Oxygen Consumption, Heart Rate, and Blood Lactate Responses to an Acute Bout of Plyometric Depth Jumps in College-Aged Men and Women (original) (raw)

2010, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research

Brown, GA, Ray, MW, Abbey, BM, Shaw, BS, and Shaw, I. Oxygen consumption, heart rate, and blood lactate responses to an acute bout of plyometric depth jumps in college-aged men and women. J Strength Cond Res 24(9): 2475-2482, 2010-Although plyometrics are widely used in athletic conditioning, the acute physiologic responses to plyometrics have not been described. The purpose of this study was to investigate the oxygen consumption, heart rate, and blood lactate responses to a single session of plyometric depth jumps. Twenty recreationally trained college-aged subjects (10 men, 10 women) participated in a single session of 8 sets of 10 box depth jumps from a height of 0.8 m with 3 minutes of passive recovery between each set. Plyometric depth jumping elicited 82.5 6 3.1% and 77.8 6 3.1% of the measured maximal oxygen consumption ( _ VO 2 max) for women and men, respectively, with no difference in oxygen consumption in ml/kg/min or percent _ VO 2 max between sexes or sets. Heart rate significantly increased (p , 0.05) from 68.1 6 2.9 beatsÁmin 21 at rest to 169.6 6 1.2 beatsÁmin 21 during depth jumping. Sets 5 to 8 elicited a higher (p , 0.05) heart rate (173.3 6 1.3 beatsÁmin 21 ) than sets 1 to 4 (164.6 6 1.8 beatsÁmin 21 ). Women exhibited a higher heart rate (p , 0.05) during sets 1 and 2 (169.9 6 2.8 beatsÁmin 21 ) than men (150.7 6 4.4 beatsÁmin 21 ). The blood lactate concentrations were significantly (p , 0.05) increased above resting throughout all sets (1.0 6 0.2 mmolÁL 21 compared with 2.9 6 0.1 mmolÁL 21 ), with no differences between sexes or sets. Plyometric depth jumping significantly increased oxygen consumption, heart rate, and blood lactate in both men and women, but no significant difference was found between the sexes. Plyometric depth jumping from a height of 0.8 m has similar energy system requirements to what Wilmore and Costill termed ''Aerobic Power'' training, which should enhance _ VO 2 max, lactate tolerance, oxidative enzymes, and lactate threshold.