Going ballistic! Getting in motion with performance enhancing equipment. (Facility Focus).

Every athlete wants to jump higher, run faster, and, in effect, become stronger. Who wouldn't?

Until recently much of that ability was considered God given. To some extent, it still is. But today's performance-enhancing equipment -- from jump trainers to weighted vests to heavy-duty rubber bands, and even medicine balls -- coupled with a structured and safe ballistic training program, is giving that higher authority a little help.

Extremely popular among high-level athletes for more than a decade, particularly in the professional and collegiate ranks, ballistic training has filtered into the mainstream, including many high school athletic programs, as an alternative for performance and strength development.

Traditional ballistic training incorporates faster, lighter-weight versions of exercises such as squats and bench press and applies plyometric routines that involve jumping and working out with weighted objects. Ballistic resistance training involves explosive movements against resistance at the fastest velocity possible.

Over a short period of time these explosive movements, which accelerate the body to a high velocity and actual projection into free space, increase both strength and speed.

"Ballistic training creates a maximal rate of force development," says Jake Wehrell, director of marketing for Genetic Potential, makers of Vertimax, the market leader in jump trainers. "You would create more force development by just doing bench presses and squats. But it's the rate of the forced development, which is mostly neural, which makes the difference.

"When an athlete has an increased rate of force development, he will jump higher and start quicker. His vertical jump and first step quickness are markedly improved. And coaches will notice that their athletes are demonstrating playmaking moves and game winning intensity. It's all because the players are starting quicker, adjusting better, and staying with their opponent tighter."

According to David G. Behm of Memorial University in St. John's, New Foundland, the high rate of force development achieved with ballistic contractions should serve as a template for power training. The extent of muscle hypertrophy is dependent upon protein degradation and synthesis, which may be enhanced through high intensity, high volume eccentric and concentric contractions.

Notice: Our exercise physiologists don't use the terms "contraction" and "extension" of a muscle any more. They use what is now referred to as "concentric" and "eccentric" movements. For example, if you were to perform a bicep curl, you would use a concentric movement to lift the weight. An eccentric movement would bring the arm back down.

Jake Wehrell says that the distinguishing kinetic about Vertimax is that it applies a non-varying level of resistance throughout the complete concentric and eccentric movement, or, in laymen's terms, the entire jumping motion.

The Vertimax, already a staple at such powerhouses as Miami, Florida, Notre Dame, and Ohio State, has 60 feet of cabling that is routed underneath the platform and coils around 16 bearinged pulleys. An exclusive hip tracker underneath the platform follows the athlete back and forth on the platform and helps maintain a true center of the earth gravity vector.

Best of all, you can set any resistance level on the machine. It could be the only such machine on the market that does so.

As the athlete rises, he increases the resistance exponentially throughout the concentric movement. A neuro fiber in the body called the proprioceptor locks onto and memorizes the overload that the musculature involved is trying to overcome.

"Previous platform trainers that used bungee cords did not work" says Wehrell. "They used 28-inch long surgical tubing attached to the top of the board. When an athlete dips down, the surgical tubing goes flat. That means there is no resistance at the bottom."

The X factor

Training to increase lower body strength and speed will always fall into one of three categories: Heavy Resistance, Light-Load/High-Speed, or Plyometric Training.

Exercise physiologists now unanimously agree the Light-Load/High-Speed training (now referred to as "Low-Load/Velocity-Specific" training) produces the most transferable benefits to sports-field performance.

This kind of training allows an athlete to carry out sports-specific movements at sports-specific speeds under a light load (approximating 15% of the athlete's bodyweight).

Two companies that offer a complete line of performance-enhancing equipment to meet those needs are Power Systems, Inc. and Perform Better. You name it, they have it.

Power Systems claims its Power Plyo Boxes, adjustable from 12 to 42 inches, is a terrific plyometric product that increases leg power, speed, and strength. For the upper body, the Power Med-balls (available from 2 to 18 pounds and light or heavy sets) are perfect for optimal dynamic workouts because they bounce off any hard surface.

The Uni-Vest (available in 20 and 40 pound models) utilizes flexible rubber weights that conform to the contour of the body. A wide array of speed trainers, running chutes, running sleds, and resistance harnesses complement the hard-core training program.

