Effects of Acute Post-Activation Potentiation on the Olympic Shot Put Throw and Standing Long Jump

Muscular contractile force can be increased when it follows a potentiating activity incorporating brief maximum voluntary contractions known as post activation potentiation (PAP). There is a paucity of research regarding the effects of PAP on measures directly related to athletic competition. PURPOSE: This study examined the effects of a PAP warm-up strategy on shot put throw and standing long jump performance. METHODS: Six male and seven female collegiate Division I shot-putters and multi-event athletes were pooled for this study (age: 21.0±2.0 years, height: 1.78±0.76 m, mass: 80.0±18.2 kg). A randomized repeated measures cross over design was employed. During week 1: half of the participants performed a dynamic warm-up followed by an 8 minute rest period then a shot put throw test, and 48 hours later repeated the same warm-up strategy followed by a standing long jump test. The other participants performed the same dynamic warm-up with the addition of a PAP event induced by 3 repetitions of hang clean and jerk at 80% 1RM followed by an 8 minute rest then a shot put throw test, and 48 hours later repeated the same warm-up strategy (including PAP event) followed by a standing long jump test. The participants switched warm-up strategies during the second week. Three trials were collected under each condition and the best score was used for subsequent analysis. The dependent variables were compared between warm-up strategies with a paired t-test. RESULTS: The shot put throw scores were: PAP 10.93±1.81* and non-PAP 10.57±1.84 meters. The standing long jump scores were: PAP 2.46±0.38* and non-PAP 2.41±0.37 meters. (*p<0.01) CONCLUSION: Within the parameters of this study, when compared to a standard dynamic warm-up, a dynamic warm-up strategy that includes a PAP event significantly improves both shot put throw and standing long jump performance.