The Use of Post Activation Potentiation (PAP) to Improve Athletic Strength

A well-designed pre-activity warm-up will bring about various physiological changes that will enhance the training activity or competition. Time restraints for training sessions are often a reality for coaches necessitating alternative pre-activity preparation methods. Recent research indicates that alternative warm-up methods have the ability to bolster an athlete's strength/power potential. Post Activation Potentiation (PAP) is the contractile history of a muscle which influences the mechanical performance of subsequent muscle contractions. Fatiguing muscle contractions impair muscle performance; whereas, non-fatiguing muscle contractions, typically at high loads of brief duration, may enhance muscle performance Thus, PAP is the increase in muscle force and rate of force development that occurs as a result of previous activation of the muscle. The proposed mechanism for PAP is the phosphorylation of myosin regulatory light chains, which renders actin-myosin more sensitive to Ca2+ released from the sarcoplasmic reticulum during subsequent muscle contractions The purpose of this abstract is to discuss this valuable pre-activity preparation technique.