Acute effects of two different warm-up protocols on flexibility and lower limb explosive performance in male and female high level athletes

This study examined the effects of two different warm-up protocols on lower limb power and flexibility in high level athletes. twenty international level fencers (10 males and 10 females) performed two warm-up protocols that included 5-min light jogging and either short (15s) or long (45s) static stretching exercises for each of the main leg muscle groups (quadriceps,hamstrings and triceps surae),followed by either 3 sets of 3 (short stretching treatment),or 3 sets of 5 tuck jumps (long stretching treatment),in a randomized crossover design with one week between treatments. hip joint flexion was measured with a lafayette goniometer before and after the 5-min warm-up,after stretching and 8 min after the tuck jumps,while counter movement jump (cmj) performance was evaluated by an ergojump contact platform,before and after the stretching treatment,as well as immediately after and 8 minutes after the tuck jumps. three way anova (condition,time,gender) revealed significant time (p < 0.001) and gender (p < 0.001) main effects for hip joint flexion,with no interaction between factors. flexibility increased by 6.8 ± 1.1% (p < 0.01) after warm-up and by another 5.8 ± 1.6% (p < 0.01) after stretching,while it remained increased 8 min after the tuck jumps. women had greater rom compared with men at all time points (125 ± 8° vs. 94 ± 4° p<0.01 at baseline),but the pattern of change in hip flexibility was not different between genders. cmj performance was greater in men compared with women at all time points (38.2 ± 1.9 cm vs. 29.8 ± 1.2 cm p < 0.01 at baseline),but the percentage of change cmj performance was not different between genders. cmj performance remained unchanged throughout the short stretching protocol,while it decreased by 5.5±0.9% (p <0.01) after stretching in the long stretching protocol however,8 min after the tuck jumps,cmj performance was not different from the baseline value (p = 0.075). in conclusion,lower limb power may be decreased after long periods of stretching,but performance of explosive exercises may reverse this phenomenon. © journal of sports science and medicine.