Bodyweight squats can induce post-activation performance enhancement on jumping performance: a brief report

Abstract

Post-activation potentiation enhancement (PAPE) refers to increased force generation following a muscular conditioning pre-activity that acutely enhances subsequent strength and power performance. Athlete apprehension to use heavy weights (i.e. >80%1RM) immediately before a competition or inability to use weights before the performance (e.g. due to regulations) prevent materialising the benefits of PAPE. Therefore, this study examined whether PAPE can be induced with bodyweight squats. Sixteen healthy, team sports players (male: 10, female: 6, mean ± SD: age 22.2 ± 3.0 years, height 1.67 ± 0.08 m, body mass 70.2 ± 8.2 kg) performed three sets of ten repetitions of bodyweight squats with 30 seconds recovery between each set. A countermovement jump was performed 5 minutes before, 2 and 4 minutes after the squat sets and jump height was calculated. The results showed existence of PAPE with the jump height increasing at both 2 (30.8 ± 5.6 cm, p = 0.045, g = 0.21) and 4 (30.8 ± 6.1 cm, p = 0.037, g = 0.20) minutes, compared to baseline (29.5 ± 6.4 cm). This is the first study to use bodyweight squats rather than loaded squats. Our findings indicate that three sets of ten repetitions of squats using bodyweight only can be a sufficient stimulus to induce PAPE.