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Original article
Original research
Effect of a gluteal activation warm-up on explosive exercise performance
  1. Matt Parr1,2,
  2. Phil DB Price1,
  3. Daniel J Cleather1
  1. 1School of Sport, Health and Applied Sciences, St Mary’s University, Twickenham, UK
  2. 2Department of Strength and Conditioning, Leicester Tigers (Leicester Football Club), Leicester, UK
  1. Correspondence to Daniel J Cleather; daniel.cleather{at}stmarys.ac.uk

Abstract

Objectives To evaluate the effect of a gluteal activation warm-up on the performance of an explosive exercise (the high hang pull (HHP)).

Methods Seventeen professional rugby union players performed one set of three HHPs (with 80% of their one repetition maximum load) following both a control and activation warm-up. Peak electrical activity of the gluteus maximus and medius was quantified using electromyography (EMG). In addition, the kinematics and kinetics of nine players was also recorded using force plate and motion capture technology. These data were analysed using a previously described musculoskeletal model of the right lower limb in order to provide estimates of the muscular force expressed during the movement.

Results The mean peak EMG activity of the gluteus maximus was significantly lower following the activation warm-up as compared with the control (p<0.05, effect size d=0.30). There were no significant differences in the mean peak estimated forces in gluteus maximus and medius, the quadriceps or hamstrings (p=0.053), although there was a trend towards increased force in gluteus maximus and hamstrings following the activation warm-up. There were no differences between the ground reaction forces following the two warm-ups.

Conclusion This study suggests that a gluteal activation warm-up may facilitate recruitment of the gluteal musculature by potentiating the glutes in such a way that a smaller neural drive evokes the same or greater force production during movement. This could in turn potentially improve movement quality.

  • Adaptations of skeletal muscle to exercise and altered neuromuscular activity
  • Assessing physical training modalities in enhancing sports performance
  • Biomechanics
  • Exercise rehabilitation
  • Rugby

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjsem-2017-000245

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    Footnotes

    • Acknowledgements We would like to thank Jon E Goodwin and Jack Lineham for their advice and support in the planning and execution of this study.

    • Contributors MP and DJC conceived the study. MP collected the data used in the study. All authors were involved in the study design, analysis and interpretation of the data, and preparation of the manuscript. All authors approved the final version and agreed to be accountable for the work.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Ethics approval St Mary's University Ethical Review Board.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.

    • Correction notice This paper has been amended since it was published Online First. Owing to a scripting error, some of the publisher names in the references were replaced with 'BMJ Publishing Group'. This only affected the full text version, not the PDF. We have since corrected these errors and the correct publishers have been inserted into the references.