Effect of a neuromuscular warm-up programme on muscle power, balance, speed and agility: a randomised controlled study

Objective: To investigate whether a 6-month neuromuscular warm-up programme could improve muscle power, balance, speed and agility. Design: Cluster randomised controlled study. Setting: 27 top level female floorball teams in Finland. Participants: 222 players (mean age 24 years); 119 in the intervention group and 103 in the control group were followed-up for one league season (6 months). Intervention: A neuromuscular warm-up programme included sports-specific running technique, balance, jumping and strengthening exercises. The teams were advised to use the programme 1-3 times per week through the league season. One training session took similar to 25 min. Main outcome measures: Performance tests were assessed before and after the 6-month intervention and included static jump, countermovement jump, jumping over a bar, standing on a bar and figure-of-eight running. Results: At 6 months, significant between-group differences were found in two outcome measures: jumping over a bar (number of jumps in 15 s) and standing on a bar (number of balance losses in 60 s). These differences were 2.3 jumps (95% CI 0.8 to 3.8, p = 0.003), favouring the intervention group, and -0.4 balance losses (95% CI -0.8 to 0.0, p = 0.050), again in favour of the intervention group. Conclusion: A neuromuscular warm-up programme improved the floorball players' sideways jumping speed and static balance. The exercises were also safe to perform and can thus be recommended for weekly training of floorball players.