Motor-cognitive warm-ups: no demonstrated immediate benefit for jump landings

Three warm-ups compared in the same athletes

The 18 participants, including five women, completed three warm-ups on separate days. The protocol compared the PEP neuromuscular warm-up with two adaptations: PEP+, which included visuomotor processing and executive function exercises, and PEP-SKILLCOURT, which incorporated reactive agility exercises using the SKILLCOURT device.

After each warm-up, the athletes performed jumps, landing on a pressure platform. Some landings were planned. For unplanned landings, the landing side was indicated only after takeoff, requiring a decision during the jump.

The researchers measured peak vertical force at landing, time to that peak, center-of-pressure displacement, time to stabilization, and holding and decision errors. These measures describe task performance, not injury frequency.

Unplanned landings disrupt control, with no established advantage for any warm-up

Unplanned landings were associated with a lower peak vertical force, but also with greater center-of-pressure fluctuations and more errors. A lower force is therefore not enough to classify a landing as better: here, it coexisted with poorer control.

After Holm adjustment for multiple comparisons, no statistically significant differences between warm-ups remained. The analysis also did not show that their effects differed depending on whether the landing was planned or unplanned.

Exploratory trends favored PEP+ for landing loads and center-of-pressure fluctuations. These remain avenues to test, not established benefits. Conversely, the absence of a significant difference in this small trial does not demonstrate that the three warm-ups are equivalent.

What this study means for training

The study's value lies in testing a landing that requires a late reaction, rather than a fully prepared movement. Its findings suggest that this constraint changes landing control. However, they do not justify favoring a cognitive adaptation or the SKILLCOURT device solely on the basis of an immediate benefit.

The trial examines effects after a warm-up, not adaptations to repeated training. The authors call for larger trials and joint-specific biomechanical measurements to better examine issues related to injury risk.

What we can take away

This trial does not demonstrate any immediate superiority of motor-cognitive warm-ups. Its main finding is that deciding which side to land on after takeoff makes the task harder to control.