LAUSR

Chen, CH,Chang, CK, Tseng,WC,Chiu, CH,Dai, X, and Ye, X. Acute effects of different warm-up protocols on sports performance in elite male collegiate handball players. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000–000, 2020—This study aimed to examine the effects of 3 different warm-up protocols on subsequent sports performance in elite male collegiate handball players. Fifteen handball players (19.0 6 2.4 years) completed 3 separated randomly sequenced experimental visits. During each visit, they started with different warm-up protocols (traditional warm-up [TRAD] vs. warm-up with core stability exercises [CORE] vs. warm-up with elastic band exercises [ELAS]) and completedwith a series of randomly ordered sport-specific performance testingmeasurements: 30-m sprint, countermovement jump, medicine ball overhead forward throw, and standing and jump handball throw tests. Both CORE and ELAS protocols induced statistically significant differences (p , 0.05) on overall sports performance (sprint time, jump height, medicine ball throwing peak velocity and power, and handball throwing velocities), as compared to the TRAD. In addition, the ELAS protocol imposed small-to-medium effects (effect size range: 0.45–0.82), enhancing handball throwing velocity and medicine ball throwing performance comparing with the CORE. Sport-specific warm-up protocols that contain core stability or elastic band– based exercises likely induced subsequent performance enhancements (sprint, jump, and throw) in elite male collegiate handball players when compared with TRAD. Furthermore, including elastic band exercises in the warm-up protocol even induced superior upper-body performance enhancement (explosive power and handball throwing velocity) than other protocols. Therefore, preconditioning warm-up activities using elastic band–based exercises can be integrated into a traditional sport-specific warm-up protocol for elite collegiate handball players before competition or training.