Diurnal Post-Activation Performance Enhancement (PAPE) Effect of Resistance Priming in College Badminton Players

Introduction. Badminton is characterized by intermittent power actions including high-intensity jumps, turns, strikes and lunges. Power, maximal strength, agility and speed endurance are of paramount importance for varied formats of badminton. Resistance priming (RP) aids in attaining post-activation performance enhancement (PAPE) in muscular activities. The study was aimed at examining the potential effect of resistance priming exercise on improving anaerobic variables in college badminton players measured at various time points. Material and Methods. Using a repeated measures design with within subject comparisons, the impact of resistance priming exercises on speed, jump height, agility, peak power, peak velocity and decline in power was examined at different points of time. Data were collected at the baseline, 30 minutes after, 8 hours and 24 hours following the intervention. SEMO agility test, 20 m sprint test, Kistler Force platform with MARS software and Wingate Anaerobic Power tests were used to test the players. Results. Repeated measures ANOVA determined that mean agility (F(3,15) = 4.24, p = 0.013, partial η2 = 0.458), peak power (F(3,15) = 11.46, p = 0.000, partial η2 = 0.696) and decline in power (F(3,15) = 5.525, p = 0.009, partial η2 = 0.525) scores differed significantly across four time points. There were no significant differences in jump height (p = 0.174), speed (p = 0.14) and peak velocity (p = 0.874). Conclusions. Morning RP with exercises targeting upper body, lower body and full body induced a significant impact on agility, peak power and decline in power. The improvements were maximum eight hours following the intervention. Future studies may be conducted by incorporating Electromyography (EMG) analysis to examine the muscle activation as well.