The Best Exercises for Force Absorption Training

The more force an athlete can absorb, the more he can produce. When I first learned that fact, I realized the importance of placing emphasis on force absorption training.

Sadly, most athletes overlook the importance of force absorption training. The reality is, if you place an emphasis on force absorption training, you’ll be able to jump higher, run faster, and move with more efficiency. And you only to throw a handful of movements into your training to raise your ability to absorb force.

Some are plyometric, others are with weights.

But, all of them will work to give you more body control, raise your force absorption capacity, and push you to produce more force.

Let’s go:

Eccentric Tempos

One of the first ways I train force absorption with my athletes is eccentric tempos.

Slowly lowering the weights raises an athlete’s ability to absorb force. It can also makes them more explosive by training in absence of the stretch-shortening cycle.

If you don’t know, the stretch shortening-cycle occurs when an athlete puts the muscles on stretch (I.E. when you lower into a squat). When this happens the muscle spindles send a signal to the brain to contract the muscles, and they shorten as you rise out of the bottom of the squat.

Training slowly allows you to bypass this neuromuscular process and teach the muscles to absorb more force.

Training this way also allows you to train in absence of GTO inhibition.

The GTO (Golgi Tendon Organs) do the opposite of the muscle spindles. Whereas the muscle spindles tell the brain to contract when a muscle is stretched too far, the GTO tell the brain to relax when a muscle contracts too hard.

However, GTO Inhibition is overactive.

It kicks in at 60% of the maximum muscle contraction your body can handle.

This means, when you train with slow eccentrics, you can teach your body to produce higher muscle contractions.

Force Absorption Plyometric Movements

Technically, any plyometric movement can be used for force absorption training.

As long as you focus on the landing, you’re teaching the body to absorb force.

This said, some of my favorites for force absorption training include:

Low Squat Jumps

This movement is a continuous plyometric that you’ll perform for time. Typically, I like to do 3 sets of 10 seconds each. During this movement, don’t let the hips drop or rise. Also make sure you’re on the balls of your feet, but the heels shouldn’t be too far off the ground. You should be able to slide a sheet of paper under the heels.

Sprinter Step Ups

Most athletes wouldn’t think of a sprinter step up as a force absorption training movement. However,if you emphasize slowly lowering yourself down to the bottom position, it’s great for teaching body control and raising the force absorption capacity.

Depth Jumps

You knew these were coming. Depth jumps are really a great foundational movement to teach yourself how to land properly and absorb force. From here, you can perform a slew of variations to teach your body how to transition from absorbing to producing force quickly. I’ll lay them out here.

Depth to Vertical

Here, you’ll simply land properly. From here, you’ll want to spend as little time on the ground as possible and transition into a jump.

Depth to Broad Jump

Same as the depth to tuck, except this time you’re transitioning into an explosive horizontal jump.

Depth to Split Lunge

Split lunge position

This move’s pretty advanced. Here, you’ll spend as little time on the ground as possible and explode vertically. Then, you’ll get into a lunge position in the air and land in this manner. When you land, stick the landing. Don’t let the hips drop or rise.

Depth to Vertical Toss

This is another advanced movement. Here, you have to transfer force through the lower extremities and up through the upper limbs to toss a medicine ball into the air. You’ll land, spend as little time on the ground as possible, and transfer force from the feet, through core, and out through upper body.

More Force Absorption Training

I created an extensive lesson on force absorption training and how it was a driving force behind my 44 inch vertical jump.

The best part is, you can gain access for free.

You can find it inside of my Advanced Vertical Series.

You’ll also learn how to lift weights for a higher vertical, how to improve your single leg explosiveness, and a bunch more.

This is a free opportunity, but it closes Thursday, March 28th, 2024 at 11:59 PM EST…

Click here to join:

FREE – Join the Advanced Vertical Series (closes Thursday, March 28th, 2024 at 11:59 PM EST…)

 


overtimeathletes
overtimeathletes

The best sports performance training on the internet. We help underdogs become elite level athletes.