Background/Purpose
There has been significant interest recently on the effects of warm-up on performance. An active warm-up is known to elevate muscle temperature and reduce the lactate response during subsequent exercise (Gray & Nimmo, 2010). These effects have the potential to enhance performance. However, player substitutes in many sports have significant periods of inactivity after the warm-up prior to their entry into a competition. In some sports, the pattern is for players to sit while other sports have substitutes stand. The evidence to support which is best for the athlete is lacking. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the effects of standing versus sitting on vertical jump performance after an active warm-up period.
Method
Fifty-four participants participated in three different testing sessions where they were to stand, sit or continue exercising after their warm-up. Treatment order was randomly assigned. Following warm-up, baseline standing vertical jump data for that testing session was collected. Standing vertical jump performance was then tested every 10 minutes for an hour to track performance degradation for a total of seven vertical jumps for each session. Each participant got one attempt to give best effort.
Analysis/Results
A Repeated Measures ANOVA found no significant differences (F= .621, p= .539) in performance across conditions.
Conclusions
While no differences were found, future research should be conducted as decreases in performance were apparent in a graphical representation of the data for the sitting and standing conditions. It also should be noted that participants complained that they were "stiff" in the standing condition.
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