Most cyclists who strength train focus on force production. How much load can the muscle handle. That matters -- and the protocol for it is well established. But force production alone misses a variable that determines whether you can actually use that strength when it counts: how fast you can produce it.
Rate of force development. The speed at which your neuromuscular system recruits motor units, fires them in sequence, and delivers force through the pedal. Two riders can have identical peak power on a lab test. The one who reaches peak force 80 milliseconds faster wins the sprint, closes the gap, holds the wheel through the acceleration. The other rider produces the same watts -- but too late.
Plyometric training targets this gap directly. Not strength. Speed of strength.
What Plyometrics Actually Train
A plyometric movement exploits the stretch-shortening cycle: a rapid eccentric contraction (muscle lengthening under load) followed immediately by an explosive concentric contraction. The classic example is landing from a step and immediately jumping. The muscle stretches on landing, stores elastic energy in the tendon, and releases it on the rebound. The contact time with the ground is short -- under 250 milliseconds in a well-trained athlete.
This is not the same stimulus as lifting heavy. Strength training teaches the muscle to produce high force. Plyometric training teaches the nervous system to produce force quickly, to recruit high-threshold motor units in a coordinated burst, and to use the elastic properties of the tendon-muscle complex efficiently.
The two adaptations are complementary. Strength without rate of force development produces a rider who can hold 400 watts in a steady state but cannot reach 900 watts in a two-second jump. Plyometrics without a strength base produces fast but weak contractions that fade under load. Most masters cyclists are strong enough. They are not fast enough. The nervous system is the bottleneck, and plyometrics are the tool that addresses it.
The Pedal Stroke Problem
Cycling is a concentric-dominant activity. You push down on the pedal. The leg extends. The crank rotates. The opposite leg returns passively. There is no meaningful eccentric loading -- no rapid deceleration of body mass, no impact absorption, no stretch-shortening cycle. The pedal stroke, mechanically, is a series of controlled pushes.
This is fine for sustained power. It is terrible for developing the neuromuscular qualities that produce explosive efforts. A runner, by comparison, absorbs and redirects two to three times body weight with every stride. The tendons and neural pathways that manage that impact also develop the capacity for rapid force production. Cyclists get none of this. The smoother the pedal stroke, the less explosive stimulus the body receives.
The result is predictable. Riders who train exclusively on the bike slowly lose the ability to produce force quickly. Peak power declines. Sprint capacity narrows. The response time to an acceleration lengthens. And the standard advice -- ride more, do intervals -- does not fix it, because intervals still operate within the concentric-dominant, low-impact framework of the pedal stroke.
Plyometrics introduce the missing variable. Short, controlled contacts with the ground that demand rapid eccentric-to-concentric transitions. The nervous system adapts. Motor unit recruitment improves. The tendons stiffen in a useful way -- increasing the rate at which elastic energy is stored and released. And all of this transfers to the bike, because the neural pathways that fire during a plyometric hop are the same pathways that fire during a standing start or a sprint finish.
What the Research Shows
Three bodies of evidence support adding plyometrics to an endurance cycling programme.
Paavolainen and colleagues (1999) demonstrated that endurance athletes replacing a portion of their endurance volume with explosive strength and plyometric work improved 5 km performance by 3 per cent and running economy by 8 per cent, without changes in VO2max. The gains came entirely from neuromuscular improvements -- better motor unit recruitment and faster force production. The athletes were not fitter aerobically. They were faster at converting their existing fitness into movement.
Ronnestad and colleagues (2010, 2012) studied heavy strength training combined with cycling in well-trained cyclists and found significant improvements in mean power output during the final 30 minutes of a 185-minute endurance protocol. Their work on concurrent training models showed that the neuromuscular improvements from explosive-type work transferred directly to cycling power output -- particularly in efforts requiring rapid force production. The cyclists did not gain significant body mass. They gained the ability to recruit existing muscle more effectively.
Berryman and colleagues (2016) found that adding plyometric training to an endurance cycling programme improved 3 km time trial performance by 3.5 per cent compared to endurance training alone. Two 20-minute sessions per week. No additional cycling volume. The improvement was attributed to enhanced neuromuscular efficiency and rate of force development -- the same mechanisms Paavolainen identified in runners, now confirmed in cyclists.
The pattern across all three groups is consistent. Plyometric and explosive strength work improves performance in endurance athletes not by raising VO2max or threshold, but by improving the efficiency and speed with which the existing aerobic engine converts energy into movement. For cyclists who have already spent years building their aerobic base, this is where the next gains live.
