Influence Of Recovery Duration Following A Potentiating Stimulus On Muscular Power In Recreationally Trained Individuals

Abstract

PURPOSE: Athletes competing in explosive sports often experience temporarily increased muscular power following a heavy load exercise called postactivation potentiation (PAP). Previous research examining recreationally trained individuals (RTI), however, shows mixed results under similar conditions. As the balance between PAP and fatigue mechanisms following a heavy load exercise influences the overall outcome, the recovery duration following the stimulus might explain the inconsistent results noted in RTI. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of recovery duration following a potentiating stimulus on muscular power in RTI. METHODS: Seven male RTI (age = 24 ± 4 y, height = 173.8 ± 10.7 cm, mass = 90.1 ± 28.2 kg, 1RM to body mass ratio = 1.4 ± 0.3) with at least one year of back squat experience completed six experimental trials. The first session assessed subjects' height, mass, and 1RM on the parallel back squat. The second session (control) assessed subjects' baseline power measures on a 30 s Wingate Test using 7.5% of baseline body mass as resistance. For sessions 3-6, subjects performed a potentiating exercise (1 set of 5 repetitions at 85% 1RM), rested for 5, 10, 15, or 20 min, and performed an identical Wingate Test. Subjects experienced rest durations in randomized order on separate days. RESULTS: No significant differences (p > 0.05) existed among control and experimental trials in absolute peak power, absolute average power, relative peak power, relative average power, and fatigue index. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that a heavy load squat protocol known to stimulate PAP in competitive athletes failed to induce PAP in RTI regardless of rest duration. This suggests that discrepancies in previous literature describing RTI cannot be explained by differences in recovery period among studies. RTI might display these inconsistencies because "recreational training" encompasses a wide spectrum of training intensities, i.e. better trained RTI might demonstrate PAP similar to athletes while less advanced RTI fail to experience similar benefits. In conclusion, heavy load squats did not improve subsequent performance following any rest periods, suggesting that the effectiveness of potentiating stimuli does not vary as a function of fatigue in recreationally trained individuals.