The influence of musculotendinous stiffness on drop jump performance

This study investigated the relationship between musculotendinous stiffness and the ability to perform dynamic stretch-shorten cycle actions involving a range of eccentric loads. Twenty trained male subjects performed a series of quasi-static muscular actions in a supine leg press position, during which a brief perturbation was applied. The resulting damped oscillations allowed the estimation of each subject's maximal musculotendinous stiffness (k) for the lower body musculature. All subjects also performed a countermovement jump (CMJ) and a series of drop jumps (DJs) from heights of 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 cm. When the jump heights of the nine most compliant (mean k = 11.4 +/- 2.7 kNxm-1) and nine stiffest (mean k = 20.5 +/- 2.5 kNxm-1) subjects were compared the stiff subjects demonstrated significantly poorer capacity to perform under the highest (DJ80 and DJ100) eccentric loading conditions. It was hypothesised that the relatively greater forces transmitted from the skeletal system to the musculature of the stiff subjects reduced their ability to attenuate the higher eccentric loads due to less effective contractile dynamics and greater levels of reflex induced inhibition.