and in the different phases of the triple jump.
In this post, I will be sharing some insights and tips into strength and development training that will help you develop more strength and power for the triple jump.
Introduce barefoot training routines into your schedule.
You want to develop the intricate muscles that will help you generate more power and speed.
Because athletes typically train in shoes, it is difficult to train these other muscles.
You want to develop the following by introducing barefoot training into your workouts.
- Ankle flexion
- Toe strength and power development
- Achilles development
- Additional calf muscle strength (lower and upper)
- Mobility strength
What exercises should you do?
You want to start incorporating progressive load training with weights.
You want to do these barefeet so you can train the more intricate muscles to respond to power demands.
Bulgarian split squat
Take two dumbbells and put one of your legs on a bench.
You will squat down with one leg through the ball of your foot.
You want to explode up with the weight. (Ideally, jumping off the ground and exploding through your toes.)
You want to work with a 10-12 rep max and complete the exercises until failure.
Once you have finished, swap to the other leg.
You will then rest for 60 seconds before repeating the exercise for another 3-5 rounds.
Dumbbell squats
You will hold two dumbbells in your hands and you will squat down to the ground using your normal range of motion.
Look up at a slight angle so that your range of motion is correct and that you squat back into your heels.
It is important that you squat back into your heels.
Do this with a weight that will allow you to reach your 10-12 rep max.
Do this for 3-5 sets with a 1 minute rest in between.
Glute bridges
Have both feet on the floor and use a barbell with resistance weight to push the weight upwards. You should push through your heels and toes, which you should also feel through your calves.
Use your 10-12 rep max.
Conduct for 3-5 sets with a 1 minute rest in between.
Reverse lunge
Barefoot reverse lunges are great.
Get two dumbbells with your 10-12 rep max and lunge backwards with the weight, completing 10-12 of each leg.
When you have finished, you can transition into explosive lunge jumps (vertical) until failure.
Do this for 3-5 sets with 1 minute rest in between.
Plyometrics training on grass
You can do bounding and hopping exercises on grass to help train your more intricate muscles to explode more power.
Skipping
The same can be applied to skipping. Just be careful with hitting yourself with the skipping rope. Wear socks for an added layer of protection.
You want to maximise the amount of time that you spend in the air.
Running
Conduct some short sprints on grass to train your muscles to react explosively.
These should be 20-30m sprints, with the aim being to reach maximum velocity by the end of the distance.
Do these over a 4-6 week period.
Share your improvements in the comments below.