Science and Sports, cilt.39, sa.2, ss.196-205, 2024 (SCI-Expanded)
Aims: The purpose of this study was to investigate the acute effects of a heavy back-squat exercise on change of direction performance. Methods: Eighteen male team sports athletes (age 23.6 ± 3.3y) performed T-test and 505 Test in consecutive sessions with and without heavy back-squat exercise applied as three sets of three repetitions at 90% of 1 RM as a conditioning activity in a randomized order. Change of direction tests were repeated at time intervals of 15 seconds, 2, 4, 8, 12 and 15 minutes after those two different conditions. Results: In 505 Test, no significant condition effect, time effect or condition–time interaction were found (P > 0.05). In T-test, there was no significant condition effect (P > 0.05); however, time effect and condition × time interaction were significant (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that the conditioning activity applied to elicit post-activation performance enhancement did not have any significant effect on 505 Test; on the contrary, in T-Test, the conditioning activity led to fatigue, rather than a potentiation effect.