Low-Impact Plyometrics: The Exercises That Matter
Standard plyometric protocols for team sport athletes include box jumps, depth jumps, and bounding. Those exercises work. They also impose landing forces of four to seven times body weight, stress the Achilles tendon and patellar tendon under extreme load, and carry a meaningful injury risk for anyone whose connective tissue has not been conditioned for them over years.
For cyclists over 35 -- riders whose tendons have adapted to the low-impact loading of the pedal stroke, not the high-impact loading of running or jumping -- the exercise selection must reflect the population. Low-impact plyometrics provide the same neuromuscular stimulus with a fraction of the joint stress.
A-skips. A running drill performed at walking pace, driving one knee up while hopping off the opposite foot. Ground contact is brief. Impact is low -- body weight only, no added load, minimal flight time. The drill trains rapid hip flexion, ankle stiffness, and the coordination pattern of quick ground contact. Three sets of 20 metres is enough volume to produce a training effect without accumulating impact.
Ankle hops. Standing in place, hopping on both feet with minimal knee bend. The movement comes almost entirely from the ankle and calf complex. Ground contact time should be as short as possible -- think of the ground as hot. This trains the elastic recoil properties of the Achilles tendon and the rapid plantar flexion that contributes to the bottom of the pedal stroke. Three sets of 15 contacts.
Step-up hops. Standing beside a low step (15-20 cm), step up with one foot and drive the knee of the opposite leg upward with a small hop at the top. Step back down and repeat. The movement is controlled, the impact is minimal, and the concentric demand on the stance leg mimics the push phase of the pedal stroke -- but with a speed component that pedalling does not provide. Three sets of 8 each leg.
Lateral bounds. A controlled side-to-side hop, landing on one leg, absorbing the landing softly, and pushing off to the other side. The distance should be modest -- 60-80 cm -- and the emphasis is on a quick, stable landing rather than maximum distance. This trains frontal plane stability, which cyclists neglect entirely, and the single-leg landing pattern that builds ankle and knee resilience. Three sets of 6 each side.
Medicine ball chest passes. Standing, throwing a 3-5 kg medicine ball explosively into a wall from chest height. The upper body rarely gets explosive training in cyclists, but the trunk and shoulder girdle contribute to bike control during sprints and out-of-saddle efforts. The throw trains rate of force development through the entire kinetic chain without any impact on the lower limbs. Three sets of 8.
Single-leg box step-ups (explosive). Using a low box (20-30 cm), step up with one foot and drive through the heel to full extension as quickly as possible, lifting the trailing foot off the ground. Step back down under control. The distinction from a regular step-up is intent: the concentric phase is performed at maximum speed. Three sets of 6 each leg.
These six movements, performed with proper technique and appropriate volume, cover the full range of cycling-relevant plyometric loading. No box jumps. No depth jumps. No loaded jumping. The stimulus is neural, not structural, and the joint stress stays within limits that a 45-year-old Achilles tendon can handle week after week.
Landing Mechanics and Joint Protection
The single most important technical cue in plyometric training is not how high you jump. It is how you land.
A well-executed plyometric landing is quiet, brief, and stiff at the ankle. The forefoot contacts first. The heel may touch lightly but does not absorb the impact. The knee tracks over the toe without collapsing inward. The ground contact time is short -- the goal is to spend as little time on the ground as possible, because that brevity is what trains the elastic recoil cycle.
A poorly-executed landing is loud, slow, and flat-footed. The whole foot slaps the ground. The knee dives inward. The contact time is long. This is controlled jumping, not plyometric training, and it loads the patellar tendon and Achilles without providing the neuromuscular stimulus the exercise is designed for.
For cyclists over 35, three mechanical priorities protect the joints:
Ankle stiffness. Pre-tension the calf before every ground contact. The ankle should feel spring-loaded, not floppy. This distributes impact through the muscle-tendon complex rather than dumping it into the joint. If your ankles feel loose or unstable during hops, spend two weeks on calf raises and ankle mobility before progressing to plyometric contacts.
Knee tracking. The knee must track over the second and third toes on every landing. Medial collapse -- the knee dropping inward -- loads the meniscus and MCL asymmetrically. If single-leg landings produce medial collapse, regress to bilateral contacts until the pattern is stable, or reduce the lateral bound distance.
Surface selection. Plyometrics on concrete maximise ground reaction forces for no useful reason. A firm rubber gym floor, a grass field, or a running track surface absorbs enough impact to protect the joints while still allowing the elastic recoil that makes the exercise plyometric. Avoid soft sand or thick mats -- too much absorption kills the stretch-shortening cycle and converts the exercise into slow jumping.
