Loaded Vertical Jumping: Force–Velocity Relationship, Work, and Power

Abstract

The aims of the current study were to explore the pattern of the force-velocity (F-V) relationship of leg muscles, evaluate the reliability and concurrent validity of the obtained parameters, and explore the load associated changes in the muscle work and power output. Subjects performed maximum vertical countermovement jumps with a vest ranging 0-40% of their body mass. The ground reaction force and leg joint kinematics and kinetics were recorded. The data revealed a strong and approximately linear F-V relationship (individual correlation coefficients ranged from 0.78-0.93). The relationship slopes, F- and V-intercepts, and the calculated power were moderately to highly reliable (0.67 < ICC < 0.91), while the concurrent validity F- and V-intercepts, and power with respect to the directly measured values, was (on average) moderate. Despite that a load increase was associated with a decrease in both the countermovement depth and absolute power, the absolute work done increased, as well as the relative contribution of the knee work. The obtained findings generally suggest that the loaded vertical jumps could not only be developed into a routine method for testing the capacities of leg muscles, but also reveal the mechanisms of adaptation of multijoint movements to different loading conditions.

Two-Load Method for Distinguishing Between Muscle Force, Velocity, and Power-Producing Capacities

“…Such results have been consistently observed from cycling [13–16], jumping [17–19], running [20, 21], leg push offs [4, 22–24], lifting [13, 25, 26] etc. Of utmost importance is that most of the cited studies revealed the correlation coefficients of the linear model applied to individual sets of data well above 0.9.…”

“…Of utmost importance is that most of the cited studies revealed the correlation coefficients of the linear model applied to individual sets of data well above 0.9. In addition, no significant differences in the strength of the relationships were found between the linear and polynomial regression models applied on the same sets of F and V data [18, 19, 25] suggesting that the assessed F-V relationships could be considered linear for further computation. Of importance could also be that the parameters depicting the maximum F, V and P of the tested muscles (i.e., the regression parameters F 0 , V 0 , and P 0 , respectively) proved to be highly reliable [17, 18, 24–26] and at least moderately valid [15, 17–19].…”

“…In addition, no significant differences in the strength of the relationships were found between the linear and polynomial regression models applied on the same sets of F and V data [18, 19, 25] suggesting that the assessed F-V relationships could be considered linear for further computation. Of importance could also be that the parameters depicting the maximum F, V and P of the tested muscles (i.e., the regression parameters F 0 , V 0 , and P 0 , respectively) proved to be highly reliable [17, 18, 24–26] and at least moderately valid [15, 17–19]. Finally, several studies have already showed that the same parameters could also be sensitive enough to detect the differences among various populations regarding the discussed muscle capacities [13, 16, 23, 27].…”

Control strategy of maximum vertical jumps: The preferred countermovement depth may not be fully optimized for jump height

“…Taken together with typical variability of Hcmd of approximately 3-10 cm observed from consecutive jumps of the same subjects (Mandic et al, 2015; Markovic et al, 2014), such differences proved to result in prominent changes in the directly measured force and power output. Therefore, the present study adds to the evidence that the variations in Hcmd decouple jumping performance from the muscle force and power output (Bobbert et al, 2008; Feeney et al, 2016; Mandic et al, 2015; Markovic et al, 2014). Specifically, it shows that the selected control strategy based on a relatively short preferred Hcmd provides considerably higher force and power output than observed in the same jumps conducted from the optimum Hcmd that maximize Hjump.…”

Force-Velocity Profiles of Elite Athletes Tested on a Cycle Ergometer

“…The parameters obtained from the linear F-V relationship have consistently revealed high reliability (Jaric, 2015). In addition, the abilities to generate high movement velocity or resistance to high external load have been shown to be determined by V 0 (Feeney, Stanhope, Kaminski, Machi, & Jaric, 2016) and F 0 (Driss, Vandewalle, Le Chevalier, & Monod, 2002), respectively, while ballistic performance is largely dependent not only on P M (Samozino, Rejc, Di Prampero, Belli, & Morin, 2012;Vandewalle, Peres, Heller, Panel, & Monod, 1987) but also on an optimum balance between F 0 and V 0 (i.e., F-V slope) (Jiménez-Reyes, Samozino, Brughelli, & Morin, 2017;Samozino et al, 2014).…”