Doctoral candidate Jeremiah Moen and assistant professor of health, nutrition and exercise sciences Bryan Christensen presented “The Comparison of Loaded Jump Squats vs. Traditional Parallel Squats vs. Traditional Parallel Squat Training on Development of Lower Body Power” at the national meeting of the American Alliance of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance on April 4 in Tampa, Fla.
The study determined if an eight-week training period of performing traditional parallel squats or jump squats on the Cormax 1000 machine would produce greater results in peak power, sustained power output and vertical jump in collegiate varsity male athletes on a National Association of Intercollegiate Association football team. “Basically two different groups of football players did the same workouts with the exception of the traditional squat and jump squat exercises,” Christensen said. “One group did the traditional squat while the other group did jump squats. The participants were pre- and post-tested using a 30-second Wingate test, a vertical jump and a one repetition max squat.”
The only statistically significant difference that Moen and Christensen found between the groups was the relative minimum power. “The traditional squat was found to be more beneficial in this variable,” Christensen said. “One interesting result of the study was that a couple of the variables decreased in both groups.”
June 1, 2009