Post Activation Potentiation (PAP) is the concept that a specific type of stimulus imposed on the body can facilitate “potentiate” the performance of the following movement to be performed. In less scientific terminology, its the idea that doing one exercise, like a back squat, before another movement, like a jump will help increase the performance of the jump to a greater extent than simply performing the jump by itself.
There are numerous thoughts on how this PAP phenomenon actually works. Some may argue its neurological, some argue it has to do with the sarcoplasmic reticulum and some argue it has to do with calcium sensitivity on the binding sites in the muscle.
One of the biggest unknowns about PAP is the prescriptive aspect of it – “How many sets, reps, how much the load should be and how much rest there should be”. A recent study put this to the test and it turns out… it depends. Its all about the individual!
So, the question becomes how do I find out what is best for me? This is where it “thinking like a sport scientist” comes in to play. Set up an environment that allows you to better understand yourself and your athletes. One of the simplest ways of doing this by changing rest intervals between the loads and then test entire group before and after. Let me explain and make it a little clearer.
You have say 10 athletes. Hopefully, most of these athletes are having some type of measurement being assessed weekly/daily and thankfully, it is most likely a jump. On that day you test everyone as you would. Now, you get to run your little experiment. Have people perform what you deem appropriate for PAP and wait X minutes before testing. Pick 3 different rest intervals 3 different times say over 3 weeks (every Monday we are doing this test for 3 weeks) and then test their jump heights after the PAP. Now you have an idea of how each athlete best responds. I think there is a study out there saying that going off of “feel” is just as good – but I am being lazy on a Saturday morning while writing this blog so I am going to leave it up to you to find that citation.
Outline below
Test jump height – – – Do PAP exercises – – – rest for x (this is what should change week to week – – – retest jump heights
Is this going to be perfect?? Absolutely not! Is it going to allow you to collect evidence and information quicker than others – absolutely. This is why start business do stuff like this – its sets up an information feedback loop! On that note, I might start sharing how a coach can start thinking like a startup and begin to acquire evidence based IP and other cool things, but that’s for another day
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