The Effect of Four Different Warm-Ups on the Maximum Vertical Jump Test Scores for Female College Athletes

Abstract

The effectiveness of two specific and two non-specific warm-ups on the vertical jump test for female athletes was the focus of this research. The four warm-up procedures were: (a) weighted jumping (WT), (b) submaximal vertical jumping (SUB), (c) stretching (ST), and (d) no warm-up (NW). To control for learning and fatigue, a counter-balanced design was used to test all participants over four different days. Thus all groups were tested in a predetermined order. Participants were 15 university female athletes (age 18 to 23 years). After warming up using one of the four warm-up procedures, three vertical jumps were measured and the best score was used for analysis. A single factors repeated measure analysis of variance and LSD post hoc tests revealed that the weighted jump warm-up procedure was statistically superior (p<0.01) to all other warm-up procedures. No warm-up was statistically inferior to all other warm-ups and submaximal vertical jumping was not statistically different than stretching. It was concluded; (a) performing a warmup is better than no warm-up, and (b) utilizing a weighted resistance-jumping warm-up will produce the highest scores when performing the vertical jump test for female athletes.