Investigation of vertical jump performance after completing heavy squat exercises

The purpose of this study was to determine whether vertical jump height was influenced by completing a half squat or quarter squat exercise prior to jumping. Ten male subjects experienced with the squat exercise performed 4 warm up squat sets followed by 1 repetition with the weight of 90% of 1 repetition maximum of the half squat or quarter squat. No difference in jump heights after any of the 3 conditions, including a control group (F = 3.096, p = 0.070), was found. Correlations between the relative strength ratio and the difference in averaged jump heights before and after the half and quarter squat conditions were also tested, and no correlation was found (r = -0.128, p = 0.724, and r = -0.189, p = 0.601, respectively). Although statistical significance at the 0.05 level was not observed for the comparison of jump heights between conditions, we did observe a trend (i.e., p = 0.07). Therefore, we examined the individual responses to the exercises and determined that 5 of the subjects did increase their vertical jumps after both squat exercises. It may be that the influence of prejump exercise on jump performance may be individualized. Nevertheless, the use of a strength ratio does not appear to predict who will benefit from posttetanic potentiation in this type of exercise situation.