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The goal of this study was to test the hypothesis that incorporating strength- or power-oriented drills into a standard warm-up routine improves peak power output in a single response jump task. Thirty-five division 1A intercollegiate athletes (24 males and 11 females, age 21.0±0.6 years, height 181.9±2.0 cm, weight 91.4±4.3 kg, mean±SE) served as subjects. After familiarization with the horizontal countermove jump during an initial visit, each subject completed the following five warm-up protocols, one each on five non-consecutive days: standard warm-up (WU); warm-up plus four sets of four back squats at 75-85% 4RM (WU+SQ); warm-up plus four sets of four power snatch at 75-85% 4RM (WU+SN); warm-up plus four sets of four loaded jumps with 15-20% body weight added (WU+LJ); and warm-up plus four sets of four unloaded tuck jumps (WU+J). Within three minutes of the warm-up, three maximum effort, horizontal countermove jumps were performed, and the best jump distance was recorded as the athlete's score. The order of entry into the five warm-up protocols was balanced to eliminate any practice effect. The data were analyzed using repeated measures analysis of variance. Tukey's post hoc test was employed when a significant main effect was observed. The results are displayed in the table below. The results demonstrate that when all subjects were combined, no significant effect of warm-up protocol was present. However, when male subjects were analyzed separately, the jump distance after WU+SN was significantly greater than after WU alone. We conclude that in male intercollegiate athletes, incorporating the power snatch exercise into the warm-up routine can significantly improve performance in the horizontal countermove jump.
Radcliffe et al. (Wed,) studied this question.