Post Activation Potentiation in North American High School Football Players: 1638 Board #313 June 1 9

Post activation potentiation (PAP) is an acute enhancement of muscular power production resulting from a high intensity potentiating exercise. Practical applications of the PAP phenomena as a warmup strategy are the focus of ongoing research. This study compared the effects of a dynamic and a PAP warm up strategy on speed and horizontal plane muscular power output. High School male football players (n = 16) participated in a repeated measures cross over design study consisting of 3 testing days. Day 1: one repetition maximum (1-RM) back squats were established. Day 2: half of the participants completed a dynamic warmup consisting of dynamic movements (ex. high knees, butt kickers, frog jumps, cherry pickers, lateral slide, karaokes, back pedal) while the other half of the participants performed a PAP warmup consisting of back squats culminating in a set of 4 repetitions at 85% of 1-RM. Following the warmups (4-minutes), the participants performed 3 trials of a weighted sled push 91 kilograms (200 pounds) over a 9.1 meter (10 yards) linear path. Following the sled pushes, the participants then performed three trials of 18.2 meter (20 yards) sprints. Day 3: participants crossed over with respect to the warmup procedures and again performed the three sled push and sprint trials. Dependent t-tests were used to compare the sled push and sprint times between warm up conditions. Both the 18.2 meter sprint (P < 0.01) and the 91 kilogram sled push (P < 0.01) showed a significant improvement when PAP was utilized as a warmup, rather than the dynamic warmup. Within the parameters of the study, it is concluded that PAP as a warm up strategy enhances sprint ability and horizontal plane muscular power output.