Effects of General, Specific, and Combined Warm-up on Explosive Muscular Performance
Participants
n=10 healthy males
Protocol
Crossover randomised design; warm-up (WU) protocols: passive rest (PR, 15 min), running (Run, 5 min at 70% of maximum heart rate), stretching (STR, 5 min of static stretching), jumping (Jump, 5 min: 3 × 8 countermovement jumps and 3 × 8 drop jumps from 60 cm), and combined (COM = Run + STR + Jump). The abstract speaks of six protocols but names these five
Tested immediately before and after each WU: squat jump (SJ, concentric-only), countermovement jump (CMJ, slow stretch-shortening cycle), drop jump from 60 cm (DJ60, fast stretch-shortening cycle) and contact time (CT)
Key Results
Passive rest reduced SJ performance (p = 0.007)
Run increased SJ (p = 0.0001) and CMJ (p = 0.002)
Static stretching (STR) increased CMJ (p = 0.048) — no impairment
Jump (specific WU) increased SJ (p = 0.001), CMJ (p = 0.028) and DJ60 (p = 0.006), and reduced contact time in DJ60 (p = 0.03); Jump was superior to PR for SJ (p = 0.001)
Combined WU increased CMJ only (p = 0.006)
Authors' conclusion: general, specific and combined WU all improve slow-SSC performance (CMJ), but only the specific (jumping) WU improves fast-SSC performance (DJ60) — fast SSC actions must be included in the WU to improve fast SSC performance
Mechanism
Inference (authors' framing): slow-SSC jumps benefit from any warm-up that raises temperature/activation, whereas fast-SSC (reactive) performance needs the specific neuromuscular pattern — short ground contacts and rapid force development — rehearsed in the warm-up itself.
Practical Application
In 10 healthy men, 5 min of running, 5 min of static stretching, 5 min of jumps or all three combined each improved countermovement-jump height, but only the jumping warm-up improved drop-jump (fast stretch-shortening) performance and shortened contact time — to prepare for reactive, explosive actions, the warm-up must contain those actions
Passive rest for 15 min lowered squat-jump performance: sitting idle before an explosive effort costs power
Do not fear a short static stretch here: 5 min of static stretching raised CMJ in this study rather than lowering it
Not from this paper; the base's own practice: the general → specific → explosive sequence (easy spinning → dynamic mobility → hard accelerations for cycling; easy jog → drills → strides for running) is the base's warm-up template, in line with the RAMP model REF-266
Limitations
Healthy males, not identified as athletes; small sample (n=10)
Jump tests, not sport-specific performance
No DOI line in the entry; abstract verified via Europe PMC (PMID 26060335)
How this entry was checked and changed
Content correction 2026-09-27
n=14 -> n=10; "dynamic stretching" -> static stretching (5 min); "stretching → no significant improvement" -> abstract: STR increased CMJ (p = 0.048).
"Combined WU → best across all measures" -> abstract: COM improved CMJ only; the specific jumping WU was the only protocol to improve fast-SSC (DJ60) performance and contact time.
Tier 2 -> 1-2; Sport "cycling, running, sprint" -> strength, general; house sequencing advice relabelled as base practice.