Balancing Injury Risk and Power Development by Weighted Jump Squat Through Controlling Eccentric Loading

Songsupap, T, Newton, RU, and Lawsirirat, C. Balancing injury risk and power development by weighted jump squat through controlling eccentric loading. J Strength Cond Res 35(11): 2999-3005, 2021-Weighted jump squat (WJS) training is highly effective for increasing neuromuscular power but entails higher injury risk than traditional resistance training because of the impact of landing. Braking mechanisms can be used to control the landing impact; however, the optimal eccentric loading condition that balances injury risks and power output is still unclear. The purpose of this study was to assess different eccentric braking conditions. Twenty-two male varsity basketball players aged 20.8 ± 1.1 years and a 1 repetition maximum (1RM) of back squat-to-body mass ratio of 2.0 ± 0.2 participated in the study. The subjects performed 2 sets of WJS of 6 repetitions with additional 30% of 1RM load under 4 randomly assigned conditions: (a) traditional load, no braking (B0), (b) 25% braking load reduction during landing (B25), (c) 50% braking load reduction during landing (B50), and (d) 100% braking load reduction during landing with release at touchdown (B100R). A repeated measures analysis of variance was used to determine differences of dependent variables: peak power output, peak force, peak velocity, and impulse. B100R resulted in statistically lower eccentric peak force and impulse for the first 50 milliseconds than the other 3 conditions (p < 0.05), but the largest concentric peak power. Furthermore, B0 resulted in statistically lower concentric peak power and peak velocity than the other 3 conditions (p < 0.05). We suggest that B100R was a more favorable loading condition that balanced injury risk and power production in WJS.