Perform Better's Super Vertical Leaper safely develops explosive power, balance, and acceleration, according to the company. And the Sled Dawg II (for use with 2-inch Olympic weight plates) enables an individual to resistance train solo for improved strength and power in running starts.

Bruno Pauletto, president of Power Systems, Inc., is an expert regarding ballistic training. As the former strength and conditioning coach at the University of Tennessee, he implemented ballistic movements into the Vols' sports programs.

"Ballistic training bridges the gap needed to improve athletic. performance by providing functional strength," says Pauletto. "If a person just does weights, he is missing out on a very strong component that translates onto the field.

"If you want to jump higher for a rebound or make a better block or tackle in football, ballistic training is a real benefit. It's much more closer to the actual movements that are done on the field, court, or baseball diamond."

"Ballistic training enables the athlete to initiate a maximum amount of muscle fibers to produce a maximum amount of power in a short period of time," says George Morrison, COO and designer of the Xvest, which relies on "overloading" the body with properly positioned weights to provide an extreme work-out and produce dynamic respiratory resistance.

Designed for serious athletes seeking to improve their event-specific strength, the Xvest tricks the body, brain, and muscles into believing they have gained extra weight. When the vest is removed, the body functions and reacts as if the weight (available in 20 and 40 pound models in addition to a customized version) is still there. This produces increased power, endurance, and speed.

"The difference between the Xvest and every other vest out there is the ability to adjust the length of vest to fit the proper torso," says Morrison. "So we don't really disturb the center of gravity. Secondly, the Xvest doesn't restrict range of motion. Therefore we don't really change the biomechanics of any type of movement."

"You don't want to retard the biomechanics by more than 10 percent," Morrison added. "Otherwise you are retraining the biomechanics. You are disturbing the kinetic chain of the biomechanics."

The Xvest, which is the vest of choice of the U.S. Ski Team, the Super Bowl champion Tampa Buccaneers, and many other professional and college teams, is ideal for any sport and can he used for both ballistic and plyometric training and in or out of water.

While the Xvest has become popular on the scholastic level, Morrison cautions prebuscent or slightly older children from going the ballistic route.

Strike up the band

For more than 20 years, Jump Stretch, Inc. has promoted the use of heavy-duty rubber bands for alternative strength training.

"I was brought up during the Hank Strain era where you put as much weight on the kid as you could and made him as strong as you can," says Dick Hartzell, president and owner of Jump Stretch. "But there is only so much you could do with a 150-pound kid. Then I came up with the idea that strength training, or some portion of it, should be done as fast as possible with resistance."

A former football coach at West Branch H.S. in Beloit, Ohio, Hartzell first padded a barbell and had one of his players do a couple of reps before hurting his back. Next, Hartzell utilized a leaper machine, which is an isokinetic exerciser that provides a force downward equal to the strength forced upward. Again, one of his players hurt his back.

Then Hartzell had a brainstorm to apply the same principles but with a rubber product. As he soon discovered, nothing existed similar to the heavy-duty continuous-loop bands he had patented. It wasn't long before he could guarantee vertical jump gains of one to 10 inches in six weeks.

"That is real speed training," he says. "I firmly believe in ballistic stretching. The medical market teaches this wrong. They say all you need to do is static stretching, whereas all of the games are ballistic."

Initially scoffed at when introduced in 1980, the Flex Bands -- available in six sizes that range from 25 to 200 pounds -- are currently used by 90% percent of Major League Baseball, half of the NFL and NBA, and a host of colleges and universities. Since 1998, powerlifters have begun to incorporate the bands into training routines by wrapping the bands around squat racks and other pieces of equipment to enhance performance.

The weight from the bands is a direct result of the pressure when an individual stands up at full height. The rubber band is pulling down on the shoulders and applying the same principles as if an individual were squatting a barbell.

"A rubber band will bring the weight down faster than gravity," says Hartzell. "It builds up kinetic energy. Therefore it takes more strength, more stabilizer muscles to reverse the initial movement. I can give you from 50 pounds to 1,000 pounds on rubber band squats."