Programming Plyometrics Into a Cycling Week
Plyometric training is a neural stimulus, not a metabolic one. It requires a fresh nervous system to produce the fast contractions that drive adaptation. Programming it after a three-hour ride or a VO2max session defeats the purpose -- tired muscles contract slowly, and slow contractions train the wrong quality.
Placement in the week. Plyometrics go before a ride, not after. Or on a separate day entirely. If you ride in the morning, do the plyometric session as a 15-20 minute warm-up block before you get on the bike. If you ride in the afternoon, do plyometrics in the morning with at least four hours of separation. Never add plyometric work after a hard interval session.
Frequency. Two sessions per week during base and early build phase. One session per week during race phase or periods of high cycling intensity. Zero sessions during a taper or recovery week -- the nervous system needs to supercompensate along with everything else.
Volume. Count ground contacts, not sets or reps. A ground contact is any time your foot hits the ground as part of the exercise. A-skips: each hop is one contact. Ankle hops: each hop is one contact. Step-up hops: each rep is one contact per leg. Total ground contacts per session should sit between 60 and 100 for trained athletes, and between 40 and 60 for beginners or during the first three weeks of a plyometric block.
Recovery between sessions. 48 hours minimum between plyometric sessions. 24 hours minimum between a plyometric session and a hard ride. The connective tissue -- tendons, fascia, the extracellular matrix around the muscle -- needs time to remodel after plyometric loading. This is not negotiable for riders over 35 whose collagen turnover rate is slower than it was at 25.
Seasonal structure. Introduce plyometrics in late base phase, four to six weeks before the first race-specific build block. This gives the tendons and neural pathways time to adapt before the cycling intensity ramps up. Continue through early build at two sessions per week. Drop to one session per week once race-specific intervals dominate the training week. Maintain that single session through race phase -- dropping plyometrics entirely during racing sacrifices the neuromuscular gains that took months to build.
Sample Three-Session Weekly Add-On
This template assumes two plyometric sessions and one strength session per week, layered on top of an existing cycling programme. Each plyometric session takes 15-20 minutes. The strength session follows the patterns from the minimum effective dose guide.
Monday -- Plyometric Session A (pre-ride or standalone)
| Exercise | Sets | Contacts | Rest | |---|---|---|---| | A-skips | 3 | 20m (~20 contacts per set) | 60s | | Ankle hops | 3 | 15 per set | 45s | | Step-up hops | 3 | 8 each leg | 60s |
Total ground contacts: approximately 90. Session time: 15 minutes including rest.
Wednesday -- Strength Session
Follow the existing strength protocol. If combining plyometrics with strength, do the plyometric exercises first as a neural primer -- 2 sets of A-skips and 2 sets of ankle hops before lifting. Count those contacts toward weekly volume.
Friday -- Plyometric Session B (pre-ride or standalone)
| Exercise | Sets | Contacts | Rest | |---|---|---|---| | Lateral bounds | 3 | 6 each side | 60s | | Single-leg box step-ups (explosive) | 3 | 6 each leg | 60s | | Medicine ball chest passes | 3 | 8 | 45s |
Total ground contacts: approximately 60 (lower body only -- medicine ball throws do not count as ground contacts). Session time: 15 minutes including rest.
Weekly totals. Roughly 150 lower-body ground contacts across the two plyometric sessions, plus the neural primer on strength day. This is moderate volume -- enough to drive adaptation, conservative enough to avoid tendon overload.
Progression over eight weeks:
- Weeks 1-2: Session A only. 40-60 ground contacts per session. Learn the mechanics. Build ankle stiffness. Monitor Achilles and knee response over 48 hours post-session.
- Weeks 3-4: Add Session B. 60-80 ground contacts per session across both days. Increase A-skip distance or lateral bound distance if the pattern is clean.
- Weeks 5-8: Full volume. 80-100 ground contacts per session. Add the neural primer before strength work. If any tendon irritation appears, drop volume by a third and hold for two weeks before progressing again.
What You Should Expect
Plyometric adaptations are primarily neural, which means two things. First, the gains appear relatively quickly -- within four to six weeks of consistent work, most riders report that standing starts feel sharper, sprint efforts reach peak power faster, and the response to accelerations in the group becomes more instinctive. Second, the gains decay quickly if the stimulus is removed. Unlike aerobic fitness, which has a long half-life, neuromuscular qualities fade within two to three weeks of stopping plyometric work entirely. Maintenance volume -- one session per week -- preserves the adaptation indefinitely.
