Plyometrics for Runners: What the Trials Show, and What Beats Them

Plyometrics — skipping, hopping, bounding, box jumps — train the stretch-shortening cycle: the rapid load-and-release of muscle and tendon that happens with every ground contact when you run. Serious runners add one or two short sessions a week. Unlike most training advice, this one comes with trials.

What the trials found

In 2003, seventeen male distance runners were randomly split. Half added six weeks of plyometrics to their normal running; half just ran. The plyometric group improved their 3 km time by 2.7% and their running economy at every speed tested, with no change in VO2max or lactate threshold. The mechanism the researchers measured was an increase in lower-leg musculotendinous stiffness — a springier calf and Achilles, returning more of the energy of each landing.¹

In 2006, a study of highly trained middle- and long-distance runners found a 4.1% improvement in running economy at 18 km/h after nine weeks of plyometrics.²

What the meta-analysis found — including the part that gets left out

A 2022 systematic review and meta-analysis pooled 22 studies and 479 subjects to separate the effects of plyometrics from heavy resistance training on running economy and time-trial performance.³ Plyometrics produced small but real gains, and combining them with weights produced large ones.

The finding usually left out of articles like this one: heavy resistance training had a greater effect than plyometrics. Lifting at 90% of one-rep max or above did more for running economy than lifting lighter, and more than jumping. Plyometrics work. Heavy lifting works better. The best result in the data came from doing both.

A 2024 meta-analysis looked at strength training effects on economy across different running speeds and found the programmes with more sessions produced larger effects.⁴

A note on injury

You will read that plyometrics prevent injury by stiffening tendons and sharpening neuromuscular control. We have not found trial evidence for that in runners, and the more important point runs the other way: plyometrics are high-load, high-impact work, and introduced too fast they are a common way to get hurt. Progression matters more here than in almost any other training you will add.

Starter drills

One or two sessions a week, 20–30 minutes, after a proper warm-up and never on tired legs. Build over weeks, not days.

• A-skips and B-skips — rhythm and knee drive.
• Pogo jumps — small, fast ankle bounces. Start here.
• Single- and double-leg hops — forward, then lateral.
• Bounding — exaggerated strides. Add later.
• Low box jumps — step down, don't jump down, until you are confident.

Quality over volume: quick ground contacts, full recovery between reps, and stop the session when form goes.

A note on feet, and on us

It would be convenient to tell you that a stronger, more mobile foot makes your plyometrics more explosive and your running more economical. We make a foot product, so we looked. The most direct test we found is a trial in competitive distance runners in which toe flexor strength was raised substantially — and joint mechanics and running economy did not change.⁵ Toe strength and running economy are, on that evidence, different things. If you want to run more economically, the trials above tell you what to do, and it is not a toe exercise.

Two practical points, since the product exists. First, do not put anything between your toes before or during plyometrics. A long static hold in the minutes before explosive work is the exact situation shown to reduce maximal force,⁶ and the device is not built to be worn while moving. Second, if you do foot work, do it afterwards, seated, on bare feet. The case for it is injury prevention rather than speed, and it is on the runners' page.

*These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

References

1. Spurrs RW, Murphy AJ, Watsford ML. The effect of plyometric training on distance running performance. European Journal of Applied Physiology. 2003;89(1):1–7. doi:10.1007/s00421-002-0741-y. PMID: 12627298. Read it
   17 male runners, randomised, 6 weeks.
2. Saunders PU, Telford RD, Pyne DB, Peiffer JJ, Cunningham RB, Gore CJ, Hawley JA. Short-term plyometric training improves running economy in highly trained middle and long distance runners. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2006;20(4):947–954. PMID: 17149987.
   Confirm author list and pages against the PubMed record.
3. Eihara Y, Takao K, Sugiyama T, Maeo S, Terada M, Kanehisa H, Isaka T. Heavy resistance training versus plyometric training for improving running economy and running time trial performance: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Medicine – Open. 2022;8:138. doi:10.1186/s40798-022-00511-1. Read it
   22 studies, 479 subjects. Heavy resistance training had the larger effect. Confirm author list.
4. Effect of strength training programs in middle- and long-distance runners' economy at different running speeds: a systematic review with meta-analysis. Sports Medicine. 2024. Read it
   Authors to be added. The original article's specific claims from this paper (economy gains at ≤12 km/h; 7–15 sessions) were not verified and are not repeated above; reinstate them only after checking.
5. Day EM, Hahn ME. Increased toe-flexor muscle strength does not alter metatarsophalangeal and ankle joint mechanics or running economy. Journal of Sports Sciences. 2019;37(23):2702–2710. PMID: 31608832.
6. Revisiting the stretch-induced force deficit: a systematic review with multilevel meta-analysis of acute effects. Journal of Sport and Health Science, 2024. Read it