Abstract
Percussive massage tools (PMT) have recently become a topic of interest in the realms of fitness, wellness, pop culture, and athletics. PMT are designed to be implemented during warmups, pre-competition, and recovery processes. Little is known about the warm-up effects of these relatively new tools on muscular power.
PURPOSE: The purpose was to determine the efficacy of a PMT aided warmup on Wingate Anaerobic Power Test (WAPT) performance.
METHODS: 20 college-aged subjects (16♂, age 22.6 ± 2.8 yr., height 176 ± 8.4 cm, body mass 78.6 ± 15.4 kg) volunteered to participate in the WAPT following familiarization and 3 randomly assigned warm-up protocols. All warm-up protocols began with 3 minutes of cycling at 50 watts. The cycling was followed by: 2 minutes of (PMT) on the lower extremity, 2 minutes of foam rolling on the lower extremity (FR), and no intervention (C). The Wingate Test was performed at 100g/kg body mass on a Lode cycle ergometer. ANOVA with repeated measures was used to analyze these data (*p< 0.05).
RESULTS: PP-Peak Power (watts) and MP-Mean Power(watts) were: PMT 1328 ± 368 & 640 ± 173, FR: 1139 ± 284 & 623 ± 155, and C 1183 ± 386 & 634 ± 160, respectively. PP was significantly higher following PMT than both FR 189 (+16.6%) and C 145 (+12.2%). There were no significant differences in MP among trials. Fatigue index (FI) of (PMT: 80.8 ± 9.6% FR: 77.7 ± 11.9% C: 76.1 ± 9.3%*). PMT FI was 4.7%* higher than C trials. Blood lactate values obtained 3 minutes post WAPT were not significantly different among the trials and were as follows: PMT 10.9 mmol ± 2.3 mmol, FR 11.2 mmol ± 2.7 mmol, and C 11.0 mmol ± 2.1 mmol.
CONCLUSION: A PMT aided warm-up may be an effective means of improving PP production and possibly performance in acute power-based events lasting 30 seconds or less. The greater FI of PMT may be partially attributed to the significantly greater PP. Supported, in part by a grant from Theragun®.