EFFECTIVENESS OF DIFFERENT POSTACTIVATION POTENTIATION PROTOCOLS WITH AND WITHOUT WHOLE BODY VIBRATION ON JUMPING PERFORMANCE IN COLLEGE ATHLETES FERNANDO NACLERIO, 1 AVERY D. FAIGENBAUM, 2 ENEKO LARUMBE-ZABALA, 3 NICHOLAS A. RATAMESS, 2 JIE KANG, 2 PAUL FRIEDMAN, 2 AND RYAN E. ROSS 2 1 Centre of Sports Sciences and Human Performance, School of Sciences, Greenwich University, United Kingdom; 2 Human Performance Laboratory, Department of Health and Exercise Science, The College of New Jersey, Ewing, New Jersey; and 3 Department of Motor and Training, European University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain ABSTRACT Naclerio, F, Faigenbaum, AD, Larumbe-Zabala, E, Ratamess, NA, Kang, J, Friedman, P, and Ross, RE. Effectiveness of different postactivation potentiation protocols with and without whole body vibration on jumping performance in college athletes. J Strength Cond Res 28(1): 232–239, 2014—This study examined the acute effects of different parallel squat postactivation potentiation proto- cols with and without whole body vibration on jumping perfor- mance in college athletes. Fifteen men (20.3 6 1.3 years, 179.50 6 5.3 cm, 81.0 6 10.8 kg) performed 3 repetitions of a countermovement jump (CMJ) and best drop jump after 3 con- ditions: (a) parallel squat with 80% 1 repetition maximum without vibration (NV-PS), (b) parallel squat with 80% 1 repetition maxi- mum on a whole body vibration platform (WBV-PS) (1.963-mm amplitude and 40 Hz), and (c) control (C). Each condition was performed under both low-volume (LV) (1 set of 3 repetitions) and high-volume (HV) (3 sets of 3 repetitions) protocols that were followed by both 1- and 4-minute rest periods. Significant improvements were observed for the CMJ height (p = 0.005) after 4 minutes of recovery and the LV protocol (p = 0.015) regardless of the condition. Additionally, for the WBV-PS condition, a signifi- cantly lower drop jump height was observed after 1 minute (p = 0.0022) after both low (p = 0.022) and HV (0.010) protocols. In conclusion, 4 minutes of recovery was adequate for improving CMJ height after an LV protocol regardless of the condition and restoring drop jump height performance after WBV-PS regardless of the protocol in male college athletes. KEY WORDS complex training, countermovement jump, drop jump, acute PAP enhancement INTRODUCTION P ostactivation potentiation (PAP) is a phenomenon by which a previous voluntary maximal or near maximal muscular action acts to induce an acute improvement of the following exercise (typically explosive or sprinting activities) (18). Despite the appeal of the potential PAP effect for athletes, researchers have found contradictory findings. For example, heavy back squats have been reported to improve subsequent vertical jump perfor- mance (25), whereas other studies have reported no benefits (8). The inconsistencies in these findings may arise from a number of sources influencing the balance between fatigue and potentiation (30). This balance is affected by numerous factors including, but not limited to, training experience (9), rest period length (20), type and mode of exercise, training intensity, and the volume of the conditioning activity (29). Shorter rest periods (,1 minute) have been shown to be effective to elicit potentiation after low-volume (LV) proto- cols (e.g., 3 maximal voluntary contractions) (30), whereas longer intervals (.3 minutes) would be required to enhance performance after a multiple set of potentiating exercise (31). Some studies using whole body vibration (WBV) platforms (e.g., maintain an isometric half squat position for 30 seconds at frequencies of 30–40 Hz and 2- to 8-mm amplitude) found acute positive effects on jumping performance immediately (12) or 1 minute after the stimulating exercise (4). Regarding the type of exercise used to elicit PAP effects, recent studies have analyzed the effectiveness of WBV to acutely enhance subsequent explosive strength performance. Although some studies found no acute effects of WBV on maximal isometric force (15), jump, sprint, or agility perfor- mance (10), positive results on vertical jump performance have been observed when combining frequencies between 30 and 50 Hz with 2- to 4-mm and 4- to 6-mm amplitude (1) and by using 30 Hz with 6.5 mm (14) or 2.5 mm (12) of vertical amplitude. Combining resistance training and WBV methods would induce a more pronounced neuromuscular Address correspondence to Fernando Naclerio, e-mail: f.j.naclerio@gre.ac.uk. 28(1)/232–239 Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research Ó 2013 National Strength and Conditioning Association 232 Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research the TM Copyright © National Strength and Conditioning Association Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.