Lower Body Strength-Training Versus Proprioceptive Exercises on Vertical Jump Capacity: A Feasibility Study.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to test the feasibility of completing a study comparing the impact of lower body strength training to proprioceptive exercises on vertical jump capacity.

Methods: Thirty-nine college students (age 27.9 ± 6.4 y, height 1.69 ± 0.10 m, body mass 73.4 ± 15.9 kg: mean ± standard deviation) underwent baseline and post-testing of their vertical jump capacity using a Vertical Challenger and VICON motion analysis system. Participants were randomly assigned to 3 interventional groups between testing sessions: (1) lower body strength training, (2) lower body proprioceptive training, and (3) a no training control. Group 1 underwent supervised exercises 3 days a week at 2 sets of 12 repetitions of squats, seated knee extensions, standing knee flexions, and standing calf raises at approximately 25% of their body weight. Group 2 participants engaged in 4 supervised proprioceptive exercise stations 3 days a week involving BOSU ball stance, Rocker board, Bodyblade, and 1-legged stance exercises at 4 minutes per station. A between-within repeated-measures analysis of variance using between-participants factor "group" and within-participants factor "time" (baseline and post-test) was used to analyze data.

Results: Analysis of group × time indicated a small positive improvement in overall group performance for jump height at post-test, F (2,36) = 5.527, P = .008, r = 0.36. However, post hoc testing identified no statistically significant difference between groups for dependent variables.

Conclusions: This study determined that it was feasible to complete a study to compare 2 groups, but more than 1 week would be required to observe differences between lower body weight training and lower body proprioceptive training on vertical jump.