Plyometrics is closely related to Gymnastics (think Parkour or Breakdancing), and summarily focuses on Gymnastics-related jumping, landing, brachiating (climbing), throwing, and rebounding exercises that create many favorable adaptations. This is great because you learn to generate power and speed effectively with your bodyweight, can become more coordinated and rhythmic at any level, and it can generally be done with less equipment, or adapted to whatever your local park or backyard can provide. And it’s fun!
If you think obstacle course racing is really fun, or find yourself binge watching So You Think You Can Dance or Ninja Warrior with awe, then you might be a B-girl/boy or Parkourist in the making!
But the downsides are that there is some risk tolerance involved (falling…), as you age this modality will become harder to train safely (falling…), or will involve a lot more equipment to do it in a safe way, and there are some holes in the system unless it also includes separate strength and injury-prevention exercises. You’re back to full Gymnastics basically.
But if you’re okay with having more modest and perhaps intangible Health and Fitness related goals within this form of exercise, this style can be quite fun and free. If you’re a strict numbers/data person with your exercise, forget it.
Many forms of dance (Hip Hop, Samba, Capoeira) can also provide a blended plyometric style of exercise that have similar physical benefits to Gymnastics and a lot more going on from a social and emotional perspective. Just make sure to find a good teacher, and warm-up, stretch, and do some corrective/prehab exercises periodically to balance out your body.
I find this style of exercise works really great as a 50/50 split between more structured training, or as a fun training vacation (e.g. 1x/week or 1x/month) where you just enjoy movement without super tangible goals. It can also be done more structured a la Ninja Warrior, and in the bay area there are businesses that do just that!
The bottom line is you can progress in real ways using this method (carefully), and you also might be pleasantly surprised at how much better you feel holistically when at least part of your exercise time regularly involves the outdoors, music and rhythm, creativity and play, laughter, and no metrics or screens.
Coach Mauricio