Single Leg Complex Training

Complex Training—a close cousin of contrast training—is pairing a strength exercise with a plyometric exercise involving the same muscle group. 

The basic theory behind this type of training is to take advantage of the post-activation potentiation effect. The PAP effect conceptually is that muscles will exert more force in the jump if they experienced a previous contraction, especially of high-neural demand (1).

Of course, fatiguing a muscle with hypertrophy-type sets will decrease performance on the subsequent jumps, but the PAP effect purports to increase acute performance if the previous contractions activate the nervous system more than fatigue the muscle.

In this video, we show an example of contrast training. The athlete here performed just five reps per leg of front split squats, then preceded right into 1-leg mini hurdle hops with a bounce. This is a phase 2 exercise sequence in our programming. For a basic overview of our phases of plyometric training, check out this article.

The front split squat is the strength exercise, and the hurdle hop is the plyometric.

Thank you, Sean, for the video and introduction to complex training. Learn more about Sean--the head strength coach of the Minnesota Wild--both here on the site or at his personal site.