The Effects of a Low-Volume, High-Intensity Preseason Microcycle on Neuromuscular Performance in Collegiate Female Basketball Players

Abstract Philipp, NM, Blackburn, SD, Cabarkapa, D, and Fry, AC. The effects of a low-volume, high-intensity pre-season micro-cycle on neuromuscular performance in collegiate female basketball players. J Strength Cond Res 38(12): 2136–2146, 2024—The use of stretch-shortening cycle (SSC)–based measures of vertical jump performance to monitor responses to training exposures is common practice in sport science. However, evidence is limited with regards to which assessments and metrics may be most sensitive toward changes in training volume and intensity. The aim of this study was to investigate how a reduction in training volume, paralleled with an increase in training intensity, affects neuromuscular performance as measured through a countermovement jump (CMJ) and 10-5 hop test over a preseason period in female collegiate basketball players. Over a 3-week baseline period, athletes completed CMJ and 10-5 hop tests to quantify baseline performance. Measures of neuromuscular response to the changes in training volume and intensity were performed 2 and 4 days into the intervention week, as well as post 72 hours, post 7 days, and post 10 days. External workload data and descriptive analyses of resistance training stimuli suggest that during the intervention week, athletes experienced significantly lower training volumes and increases in training intensity. In response to these changes in training stimulus, athletes showed depressed performance acutely in metrics derived from both the CMJ and 10-5 hop test. Authors also observed a supercompensation effect at post 72 h, post one week, and post 2 weeks for metrics related to lower-limb stiffness and braking rate of force development. These findings highlight that in response to a high-intensity, low-volume training phase, female basketball players experienced alterations in lower-limb function, reflected in both decreases and increases in SSC performance.