ACUTE EFFECT OF DIFFERENT WARM UP PROTOCOLS ON ATHLETE'S PERFORMANCE

The aim of present study was to investigate the acute effect of different warm-up protocols on elite athlete’s performance. Subject group of the study was consisted of twenty volunteer male students from Uludag University Sport Sciences Faculty who have been playing soccer at various leagues for at least seven years. Three different warm-up methods were applied to the subjects at 24 hours intervals. These were (1) stretching exercises protocol (SEP), plyometric exercises protocol (PEP) and suspension exercises protocol (SUEP). Subjects performed general warm up during 5 minutes and after then pre-tests were measured before each warm up protocol. After each warm up protocol, post-tests were measured. All subjects were tested on static balance, vertical jump, 30 m. sprint, reaction time and flexibility performances. All data were analyzed using Paired Sample T-tests using SPSS Statistics v.22 (Chicago, IL, USA), and significance was set at an alpha level of 0.05. As a result of analysis of test data, no significant difference was detected in the static balance test in the three protocols (p<0.05). When the vertical jump test (anaerobic power test) results were analyzed, whilst a statistically significant decrease was detected in SEP, no difference was detected in PEP and SUEP (p<0.05). When the reaction time test results were analyzed, no difference was detected in the three protocols (p<0.05). When the speed test results were analyzed, a statistically significant decrease in SEP and statistically significant increase in PEP and SUEP were detected (p<0.05). When the flexibility test results were analyzed, a statistically significant increase was detected in the three protocols (p<0.05). A statistically significant decrease in the values of anaerobic power and speed, significant improvement in flexibility was observed in GEP. A significant improvement was observed in the values of speed and flexibility in PEP and SEP. According to the results, in sports that require speed and jumping, whilst plyometric and suspension warm up exercises are thought to be beneficial, in sports that require flexibility, the inclusion of static stretching to these exercises is thought to be beneficial.