Isometric and Weighted Pull-ups as Conditioning Activities to Induce Post-Activation Performance Enhancement (PAPE) on Dynamic Campus Board Exercise

Introduction. Upper body power plays a vital role in rock and sport climbing. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of two different Post-Activation Performance Enhancement (PAPE) protocols – isometric pull-ups and 5 RM weighted pull-ups – on the performance of a dynamic campus board exercise known as the Slap. Material and Methods. Nine climbers (mean age = 31.9 years, weight = 70.2 kg, height = 174.8 cm) of intermediate skill level, belonging to the same intermediate-level training group, participated in the study. Participants completed the International Rock Climbing Research Association (IRCRA) Power Slap Test. A cross-over design was used: all participants went through both baseline and follow-up tests. The Beast inertial sensor (Beast Technologies Ltd., Brescia, Italy) measured velocity (m·s−1), force (N), power (W), and estimated one-repetition maximum (1RM). A repeated-measures ANOVA with Tukey post hoc testing assessed pre–post PAPE (post-activation performance enhancement) effects. Results. The findings indicate that the 5 RM weighted pull-ups significantly improved slap distance and force output, while power and velocity remained unchanged. Specifically, slap distance increased from 74.8 ± 10.1 cm pre-intervention to 79.0 ± 8.0 cm post-intervention, with a significant difference (p = 0.009) and a moderate effect size (d = 0.60). In contrast, the isometric pull-ups did not produce significant changes across any measured parameters. Conclusions. These results suggest that while the 5 RM weighted pull-ups serve as an effective PAPE stimulus for enhancing climbing power, the isometric variant does not yield similar benefits in this context.