has anyone ever heard of, used or recommended a product called jumpsoles.
THey were really big back in the early 90s (at least in the US)
I am curious of what affect they might have on a sprinter in GPP or SPP.
Injuries to the achilles tendon, and other lower leg structures all which are being overloaded. The program(s) themselves may be mediocre at best but when done with the strength shoes or jump soles they go right down the tubes.
Anyone else care to comment. I know this has been spoken about before but its always good to recap since these things always seem to be asked about every so often by the athletes we train.
the idea is sound… over load by use of plyometric excercise but the execution is poor. people do see results with them if they dont end up getting injured and i believe a lot of the should be credited to the fact that your doing an ass load of plyometrics. most peoples muscle tissue isnt equipped to handle that type of load. stay away and focus on plyometric excercise. by this i mean learn what goes into properly performing plyometrics and go from there.
Follows the principle- that which doesn’t kill you makes you… crippled.
i agree with that, but mostly dont you think if you have alot of reps underyour belt, and you do general plyo work with them on, will it give you a different stimulus and adaptation to it? Will it possibly just give you something to break through a plateau?It may take running mechanics out of your normal place, but why would any elite sprinter want to practice speed mechanics in them?
Also where is the emperical evidence regarding the overloading of the achilles tendon at? I have not seen any of this.
Does anyone know what percentage of movement that the gastrocnemius actually contributes to. I beleive that I have seen literature say that it may produce force, but only in the range of 2-8% of total force produced.
Let me know what you think
thanks 
http://sportsci.org/traintech/strengthshoes/fch.htm
See the link above for some objective information. Strength shoes are pretty much the same deal as jumpsoles.
As an aside, I used the strength shoes long ago and did the workouts that came with them. I never worked so hard for so little results. Honestly, the training program they give you was/is insane. For example something like:
5x50m double leg bounds w/30sec rests
10x100m sprints w/ 45sec rests
…like an hour’s worth of that crap like that. It’s so shit I can’t even remember the rest of it. I wanna say this was 4-5x per week but I don’t remember for sure.
I remeber a friend of mine who was a former sprinter and Bballer that began using them. Here he was married, out of shape, 29 yrs old, with 4 children, and dunking again for the 1st time in 6 yrs with two hands. He definitely was faster.
I believe there are some positive testimonials out there
However, I am buying into the CF system I still believe that there might be a place for them w/n reason.
How are the mechanics so different if you were to…lets say…do 3x10 double-leg bounds on speed days (M&F) only. Also considering you have an athl who has the approriate strength levels in place already. What is happening so different from using this product?
IS the product in question or the method of use?
I think both the product and methods are in question! If you get tired during a sprint or bound and your calf musculature cannot support the load you may end up shopping for a new achilles tendon.
The risk/reward ratio is too way high with these platform-shoe products IMO.
IMO they are ok, but can lead to trouble. I tried them for a little bit, and found they helped some but didn’t live up to the claims. I would say they are most useful to people who don’t train at all, as any program would be better than doing nothing. I’m far from an expert, but these folks would probably be better off with GPP and then moving into regular programs (sprinting, Olympic lifts, Squat/DL, plyos), rather than falling for the “quick fix” like Jumpsoles.
As for more advanced trainees, I think they may work as a change of pace, but aren’t the best for day to day training. The program has a lot of volume, and (as others have said here) could lead to overtraining and injury. I’m also uncomfortable with overloading the Achilles tendon that much, as an injury there could be catastrophic. Finally, they didn’t seem that stable to be able to go all out during training.
all they do is make you perform plyometrically. all the benefits come from the fact that you are performing plyometrics and thsoe alone without special shoes will have a beenfit. the problem comes in how they are used. most people shouldnt be doing plyometrics because putting it softly they are to friggin weak, they cant get in the right postion and so injury insues. or like most people have been saying they cannot handle the overload. training should be focused around absorbing greater degrees of force. the reason for all injury is an inability to absorb force. you spirnt and pull you hamstring, the force generated by the hamstring or perhaps the quad was to great for the hamstring to absorb and so it ruptures. u break a bone, the force generated from falling or landing wrong is too great for your bone tissue and so it fractures. wuts happening with the jump soles is you are overloading the tissue to a degree that most people cant handle when as we all know training is about a progressive increase in strenght, power, fitness etc.