The Specificity of Strength Exercises for Sprint Acceleration

The purpose of the study was to use musculoskeletal modelling to examine the specificity of bounding and loaded countermovement jumps (CMJ) to sprinting acceleration. Ten male participants performed 10 m sprints, continuous bounding, and loaded CMJ’s. A generic OpenSim model was scaled to each individual and used to calculate joint moments, angles and angular velocities during maximal trials in each condition. Peak moment, angle at peak moment and angular velocity at peak moment for the ankle, knee, and hip joints were determined and statistically analysed using pair-wise equivalence and non-inferiority tests. Compared to sprinting, peak moments at all joints were shown to be statistically non-inferior for bounding, but statistically inferior for loaded CMJ’s. Compared to sprinting, knee and ankle joint angular velocities were statistically equivalent for bounding, but statistically different for loaded CMJ’s. In terms of the specificity for strength and conditioning exercises, these results suggest that bounding may be considered as a specific exercise for acceleration, while loaded CMJ’s may be less suitable.