The effects of a unilateral gluteal activation protocol on single leg drop jump performance

Abstract

Warm-up protocols are commonly used to acutely enhance the performance of dynamic activities. This study examined the acute effect of low-load gluteal exercises on the biomechanics of single-leg drop jumps. Eight men and seven women (18–22 years old) performed 10 single-leg drop jumps on three separate days. The gluteal exercises were performed within the warm-up on day 2. Contact time, flight time, peak vertical ground reaction force (GRF), rate of force development, vertical leg-spring stiffness, and reactive strength index were determined. A repeated measures analysis of variance was used to examine differences on all variables across days. Significant differences were found for contact time, peak GRF, and flight time between days 1 and 2 and for flight time between days 1 and 3 (p ≤ 0.05) with no significant difference in any variables between days 2 and 3. This suggested that the improvements in day 2 were due to practice effects rather than the gluteal activation exercises. In addition, a typical error analysis was used to determine individual responses to the gluteal exercises. The results using this analysis showed no discernible response pattern of enhancement or fatigue for any participant.

Keywords::

• Stretch shortening cycle
• ground reaction force
• fatigue
• potentiation
• warm-up