The Effect of Warm-up Using Alternate-leg Lateral Bounding on 18.3-m Shuttle-run Performance in Collegiate Football Players

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Human Performance Track

Date of Award

Spring 2016

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a postactivation potentiation (PAP) warm-up protocol on subsequent 18.3-m shuttle-run performance in collegiate football student-athletes. It has been shown that PAP, an acute and temporal enhancement of explosive movement performance produced by previous muscle contractions, commonly occurs after heavy resistance exercises. However, performing heavy resistance exercises prior to competition may not be possible for many athletes due to the need of specific equipment. It is unknown if an unweighted alternate-leg lateral bounding exercise could improve agility performance. It was hypothesized that the alternate-leg lateral bounding warm-up would result in a significantly faster running time in a 18.3-m shuttle-run compared with a control dynamic warm-up session. Twenty-five Division II collegiate football student-athletes (21.0 ± 1.5 yr, 1.81 ± 0.05 m, 92.7 ± 14.26 kg, 28.31 ± 3.61 kg/m2), underwent both experimental (i.e. the alternate-leg lateral bounding) and control (i.e. dynamic stretching) sessions. The time to complete the 18.3-m shuttle-run was measured before (pretest) and after (posttest) each session. A two-way ANOVA with repeated measures was used to analyze pre- and post-test running times between the experimental and control sessions. There was a significant main effect of time (i.e., pre vs post-test, p < 0.05); specifically, the averaged running time for post-test from both sessions was significantly faster than the pre-test time (experimental pre-test mean = 4.657 vs. post-test mean= 4.628, control pre-test mean = 4.645 vs. post-test mean = 4.634). There was no main effect of condition (i.e., control vs experimental), nor an interaction (p > 0.05). On average, running times were improved by 0.03 s or 0.6% following the alternate-leg lateral bounding compared with 0.01 s or 0.2% (p = 0.19) following the dynamic stretching protocol. Although both the alternate-leg lateral bounding and dynamic stretching protocol did not produce statistically significant improvements on subsequent 18.3-m shuttle-run performance, these warm-up sessions did not have negative effect on performance. Functionally, these slight improvements in the shuttle-run performance could mean a big difference for professional and top college athletes. Alternate-leg lateral bounding is a safe and practically feasible method to use during the pre-competition warm-up.

Advisor

Vipa Bernhardt

Subject Categories

Medicine and Health Sciences | Social and Behavioral Sciences | Sports Sciences | Sports Studies

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