Acute effects of warm up stretch protocols on vertical jump height, range of motion and balance in female conservatoire contemporary dancers / Camille Brauch (2017)

Background: Stretching is often included as part of the warm up procedures prior to exercise, as it is suggested to enhance performance and prevent injury. However, current research has indicated that intense or lengthy bouts of static stretching prior to exercise may be detrimental to performance, and thus avoided. Conversely, increasing research surrounding dynamic stretching (DS) protocols has emerged, showing beneficial effects on performance when done beforehand. This research however has not taken into consideration a warm up protocol that utilises both static and dynamic exercises, creating the need for further research in this area.

Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the acute effects of static stretching (SS), dynamic stretching (DS), and combination (static and dynamic) stretch protocols on vertical jump height (VJH), range of motion (ROM), and balance in dancers. A no stretching (NS) protocol acted as the control condition.

Design: This study employed a cross-over, repeated measures experimental design. Method: 11 dancers (N=11, 19.73 ± 0.79 years of age) with at least one year of conservatoire training, visited the lab on only one occasion. The sessions began with a five-minute cardiovascular warm up, which was followed by one of the four randomly assigned stretching conditions. Immediately following the warm up interventions, the participants were tested on VJH, ROM via grande battement and développé à la seconde, and balance, respectively.

Results: One-way repeated measures ANOVA showed no significant difference in performance – across any of the indicators – between the warm up protocols. However, DS and combination protocols consistently produced the best performance within the four indicators. DS proved to be beneficial for VJH and ROM, but proved detrimental to balance performance. However, combination stretching showed enhanced balance in addition to improved VJH and ROM.
Conclusion: The overall results suggest that dancers should employ a combined protocol that includes a cardiovascular warm up, SS, and DS sequences, in order to improve performance of such dance components as VJH, ROM, and balance.