Influence of Recovery Time After Warm-up on Vertical Jump Performance in Trained Prepubertal and Postpubertal Male Athletes

Abstract

Abstract Ferrari, A, Baquet, G, Blazevich, AJ, and Ratel, S. Influence of recovery time after warm-up on vertical jump performance in trained prepubertal and postpubertal male athletes. J Strength Cond Res 37(10): 1985–1992, 2023—The aim of this study was to examine the concurrent effects of maturity status and recovery delay after a standardized dynamic warm-up on vertical jump performance. Thirteen prepubertal boys (9.4 ± 1.1 years) and 12 postpubertal boys (16.6 ± 0.8 years) were tested on squat jump (SJ) and drop jump from 30 cm (DJ30) before and after a standardized, 8-minute, dynamic warm-up, including low-intensity, nonspecific dynamic exercises progressing to maximal, specific exercises, over 6 separate occasions. In each session, subjects jumped at 0, 1.5, 3, 5, 7, or 10 minutes after warm-up in a randomized order. Measurements included SJ height, DJ30 height, ground contact time (GCT), and reactive strength index (RSI) from DJ30. The results revealed no significant recovery time × maturity group interaction effects for SJ height (p = 0.36), DJ30 height (p = 0.45), GCT (p = 0.75), or RSI (p = 0.09), meaning that maturity status did not have a significant effect on changes in vertical jump performance after the warm-up. However, there were significant time effects for SJ height, DJ30 height, and RSI (p < 0.001 for all), with DJ30 height and RSI increasing significantly by 16.9% at 1.5 minutes (p < 0.001) and SJ height increasing significantly by 12.0% until 3 minutes after the warm-up (p < 0.001). To conclude, the standardized dynamic warm-up had beneficial effects on vertical jump performance within the first 3 minutes after completion of the intervention. However, vertical jump performance after the warm-up was not dependent on the children's maturity status.