Power, the ability to produce force quickly, is often treated as an athletes-only quality, but it matters for everyone. It's the capacity that catches a stumble, climbs stairs with authority, and, crucially, declines with age faster than strength does. Teaching everyday clients to train it safely is one of the more valuable, and underused, skills in a trainer's repertoire.
Here's how fitness professionals should approach plyometric training for the general population: what it develops, how to build the prerequisites, and how to progress it without inviting injury.
Chris Ecklund
MA, NASM-PES, CSCS, USAW, TPI
Why Everyday Clients Need Power
Power combines strength and speed, and it underpins reactive, real-world tasks: recovering from a trip, getting up quickly, moving explosively when life demands it. Because power tends to decline earlier and faster than maximal strength as people age, training it is a genuine quality-of-life and fall-prevention investment, not just athletic polish.
Framing it this way helps clients understand why you're programming jumps and throws: not to dunk a basketball, but to keep their nervous system quick and their movement capable for decades.
Build the Prerequisites First
Plyometrics are high-force, high-speed activities, so they sit atop a foundation, not at the start of a program. Before adding meaningful jumping, a client needs a base of stability and strength (particularly the ability to squat and land with good control) and the movement quality your assessment confirms.
In OPT terms, stabilization and strength work earn the right to power training. The single most important prerequisite is deceleration: a client who can't absorb and control landing forces has no business generating bigger ones. Landing comes before leaping, always.
Teach Landing Before Takeoff
Start with the eccentric, deceleration half of the equation. Coach clients to land softly and quietly, hips back, knees tracking over the toes and not caving in, weight balanced, absorbing force through the whole lower body. Jump-and-stick drills, landing and holding a stable position, build exactly this competence.
Only once a client can land under control, on two feet and then one, do you progress to repeated and reactive jumping. This sequencing is the core of safe plyometric coaching and the difference between a power program that builds clients up and one that breaks them down.
How to Progress Plyometrics Sensibly
Advance intensity gradually along a logical continuum.
- Stabilization plyometrics: low-amplitude jumps with a stabilized (held) landing, mastering control.
- Strength plyometrics: repeated jumps and bounds with a brief ground contact, building rate of force.
- Power plyometrics: reactive, higher-intensity work (like depth jumps) only for clients with the strength and landing quality to absorb it.
- Upper-body power: medicine-ball chest passes, slams, and rotational throws, accessible options for nearly everyone.
- Progress amplitude, contacts, and complexity one variable at a time, never all at once.
What Are Programming Variables?
Power training follows different rules than hypertrophy work. Program low reps performed with maximal intent and speed (quality, not fatigue), with full recovery between sets so each rep is crisp, and place plyometrics early in the session when the client is fresh and the nervous system is primed.
Manage volume conservatively, especially early, counting foot contacts rather than chasing burn, and account for the load plyometrics place on joints and connective tissue. A little high-quality power work goes a long way; more is not better here.
Safety, Screening, and Scope
Plyometrics aren't appropriate for everyone at every stage. Screen for the strength and landing prerequisites, consider joint health, bodyweight, and injury history, and choose lower-impact options (like medicine-ball work or low-amplitude jumps) for clients not ready for high-impact landings. Adequate footwear and a forgiving surface matter too.
Keep the scope line clear: trainers build power in healthy clients, but existing joint conditions, recent injuries, or pain during jumping warrant caution and, where relevant, medical clearance or referral to a physician or physical therapist. Programmed thoughtfully, plyometrics let everyday clients move like the capable athletes of their own lives.
Programming Plyometrics Frequently Asked Questions
Do everyday clients really need power training?
Power underpins reactive tasks like catching a stumble and moving explosively, and it declines earlier and faster than strength with age, making it a real quality-of-life and fall-prevention investment.
What are the prerequisites for plyometrics?
A base of stability and strength, good movement quality on assessment, and above all the ability to decelerate, landing under control comes before generating bigger forces. Landing before leaping.
How should I introduce plyometrics?
Teach soft, controlled, quiet landings first (hips back, knees tracking over toes) with jump-and-stick drills, then progress to repeated and reactive jumps only once landing is controlled on two feet and one.
How do I program the variables?
Low reps with maximal speed and intent, full recovery between sets, plyometrics early in the session, and conservative volume measured by foot contacts, quality over fatigue, and progress one variable at a time.
Who should avoid or modify plyometrics?
Clients lacking the strength or landing prerequisites, and those with joint conditions, recent injuries, or pain with jumping, use lower-impact options and seek medical clearance or referral where relevant.
