The purpose of
this study was to investigate the effects of a low-load gluteal warm-up protocol
on countermovement and squat jump performance. Research by Crow et al. (2012)
has found that a low-load gluteal warm-up can be effective in enhancing peak
power output during a countermovement jump.
Eleven subjects performed countermovement and squat jumps before and
after the gluteal warm-up protocol. Both jumps were examined in separate
testing sessions and performed 30 seconds, and 2, 4, 6 & 8 minutes post
warm-up. Height jumped and peak ground reaction force were the dependent
variables examined in both jumps, with 6 additional variables related to fast
force production being examined in the squat jump only. All jumps were
performed on a force platform (AMTI OR6-5). Repeated measures analysis of
variance found a number of significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) between baseline
and post warm-up scores. Height jumped decreased significantly in both jumps at
all rest intervals excluding 8 minutes. Improvement was seen in 7 of the 8
recorded SJ variables at the 8 minute interval. Five of these improvements were
deemed statistically significant, namely time to peak GRF (43.0%), and time to
maximum rate of force development (65.7%) significantly decreased, while
starting strength (63.4%), change of force in first 100 ms of contraction
(49.1%) and speed strength (43.6%) significantly increased. The results
indicate that a gluteal warm-up can enhance force production in squat jumps
performed after 8 minutes recovery.