This randomized crossover investigation evaluated post-activation performance enhancement (PAPE) effects on countermovement jump (CMJ) height produced by six distinct conditioning activities, and whether responses differed between men and women. The authors aimed to determine whether a brief window after specific conditioning maneuvers yields measurable acute increases in jump performance in moderately trained adults.
The study included 35 healthy, moderately trained adults: 18 men and 17 women. Mean age across the sample was 24.6 ± 3.7 years, mean height 1.71 ± 0.10 m, and mean body mass 75.7 ± 16.1 kg. All participants had at least one year of resistance exercise experience. A familiarization visit included assessment of the one-repetition maximum (1RM) back squat; group mean 1RM was 134 ± 32 kg and mean 1RM back squat normalized to body mass was 1.8 ± 0.4.
Participants completed six conditioning activities in randomized order across separate visits. The six conditions were:
These activities were selected to represent different loading modes (concentric, eccentric, plyometric) and an added external load for plyometric tasks.
Each visit followed an identical structure. After a standardized 10-minute warm-up, participants performed three baseline CMJs. They then completed the assigned conditioning activity for that visit. Four minutes after the conditioning activity, participants performed three post-conditioning CMJs. The primary outcome was the change in CMJ height, calculated as the difference between the average of three pre-conditioning trials and the average of three post-conditioning trials.
Changes in CMJ height were compared across the six conditioning activities and between sexes using a repeated-measures analysis of variance (6 × 2 design). Analyses included the full sample and separate analyses for men and women to test for condition × time interactions and sex differences.
For the combined sample, the authors reported no significant condition × time interaction for CMJ change (F[3.89,34] = 1.71; p = 0.153; ղ2p = 0.048). In other words, none of the six conditioning activities produced a statistically significant change in CMJ height within the 4-minute post-conditioning window when averaged across participants.
When men and women were analyzed separately, no significant condition × time interactions emerged. For men: F[5,17] = 1.54; p = 0.185; ղ2p = 0.083. For women: F[5,16] = 0.362; p = 0.873; ղ2p = 0.022. The study therefore found no evidence of a sex difference in acute CMJ response to the tested conditioning activities within the assessed timeframe.
In this cohort of moderately trained young adults, no measurable PAPE effect on CMJ height was observed within 4 minutes after any of the six conditioning activities. The authors note that the PAPE effect may be small when conditioning activities are performed after a warm-up, which was part of the protocol for each visit. As a practical consideration, sports scientists, coaches, and exercise practitioners should recognize that isolating a conditioning activity from the warm-up — and accounting for individual characteristics that influence PAPE responsiveness — may be important if the goal is to elicit acute performance enhancement.
All details provided here are limited to the information reported in the source abstract. The abstract reports group means, protocol structure, statistical outcomes, and the main conclusion that no effect was found within a 4-minute window; additional methodological details (for example, exact conditioning intensities, number of sets and repetitions for each conditioning activity, monitoring of fatigue, or longer post-activation time points) were not reported in the abstract. The sample consisted of moderately trained young adults, so findings may not generalize to highly trained athletes or untrained populations.
In summary, this randomized crossover trial with 35 moderately trained participants found no significant PAPE-related increase in CMJ height within 4 minutes after six different conditioning activities and observed no sex differences. The authors recommend considering individual variability and the relation between warm-up and conditioning activity when attempting to produce acute performance potentiation.