The optimal training protocol to maximize strength and power performance in athletes is greatly sought after by athletes, coaches, and strength and conditioning professionals. The use of strength-power potentiating complexes is one such training method to develop explosive strength in athletes (15). This involves muscular contractions of near-maximal loads, prior to performing an explosive movement with similar biomechanical characteristics (7). This training technique takes advantage of post-activation potentiation (PAP) to increase rate of force development (RFD); that would lead to an increase in acceleration and velocity. Post-activation potentiation refers to the enhanced neuromuscular condition observed after an initial bout of heavy resistance exercise (15). Both acute and chronic gains in muscular strength and power may be further enhanced by performing an explosive power exercise, while the affected muscle groups are in this potentiated state(13).In the past decade, research had evidently shown that utilizing a previous contractile activity; dynamic contractions or isometric maximal voluntary contractions (MVC), was able to augment a subsequent athletic performance. These enhanced performance measures included the vertical jumps (16) and drop jumps (6). However, only few studies have investigated the effects of PAP on sprint performance (9, 10, 16, 18) The implementation of an isometric MVC, that involves multiple joints, may be an effective warm-up routine for sprinting performance. Countermovement jump power was shown to be greater after a maximal isometric squat PAP protocol (3 sets of 3-second isometric MVC), in comparison to a dynamic squat PAP protocol (1 set of 3RM back squats) (12). While these results may translate to better sprinting performance, the mode of the PAP protocol (dynamic or isometric) to induce subsequent greater sprint performance requires further investigation. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of 3 different types of PAP protocols (dynamic back squats (DS), maximum voluntary isometric knee extension (IKE) and maximum voluntary isometric back squat (IS)) on subsequent sprint performance in well-trained athletes.
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