Acute effects of unilateral and bilateral conditioning activity on countermovement jump, linear speed, and muscle stiffness: A randomized crossover study

Piotr Biel; Mateusz Zubik; Aleksandra Filip-Stachnik; Paulina Ewertowska; Michał Krzysztofik

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0292999

Acute effects of unilateral and bilateral conditioning activity on countermovement jump, linear speed, and muscle stiffness: A randomized crossover study

PLoS One. 2023 Oct 13;18(10):e0292999. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0292999. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Piotr Biel¹, Mateusz Zubik¹, Aleksandra Filip-Stachnik², Paulina Ewertowska³, Michał Krzysztofik^{2

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Sport and Physical Education, AGH University of Science and Technology, Krakow, Poland.
² Institute of Sport Sciences, The Jerzy Kukuczka Academy of Physical Education in Katowice, Katowice, Poland.
³ Division of Clinical Physiotherapy, Faculty of Physical Education, Gdansk University of Physical Education and Sport, Gdańsk, Poland.
⁴ Department of Sport Games, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, Charles University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic.

Abstract

Purpose: Evidence directly comparing the effects of bilateral and unilateral conditioning activities is limited. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the acute effect of unilateral and bilateral conditioning activity on vastus lateralis stiffness, countermovement jump parameters, and 10 m sprint.

Methods: Twelve semi-professional basketball players participated in this study (age: 23 ± 4 yrs; body mass: 84.7 ± 10.6 kg; body height: 192 ± 6 cm; basketball training experience: 11 ± 4 yrs) performed four experimental sessions to compare the acute effects of bilateral, stronger-only, weaker-only lower limb or no conditioning activity on vastus lateralis stiffness, countermovement jumps variables (height; peak velocity; peak force, contraction time, countermovement depth, and modified reactive strength index and 10 m sprint time. Measurements were performed 5 minutes before and in the 5th and 10th minutes after CA.

Results: Bilateral conditioning activity significantly increase the countermovement jump height (p = 0.002; ES = 0.71) and the reactive strength index modified (p = 0.010; ES = 0.59). Moreover, a significantly higher peak force in the stronger than in the weaker limb was found (p<0.001) without any differences between conditions and time points (p>0.05). However, there were no significant (p>0.05) interactions and effects of conditions or time-point in the case of the other countermovement jump variables, vastus lateralis stiffness, and 10m sprint time.

Conclusion: Unilateral and bilateral drop jumps (3 sets of 5 repetitions) did not affect the vastus lateralis stiffness and time of the 10m sprint. However, only bilateral drop jumps effectively enhanced the countermovement jump height and modified reactive strength index. Bilateral drop jumps might be a useful part of a warm-up to improve jumping performance in basketball players.

Copyright: © 2023 Biel et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Publication types

Randomized Controlled Trial
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Athletic Performance* / physiology
Basketball* / physiology
Cross-Over Studies
Humans
Lower Extremity / physiology
Muscle Strength / physiology
Quadriceps Muscle
Warm-Up Exercise*
Young Adult

Grants and funding

The research was supported by the Charles University, by project PRIMUS/22/HUM/019. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.