Voluntary Muscle Relaxation Can Mitigate Fatigue and Improve Countermovement Jump Performance

Pinto, BL and McGill, SM. Voluntary muscle relaxation can mitigate fatigue and improve countermovement jump performance. J Strength Cond Res 34(6): 1525–1529, 2020—When muscles contract, they create force and stiffness. Thus, muscle activation and relaxation must be strategically sequenced to coordinate and control movement, to enhance athletic variables such as speed and strength. However, research has favored investigation of muscle activation over relaxation. Athletes such as runners, swimmers, and boxers often shake their limbs to allow the muscle to oscillate freely, immediately before a bout. The purpose was to investigate whether shaking the lower limbs with the intention to voluntarily relax the muscles of the limb has an effect on countermovement jump (CMJ) performance. Subjects performed 10 maximal effort CMJs with 30 seconds of rest between each jump. During the rest period, they either performed the relaxation technique or control condition (standing still). Statistical significance was considered at p
Source: Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research - Category: Sports Medicine Tags: Original Research Source Type: research