Type of Ground Surface during Plyometric Training Affects the Severity of Exercise-Induced Muscle Damage

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the changes in the symptoms of exercise-induced muscle damage from a bout of plyometric exercise (PE; 10 × 10 vertical jumps) performed in aquatic, sand and firm conditions. Twenty-four healthy college-aged men were randomly assigned to one of three groups: Aquatic (AG, n = 8), Sand (SG, n = 8) and Firm (FG, n = 8). The AG performed PE in an aquatic setting with a depth of ~130 cm. The SG performed PE on a dry sand surface at a depth of 20 cm, and the FG performed PE on a 10-cm-thick wooden surface. Plasma creatine kinase (CK) activity, delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), knee range of motion (KROM), maximal isometric voluntary contraction (MIVC) of the knee extensors, vertical jump (VJ) and 10-m sprint were measured before and 24, 48 and 72 h after the PE. Compared to baseline values, FG showed significantly (p < 0.05) greater changes in CK, DOMS, and VJ at 24 until 48 h. The MIVC decreased significantly for the SG and FG at 24 until 48 h post-exercise in comparison to the pre-exercise values. There were no significant (p > 0.05) time or group by time interactions in KROM. In the 10-m sprint, all the treatment groups showed significant (p < 0.05) changes compared to pre-exercise values at 24 h, and there were no significant (p > 0.05) differences between groups. The results indicate that PE in an aquatic setting and on a sand surface induces less muscle damage than on a firm surface. Therefore, training in aquatic conditions and on sand may be beneficial for the improvement of performance, with a concurrently lower risk of muscle damage and soreness.

The effect of a sand surface on physical performance responses of junior male handball players to plyometric training

“…If a correction of overtraining is indeed a factor, the extent of the enhancement of performance observed on switching to a sandy surface would depend on the interval between the final training session and the test measurements (7-9 days in the present study). This issue could perhaps be clarified by experimenting with various intensities of plyometric activity, and taking careful note of sensations of muscle soreness and the intramuscular leakage of marker enzymes such as creatine kinase [10,[21][22][23][24].…”

The effect of aquatic and land plyometric training on the vertical jump and delayed onset muscle soreness in brazilian soccer players

“…The technique has been used successfully in previous studies [11,25,26]. The reliability coefficient for a repetitive measurement in DOMS was 0.98 [24].…”

“…The DOMS of the knee extensors was assessed in each participant through the Visual Analogue Scale [24]. The scale was numbered from 1 to 10 (on the reverse side of the sliding scale), with 1 representing no muscle soreness and 10 indicating that the muscle was very, very sore to move.…”

Effects of plyometric training on grass surface and concrete surface on jumping performance among volleyball athletes

“…Future studies should consider adding duration in comparing the types of surface, using elite volleyball athletes as participants and including other explosive performance as the outcome variable such as sprint performance. However, they must be aware that training on a firm surface might be more stressful than a softer surface, thus might lead to musculoskeletal injuries (Hamid, Eston, Abbas, Behnam & Alireza, 2016), as the current study volume of training program was very short at two sessions per week for four weeks.…”