Unilateral Conditioning Contractions Enhance Power Output in Elite Short Track Speed Skaters

AbstractThe objective of the present study was to assess the effect of unilateral lower-body-conditioning muscle contractions during multiple sets of fatiguing repeated jumps in elite athletes. Five elite short-track speed-skating athletes performed 9 sets of 6 maximal consecutive jumps on 2 separate occasions: with (COND) and without (CTRL) preliminary voluntary conditioning contractions (CC) 5 min before the beginning of the sets. The CC consisted of 2 consecutive 3 s maximal unilateral isometric squats against a fixed bar, resulting in a 6 s overall isometric contraction per leg. For each set, power output (PO) was measured using a linear position transducer and averaged over the 6 corre…