Factors modulating post-activation potentiation and its effect on performance of subsequent explosive activities.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Narrative review synthesizing mechanisms and previous literature without systematic review methodology
PubMed 19203135 · doi:10.2165/00007256-200939020-00004
What was done
Narrative review examining the physiological mechanisms underlying post-activation potentiation from voluntary conditioning contractions and analyzing the variables that determine whether potentiation enhances subsequent explosive athletic performance.
What was found
No numerical data or effect sizes are provided in the abstract. Conditioning contractions consistently enhance peak force and rate of force development in twitch contractions, but functional performance effects on explosive tasks (such as jumping or sprinting) remain equivocal because conditioning contractions simultaneously induce fatigue, and past studies have not standardized key variables.
Why it matters
It highlights that post-activation potentiation cannot be evaluated in isolation from fatigue, explaining why athletic performance outcomes vary across differing contraction protocols and recovery intervals.
Limits
Narrative review format without systematic literature search criteria, meta-analytic pooling, original experimental human data, or quantitative summary statistics in the abstract.
Cited by
- supports Prior conditioning with a heavy load primes fast-twitch muscle fibers and enhances subsequent explosive movement velocity through post-activation potentiation.