Time to Differentiate Postactivation “Potentiation” from “Performance Enhancement” in the Strength and Conditioning Community

Abstract

Coaches and athletes in elite sports are constantly seeking to use innovative and advanced training strategies to efficiently improve strength/power performance in already highly-trained individuals. In this regard, high-intensity conditioning contractions have become a popular means to induce acute improvements primarily in muscle contractile properties, which are supposed to translate to subsequent power performances. This performance-enhancing physiological mechanism has previously been called postactivation potentiation (PAP). However, in contrast to the traditional mechanistic understanding of PAP that is based on electrically-evoked twitch properties, an increasing number of studies used the term PAP while referring to acute performance enhancements, even if physiological measures of PAP were not directly assessed. In this current opinion article, we compare the two main approaches (i.e., mechanistic vs. performance) used in the literature to describe PAP effects. We additionally discuss potential misconceptions in the general use of the term PAP. Studies showed that mechanistic and performance-related PAP approaches have different characteristics in terms of the applied research field (basic vs. applied), effective conditioning contractions (e.g., stimulated vs. voluntary), verification (lab-based vs. field tests), effects (twitch peak force vs. maximal voluntary strength), occurrence (consistent vs. inconsistent), and time course (largest effect immediately after vs. ~ 7 min after the conditioning contraction). Moreover, cross-sectional studies revealed inconsistent and trivial-to-large-sized associations between selected measures of mechanistic (e.g., twitch peak force) vs. performance-related PAP approaches (e.g., jump height). In an attempt to avoid misconceptions related to the two different PAP approaches, we propose to use two different terms. Postactivation potentiation should only be used to indicate the increase in muscular force/torque production during an electrically-evoked twitch. In contrast, postactivation performance enhancement (PAPE) should be used to refer to the enhancement of measures of maximal strength, power, and speed following conditioning contractions. The implementation of this terminology would help to better differentiate between mechanistic and performance-related PAP approaches. This is important from a physiological point of view, but also when it comes to aggregating findings from PAP studies, e.g., in the form of meta-analyses, and translating these findings to the field of strength and conditioning.

Bodyweight squats can induce post-activation performance enhancement on jumping performance: a brief report

“…The novel findings of the present study show that this aim can be realised without the need for additional weight load, but by altering the conditioning stimulus volume through a decreased load (body mass) and increased repetitions. Further, the percentage of CMJ height improvement from the current study compares very favourably with several similar studies [7,8,13]. Thus, we posit that bodyweight alone can induce PAPE, therefore removing the need for any external weight to be used.…”

“…Additionally, countermovement depth was self-selected and was not controlled. A change in muscle stiffness by the squat sets could have resulted in differences in countermovement depth, potentially impacting the jump height achieved [13]. However, visual inspection of the subjects' technique did not reveal any noticeable differences in countermovement depth during CMJBL, CMJ2 and CMJ4.…”

“…PAPE can have a considerable effect on athletic performance, as it can increase power production [16], an essential aspect in sports such as athletics [10]. Consequently, several studies have investigated how PAPE can be best induced to improve performance and has led to a variety of methods used; different loads [7,8], activities [10], contractions [14,15], technique [13] and rest intervals [9,22].…”

“…As most of these studies focused on athletic enhancement, they explored the concept of post-activation performance enhancement (PAPE) rather than PAP. The majority of these studies have examined muscular performance enhancement after the typical time window PAP is expected to manifest (< 3 minutes [11,12]) and the presence of PAP was not verified. Such studies have examined different loads [8], exercise techniques [13] and modes [10], contractions [14,15] and recovery intervals [9].…”

Proposal of a Conditioning Activity Model on Sprint Swimming Performance

“…Currently, the scientific community has deepened several reflections on this mechanism, and it is believed that it is linked to post-activation potentiation (PAP) which explains the increase in torque caused by an electrical stimulus after a maximum voluntary contraction (Blazevich and Babault, 2019;Prieske et al, 2020;Zimmermann et al, 2020). Other factors (i.e., temperature, muscle activation, muscle and cellular water content) seem to determine whether the stimulus of the CA will sustain an improvement in performance or an improvement in voluntary strength (Blazevich and Babault, 2019).…”