Physiological and Biomechanical Responses to an Acute Bout of High Kicking in Dancers

Rice, PE, Gurchiek, RD, and McBride, JM. Physiological and biomechanical responses to an acute bout of high kicking in dancers. J Strength Cond Res 32(10): 2954–2961, 2018—High-kick precision competitive dance involves the integration of kicking inline, jumping, and turning during a 3-minute routine and causes a disturbance to both aerobic and anaerobic systems. However, no known study has quantified the effect of a hick-kick–specific protocol on blood lactate (BL), heart rate (HR), and countermovement jump (CMJ) performance. A group of adolescent high-kick dancers (n = 20; age = 15.0 ± 1.8 years; height = 161.5 ± 8.2 cm; body mass = 56.3 ± 11.0 kg; and dance team/weight lifting experience = 2.1 ± 0.9 years) participated in this investigation. Participants' BL was collected, and 3 CMJ trials were performed before (PRE) and after (POST) completing the high-kick protocol. The high-kick protocol consisted of intermittent running and kicking in place for a total of 1:45 at a tempo of 160 b·min−1, while average and peak HR (HRavg; HRpeak) were recorded. Jump height (JH), maximal trunk flexion (MTF), take-off angle (TOA), and relative peak power (PP) were determined from PRE and POST CMJ trials. During kicking, HRavg and HRpeak (n = 13) were 172.4 ± 15.7 b·min−1 and 207.0 ± 23.0 b·min−1, respectively. Dancers' (n = 20) BL significantly (p ≤ 0.05) increased from 1.5 ± 0.5 to 8.6 ± 1.5 mmol·L−1, and JH and PP significantly decreased from 0.42 ± 0.08 to 0....
Source: Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research - Category: Sports Medicine Tags: Original Research Source Type: research