Energy Expenditure in Maximal Jumps on Sand

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to comparatively investigate the energy expenditure of jumping on sand and on a firm surface. Eight male university volleyball players were recruited in this study and performed 3 sets of 10 repetitive jumps on sand (the S condition), and also on a force platform (the F condition). The subjects jumped every two seconds during a set, and the interval between sets was 20 seconds. The subjects performed each jump on sand with maximal exertion while in the F condition they jumped as high as they did on sand. The oxygen requirement for jumping was defined as the total oxygen uptake consecutively measured between the first set of jumps and the point that oxygen uptake recovers to the resting value, and the energy expenditure was calculated. The jump height in the S condition was equivalent to 64.0Ϯ4.4% of the height in the maximal jump on the firm surface. The oxygen requirement was 7.39Ϯ0.33 liters in S condition and 6.24Ϯ0.69 liters in the F condition, and the energy expenditure was 37.0Ϯ1.64 kcal and 31.2Ϯ3.46 kcal respectively. The differences in the two counter values were both statistically significant (pϽ0.01). The energy expenditure of jumping in the S condition was equivalent to 119.4Ϯ10.1% of the one in the F condition, which ratio was less than in walking and close to in running.

Effects of Training Surface on Physiological Characteristics of Prepubescent Female Volleyball Players

“…In our study, group S achieved greater improvements during and after the 10-week training program in all tested variables (aerobic capacity, agility, jumping and sprinting ability) compared with both groups H and C. Differences caused on biomechanical variables as well as energy expenditure during human locomotion on sand surface have been examined previously [36,37]. The instability of a non-solid ground, like sand, can result in reductions in maximum produced force during squat jump compared to force produced during jumping on rigid surface [2].…”

“…The ankle-, kneeand hip joint kinematics are altered because of sand instability implying altered demands on the neuromuscular system [2,38]. Furthermore sprinting and jumping on sand surface seems to decrease significantly stride length, because of loss of energy during acceleration, leading in a larger number of surface contacts in order to cover the same distance [36][37][38]. Gaudino et al, (2013) [36] reported also that running on sand surface increases the energy cost by 30% compared with the values achieved during running on grass surface.…”

Effects of different sport surfaces on muscle performance

“…They have explained this inconsistency by differences in surface construction because their -----subjects mentioned a sensation of "running on sand" indicating that the surface may have had too much damping or inertia to effectively produce a "rebound" effect as in other surfaces used. Indeed, running on sand increases energy expenditure compared to running on hard surfaces [29,38,40], grass [37] and force platform [35] because sand doesn't return energy absorbed in the earlier phase of each step and, thus, this lost energy must be replaced by the muscles' activities at later phase of each step [10,29]. This is also true for jumping on the surfaces with very high shock absorption other than sand [16,33].…”

Transient effects of jumping lunge on sand on balance ability in healthy adults: a preliminary study

“…However, it seems that the period of exercise of the study was short and the exercise was consisted of a single exercise, thus there was no difference between groups. Furthermore, there were studies that reported that exercising on sand surfaces induced more fatigue and energy expenditure after exercise than other surfaces [25,26]. In the study, the balance abilities were measured for one minute after the exercise, thus the participants may not have had enough time to recover from exercising on a sand surface when it was time to perform the SEBT.…”