Plyometrics will not raise your FTP. They will not change your lactate threshold. They will not make a 20-minute effort easier. What they will do is change the character of your short efforts. The jump out of a corner. The response to an attack on a short climb. The final 200-metre sprint where the rider who reaches peak power first takes the line. These are the moments where rate of force development is the deciding variable, and these are the moments most masters cyclists are losing -- not because they lack fitness, but because the neuromuscular speed has eroded without any stimulus to maintain it.
For riders who already strength train, plyometrics are the complement that makes the strength transferable. For riders who do neither, start with strength. Build the force production capacity first. Then add the speed component once the musculoskeletal system is ready for it -- typically after 8-12 weeks of consistent loaded resistance work.
The Age Factor
Rate of force development peaks in the late twenties and declines faster than maximal strength as you age. A 50-year-old rider may retain 85-90 per cent of their peak strength but only 60-70 per cent of their peak rate of force development. This is the physiological reason that older riders often describe losing their "snap" -- the ability to accelerate quickly, to respond to surges, to finish races with a kick. The aerobic engine is still there. The top-end power is still there. The speed at which the power arrives is not.
Plyometric training directly counters this decline. The neural adaptations -- improved motor unit recruitment rate, better inter-muscular coordination, enhanced tendon stiffness -- are trainable at any age. A 50-year-old will not develop the same absolute rate of force development as a 25-year-old, but they can substantially improve their own baseline with consistent low-impact plyometric work. The gap between "watching the attack go" and "going with it" is often a matter of 50-100 milliseconds in force production speed. That margin is well within the range that plyometric training can recover.
The constraint for older athletes is connective tissue tolerance, not neural capacity. Tendons adapt more slowly than muscles at any age, and even more slowly after 40. The low-impact exercise selection and conservative volume progression in this protocol exist specifically for this reason. A-skips and ankle hops produce a fraction of the tendon loading that box jumps and depth jumps impose, while still delivering the stretch-shortening cycle stimulus that drives neural adaptation. Patience with the progression is what separates a sustainable plyometric practice from a six-week experiment that ends with a sore Achilles.
Putting It Together
The riders in the Not Done Yet community who have added plyometric work report the same pattern. The first two weeks feel uncoordinated. The drills are unfamiliar. Ankle hops feel awkward. A-skips feel like a PE warm-up from secondary school. By week four, the mechanics sharpen. By week six, something changes on the bike -- the standing starts feel different, the sprint efforts arrive sooner, the response to a surge in the group becomes automatic rather than deliberate.
This is not a coincidence and it is not placebo. It is the nervous system adapting to a stimulus it has not received in years -- possibly ever, if cycling has been the only sport. The stretch-shortening cycle is a fundamental human movement pattern. Cyclists just happen to have trained it out of themselves through thousands of hours of smooth, concentric, low-impact pedalling.
Fifteen minutes, twice a week, on a gym floor or a patch of grass. No equipment beyond a low step and a medicine ball. No joint-destroying impacts. No risk to the training week if the volume is managed. The cost is low. The transfer is direct. The research is clear.
If you are interested in how this fits alongside the strength protocols and the broader approach to training masters cyclists, the Not Done Yet community on Skool is where we programme it, discuss it, and adjust it week to week. It is a group of riders over 35 doing this work, sharing what lands and what does not, coached rather than guessing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are plyometrics safe for cyclists over 40?
Yes, with exercise selection that respects connective tissue limitations. A-skips, ankle hops, and step-up hops produce far less joint stress than depth jumps or box jumps. Start with two sessions per week of 40-60 ground contacts each. If your knees, ankles, or Achilles tendons feel irritated the following day, reduce volume by a third.
When in the training season should I add plyometrics?
Start during late base phase and continue through early build. This gives your tendons and connective tissue time to adapt before race-specific intensity ramps up. During race phase, drop to one maintenance session per week. In the off-season, plyometrics can be part of a broader neuromuscular block.
Will plyometrics make me faster on the bike?
They improve the rate at which you produce force, which matters most in accelerations, sprint finishes, and short climbs where you need to respond to surges. They will not raise your FTP directly, but they can improve your ability to use the power you have in decisive moments.
How many plyometric exercises do I need per session?
Three to four exercises, three sets each, with 60-100 total ground contacts per session. Quality matters more than variety. A session built around A-skips, ankle hops, and single-leg step-up hops covers the full spectrum of cycling-relevant plyometric loading.
Can I do plyometrics on the same day as a hard ride?
Ideally, do plyometrics before your ride or on a separate day. Plyometric training requires a fresh nervous system to be effective -- fatigued muscles produce slower contractions, which defeats the purpose. If you must combine, do the plyometrics first, then ride. Never add them after a hard interval session.
