The impact of post-activation potentiation with hip thrust and glute bridge exercises on horizontal force-velocity profile and sprint in adolescent soccer players

The aim of the study was to investigate the acute effects of post-activation potentiation (PAP) induced by hip thrust and glute bridge exercises performed with loads equivalent to 84% (84% of 1-RM) and 60% (60% of 1-RM) of one-repetition maximum (1-RM) in adolescent soccer players with a minimum of two years of resistance training experience on the components of the horizontal force-velocity profile (HF-V) and 10, 20, and 30-meter sprint (S10m, S20m and S30m) performances. A total of 40 football players who regularly train and actively play football participated in the study (training age= 4.12±1.49 years; strength training age= 2.55±0.75 years; and maturation status= 1.81±0.73 years). The soccer players were divided into three groups using random sampling: hip thrust (n= 13, HTG), glute bridge (n= 13, GBG), and control (n= 14, CG). In HTG and GBG, the soccer players performed S10m, S20m and S30m performances. Subsequently, they executed PAP protocols consisting of three repetitions with a load of 84% of 1-RM, six repetitions with a load of 60% of 1-RM, and rest intervals of seven minutes. Following this, they again performed S10m, S20m and S30m performances. In contrast, the CG completed S10m, S20m and S30m performances, followed by a seven-minute period of active rest, after which they repeated the same sprint performances. The speed-time curves, derived from the sprint results obtained before and after each player's PAP protocols, were modeled using the least squares regression method. To examine the effect of independent variables on dependent variables measured pre and post-conditioning, three-way mixed design repeated ANOVA (3x2x2) test was employed. The effect of the changes in pre- and post-conditioning measurements within the research groups was summarized via Cohen's d. It was determined that the time main effect and the group x time interaction effect were statistically significant for F0, F0rel, Pmax, Pmaxrel, FVsloperel, DRF, S10m, and S30m (p<0.05). Additionally, for V0, RFmax, and S20m, only the time main effect was found to be statistically significant (p<0.05). In the conclusion, PAP protocols performed with moderate loads and hip thrust and glute bridge exercises could acutely enhance S10m and S20m performances. These protocols may also lead to improvements in underlying kinetic properties such as F0, F0rel, Pmax, Pmaxrel, FVsloperel, and DRF.