The effects of ischemic preconditioning on isokinetic strength performance in physically active men

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of ischemic preconditioning on some isokinetic strength parameters in physically active male subjects. 16 physically active males (age: 27.1 ± 1.9 yr; height: 176.8 ± 6.8 cm; weight: 77.7 ± 6.0 kg; BMI: 24.9 ± 1.4 kg/m2; BMR: 1946.9 ± 160.4 kcal; body fat percentage: 14.4 ± 3.6 %; dominant leg muscle: 10.9 ± 0.8 kg; dominant leg fat: 1.8 ± 0.4 kg) participated in the study voluntarily. Participants were randomly divided into two groups as IPC (8) and Sham (8). First of all, on the first day, all the participants practiced on the isokinetic dynamometer as a pre-test control group without any intervention. In the third and seventh day measurements, the pneumatic cuff was applied to the dominant legs of participants for 5 min of ischemia and 5 min of reperfusion cycles were repeated 3 times by crossing the IPC (220mmHg) / Sham (20 mmHg) groups. 60°/sec, 120°/sec and 240°/sec isokinetic strength tests, which were applied on the first day, were applied after the ischemia intervention again. In the analysis of the data, one-way analysis of variance was used in repeated measures to test the time interaction in the evaluation of the results of two different interventions at two different time points to investigate the effect of ischemic preconditioning on isokinetic performance. Bonferroni test was used to compare the main effect in order to evaluate the categorical changes of the results between the groups. The significance level was determined as 0,05. Effect sizes for independent variables were accepted as partial eta-square (partial η2) .01 low impact power, .06 average impact power, .14 and above high impact power. According to the results, statistically significant differences were rarely observed in the 60, 120 and 240°/sec extension and flexion of peak torque (Nm), time to peak torque (MSec), total work (J), work fatigue (%) and average power (W) parameters. Statistically significant differences were found in increase in time to peak torque at 60°/sec flexion, total work at 60°/sec flexion, work fatigue at 60°/sec extension, average power at 60°/sec extension and flexion parameters (p<0.05). When it was observed that ischemic preconditioning had a positive effect on performance improvement at small rates on many isokinetic strength parameters, however, it was statistically significant in few parameters.