The Acute Effect of Two Preactivation Protocols on Maximal Running Velocity in Male Sprinters

Abstract

The specific warm-up is a basic part of the training process and includes activities related with the main part of the workout. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of specific warm-up through two different preactivation protocols (combined and traditional) on sprint running. Twelve track and field sprinters (age 19.5±3.5 years, training age 6.7±3.4 years, body mass 70.5±5.5 kg, and height 176.2±4.5 cm) vo-lunteered in participating in this study by performing both protocols. The complex warm up protocol in-cluded four squats of 85% (1RM), six vertical jumps and 3 min of neuromuscular coordination exercises, while the traditional protocol included 10 min of neuromuscular coordination exercises. After both specific warm-ups protocols athletes performed a 60 m maximum speed running test. Three pairs of photocells (STC3/ACCO58) with an electronic timer (Microgate Raice Time RAC 201) were used to record the distances of 0-10m, 10-30m, 0-30m, 30-60m and 0-60m. The results revealed statistically significant differences between the two protocols (p <0.05), only at the distances of 0-60m and 30-60m, where the athletes performed better with the complex warm up protocol vs. the traditional protocol (7.162s vs. 7.195s for the 60m and 4.009s vs. 4.020s for the 30m distances). In conclusion, both specific warm-up protocols are presented to be equally ef-fective and can be used for the acceleration phase (0-30m), while the complex warm up protocol seems to be more effective for the maximum speed phase the (30-60m).