Acute effects of overspeed stimuli with towing system on athletic sprint performance: A systematic review with meta-analysis

Acute Effects of Different Overspeed Loads with Motorized Towing System in Young Athletes: A Pilot Study

“…These significant increases in V5m (4 and 5.25 kg) and SV (2, 4 and 5.25 kg), observed in our study (See Table 3 ) fall within the parameters recommended in the literature [ 6 , 12 , 13 , 15 ], and can be explained mainly by significant increases in SL (2, 4 and 5.25 kg) and FT (4 and 5.25 kg) and CT decreases (4 and 5.25 kg). However, in the present study and in the specialized literature, it is not clear whether these differences are produced by greater muscular activity in the athletes or by the athletes’ forward traction produced by the system [ 10 ].…”

“…Although there are large methodological differences in the related literature that make it difficult to compare data [ 10 ], we can observe that the percentage increases in V5m and SV obtained in our study (See Table 3 ) are similar to previous studies: (1) + 14.3% MRS ( p < 0.01) with 100–150 N [ 30 ] and + 4.4% MRS ( p < 0.001) with 25 N [ 11 ]; (2) + 7.5% MRS ( p < 0.001) with 5 kg [ 6 ]; + 9.4% MRS ( p < 0.001) with 7 kg [ 1 ]; + 1.9% with 3 kg, + 3.6% with 4 kg and +4.8% with 5 kg in SV ( p < 0.05) [ 16 ] and with all the loads (3, 4, 5 kg) in SV ( p < 0.05) [ 7 ]. These significant increases in V5m (4 and 5.25 kg) and SV (2, 4 and 5.25 kg), observed in our study (See Table 3 ) fall within the parameters recommended in the literature [ 6 , 12 , 13 , 15 ], and can be explained mainly by significant increases in SL (2, 4 and 5.25 kg) and FT (4 and 5.25 kg) and CT decreases (4 and 5.25 kg).…”

“…OS stimuli increase the intensity in running movement specificity and physiologically stimulate the neuromuscular system during OS running actions [ 8 , 9 ]. Mainly, it has been hypothesized that OS training creates a “light up” in the central nervous system that can increase the number of neurons recruited and alter the timing of nervous stimuli, which could lead to an improvement in intramuscular coordination, and theoretically, these changes could cause decreases in contact time and increases in stride rate [ 9 , 10 ], but the latter differs in several studies [ 10 , 11 ]. Mero and Komi [ 12 ] also state that OS training can improve nerve conduction velocity, which can lead muscle performance to higher levels of performance.…”

“…Studies on the subject have described how the application of acute OS with TS stimuli produce alterations in kinematic, biomechanical and physiological factors [ 1 , 6 , 10 , 12 , 13 ]. The potential effects described above reveal that the response would be athlete-dependent and individual, depending on one’s own response capacity and the repetitiveness of the stimuli [ 1 , 7 , 13 , 14 ].…”

“…The main criterion recommended in the literature for the choice of loads for OS training with TS is based on the percentage of acute improvement of the assisted MRS compared to the unassisted MRS with the recommended variations being between +3–8% [ 13 , 15 ] and +5–10% [ 6 , 12 ]. However, the heterogeneity of the means used to generate OS with TS complicates the standardization and replication of the conditions of each study [ 7 , 10 , 14 , 15 ]. Currently there are devices such as the DynaSpeed (Ergotest Technology AS, Langesund, Norway) [ 7 , 16 ] and the 1080 Sprint (1080 Motion, Lidingö, Sweden) [ 1 , 17 ] that allow for precise quantification and monitoring of the traction load.…”