Effects of post-activation performance enhancement added to general warm-up on jump, sprint, and change-of-direction performance in competitive athletes: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Post-activation performance enhancement (PAPE) is commonly used within warm-up routines to acutely enhance explosive performance, but evidence remains inconsistent. This systematic review and meta-analysis examined whether adding a PAPE conditioning activity to a general warm-up improves jump, sprint, and change-of-direction (COD) performance in trained and competitive athletes.

PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Embase, and SPORTDiscus were searched from inception to March 2026. Eligible studies were randomized acute experimental trials in trained or competitive athletes comparing general warm-up plus PAPE with general warm-up alone. Jump performance was the primary outcome; sprint and COD were secondary outcomes. Mean difference (MD) was used for countermovement jump (CMJ) analyses and standardized mean difference (SMD) for conceptually similar outcomes measured with different tests. Risk of bias was assessed with the Cochrane tool.

Thirty-three studies were included qualitatively, and 12 contributed to at least one meta-analysis. In the primary CMJ-only analysis, PAPE significantly improved jump performance (MD = 2.41 cm, 95% CI 1.20 to 3.61; p < 0.0001; I² = 26%; 8 studies/8 effect sizes). The effect remained significant after excluding two influential studies (MD = 1.95 cm, 95% CI 0.69 to 3.21; p = 0.003; I² = 0%) and in an additional SMD-based sensitivity analysis using the same CMJ-only dataset (SMD = 0.52, 95% CI 0.23 to 0.82; p = 0.0005; I² = 0%). In the supplementary all-jump synthesis, PAPE also improved jump-related outcomes (SMD = 0.42, 95% CI 0.17 to 0.68; p = 0.001; I² = 0%). COD performance showed a favourable pooled effect (SMD = -0.75, 95% CI -1.17 to -0.33; p = 0.0005; I² = 0%), but this analysis was based on only 3 studies/3 effect sizes. Sprint performance did not show a significant pooled effect (SMD = 0.29, 95% CI -0.35 to 0.94; p = 0.37; I² = 49%).

Adding a PAPE conditioning activity to a general warm-up appears to acutely enhance jump performance in trained and competitive athletes, and this finding was consistent across MD-based and SMD-based analyses of the CMJ-only dataset. Preliminary and low-certainty evidence suggests possible benefits for COD performance, whereas current evidence does not support a clear sprint benefit. The findings may indicate task-specific responses, but this interpretation remains tentative because the strength of evidence was uneven across outcome domains.