A conditioning activity gives a small post-activation potentiation boost to jump, throw and upper-body ballistic performance and a moderate one to sprinting
Larger in stronger, more experienced lifters and modulated by rest, sets, load and exercise type
Participants
n=1954 participants in 135 groups from 47 studies (databases searched to March 2015).
Key Findings
PAP effect sizes: jump 0.29, throw 0.26, upper-body ballistic 0.23 (small); sprint 0.51 (moderate).
Larger PAP in stronger individuals and those with more resistance-training experience.
By conditioning activity (CA): plyometric 0.47 > traditional high-intensity 0.41 > traditional moderate-intensity 0.19 > maximal isometric -0.09; the plyometric CA also potentiates earlier.
Also larger after shallower (0.58) vs deeper (0.25) squat CAs, longer (0.44 and 0.49) vs shorter (0.17) recovery intervals, multiple-set (0.69) vs single-set (0.24) CAs, and repetition-maximum (0.51) vs sub-maximal (0.34) loads.
Stronger individuals respond better to shorter recovery, single sets and RM loads; weaker individuals to longer recovery, multiple sets and sub-maximal loads. Both potentiate more after shallower squats.
Practical Application
Pooling 47 studies (1954 participants), a conditioning activity before explosive work gave a small boost to jumps, throws and upper-body ballistic efforts (ES 0.23-0.29) and a moderate one to sprints (ES 0.51), more so in stronger, experienced lifters — worth using, but expect a modest gain.
Match the protocol to the athlete: stronger lifters did better with a single RM-load set and shorter rest; weaker ones with multiple sub-maximal sets and longer rest. Plyometric conditioning activities potentiated slightly more and sooner than heavy lifting.
Limitations
Heterogeneous protocols; the abstract does not give the recovery windows in minutes, so the optimal rest must be individualised.
Benefits are acute.
How this entry was checked and changed
Content correction 2026-09-27
"PAP reliably boosts power" -> the abstract reports SMALL effects for jump/throw/upper-body (ES 0.23-0.29) and a moderate effect for sprint (0.51).
"~7-10 min rest" -> not in the abstract (it reports only longer vs shorter intervals); removed from title, findings and lead.
Added n=1954 / 47 studies, the CA-type, depth, set and load effect sizes, and the stronger-vs-weaker pattern.