Effects of six warm-up protocols on sprint and jump performance

Vetter, R.E. Effects of six warm-up protocols on sprint and jump performance. J. Strength Cond. Res. 21(3):819-823. 2007. -The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of 6 warm-up protocols, with and without stretches, on 2 different power maneuvers: a 30-m sprint run and a vertical countermovement jump (CJ). The 6 protocols were: (a) walk plus run (WR); (b) WR plus exercises including small jumps (EJ); (c) WR plus dynamic active stretch plus exercises with small jumps (DAEJ); (d) WR plus dynamic active stretch (DA); (e) WR plus static stretch plus exercises with small jumps (SSEJ); and (f) WR plus static stretch (SS). Twenty-six college-age men (n = 14) and women (n - 12) performed each of 6 randomly ordered exercise routines prior to randomly ordered sprint and vertical jump field tests, each routine and subsequent tests were performed on separate days. A 2 X 6 repeated measures analysis of variance revealed a significant overall linear trend (p <= 0.05) with a general tendency toward reduction in jump height when examined in the following analysis entry order: WR, EJ, DAEJ, DA, SSEJ, and SS. The post hoc analysis pairwise comparisons showed the NAIR protocol produced higher jumps than did SS (p = 0.003 <= 0.05), and DAEJ produced higher jumps than did SS (P = 0.009 <= 0.05). There were no significant differences among the 6 protocols on sprint run performance (p >= 0.05). No significant interaction occurred between gender and protocol. There were significant differences between men and women on CJ and sprint trials, as expected, in general men ran faster and jumped higher than the women did. The data indicate that a warm-up including static stretching may negatively impact jump performance, but not sprint time.