Acute Effects of The Midthigh Power Clean on The Advanced Tennis Serve

Post-activation potentiation (PAP) is a phenomenon in which performance is enhanced after a muscle contraction. Most studies have examined isometric maximal voluntary contraction and heavy resistance exercise as PAP protocols, but minimal research exists analyzing Olympic lifting exercises. The study was aimedd to investigate the PAP response of mid-thigh power clean on the tennis serve among advanced players. Six players performed 5 serves before and 4 min after one set of 5 repetitions of the mid-thigh power clean at 60% 1RM. Performance was evaluated by measuring peak velocity, peak power, total power output, impulse, and rate of force development. There were no significant differences in any of the outcomes, thus there was no evidence of PAP. Further research needs to study the possible use of Olympic lifting to induce PAP effects on tennis players. The effective application of PAP inducing exercises appears to be highly individualized. Thus, the use of PAP complexes in tennis athletes should consider both the absolute and relative strength of each athlete along with the length of the rest period when attempting to optimize the PAP response using an Olympic lifting exercise.