The Acute Post-Activation Performance Enhancement of the Bench Press Throw in Disabled Sitting Volleyball Athletes

Michal Krzysztofik,Patryk Matykiewicz,Diana Celebanska,Jakub Jarosz,Eliza Gawel,Anna Zwierzchowska

doi:10.3390/ijerph18073818

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to examine the acute effects of the bench press exercise with predetermined velocity loss percentage on subsequent bench press throw (BPT) performance with raised legs or feet on the floor among disabled, sitting volleyball players. Twelve elite sitting volleyball athletes (age = 33 ± 9 years; body mass = 84.7 ± 14.7 kg; relative bench press maximum strength = 1.0 ± 0.3 kg/body mass) took part in this study. The experiment was performed following a randomized crossover design, where each participant performed a single set of bench press with a 60% one-repetition maximum (1RM) to a 10% decrease of mean bar velocity as a conditioning activity (CA). The BPT with a 60%1RM was performed to assess changes in peak power (PP), peak velocity (PV) before and after the CA. The differences between analyzed variables before and after the CA were verified using two-way repeated-measures ANOVA (condition × time; 2 × 2). The ANOVA showed a significant main effect of time for peak bar velocity (p = 0.03; η2 = 0.312) and peak power output (p = 0.037; η2 = 0.294). The post hoc comparison showed a significant increase in post-CA peak bar velocity and peak power for raised legs condition in comparison with pre-CA value (p = 0.02, p = 0.041, respectively). The present study showed that the subsequent BPT performed with raised legs could be enhanced by the bench press with a 60% 1RM to a 10% mean bar velocity decrease as a CA among disabled sitting volleyball players. Therefore, athletes and coaches can consider performing a bench press throw with raised legs without compromising performance.

Highlights

Sitting volleyball is an official Paralympic sport
During the experimental session (Thu), each participant performed a single set of the bench press exercise with 60% 1RM, until mean velocity dropped to 90% of that reached in the conditioning activity (CA)
The primary finding of this study was that the bench press exercises performed with 60% 1RM to a 10% mean bar velocity decrease significantly potentiated subsequent bench press throw performance with raised legs, while no differences in pre- and post-CA values were found when bench press throws were performed with feet on the floor among disabled, sitting volleyball players

Summary

Introduction

Sitting volleyball is an official Paralympic sport. It differs from traditional volleyball mainly in the position of the players, which is determined by the location of contact between the player’s buttocks and the floor on the court. Since most sitting volleyball players have lower body disabilities, they need to have a high level of upper-body physical fitness, core muscle strength, and good balance in the sitting position [2]. They need to make decisions rapidly and move to drop the ball in the opponents’ court. The coaches, taking into account these highspeed requirements, to improve the skills of the players, should largely introduce training methods aimed at developing power of the upper body One such approach includes complex training, the effectiveness of which is based on the postactivation performance enhancement (PAPE) phenomenon

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Conclusion