The effects of static stretching sets in warm-up on maximum vertical jump performance

The purpose of the study was to determine whether changing the number of static stretching sets during the warm-up changes maximum vertical jump (MVJ) performance. Twenty-five healthy male and female subjects between the ages of 18--40 volunteered to be in the study. The data was statistically treated using a two (pre-test, post-test) by three (NS, 1SS, and 3SS) ANOVA with repeated measures. The dependent variable was MVJ. The independent variables were test and static stretching sets. The analysis revealed that there were no significant differences between pre-test MVJ scores, but a significant difference between post-test scores for all treatments. MVJ was significantly lower when comparing MVJ scores from 3SS to NS and from 3SS to 1SS. By increasing the number of static stretching sets performance was significantly effected. Possible explanations of the mechanisms to explain the effects of acute stretching on performance are changes in musculotendinous stiffness and neuromuscular suppression