Acute neuromuscular responses to short and long roundhouse kick striking paces in professional Muay Thai fighters

BACKGROUND: Muay Thai fighters strongly rely on the use of the roundhouse kick due to its effectiveness (i.e. power) and implications on the final score. Therefore, different striking tempos at full power are used during training as a method to enhance kicking power. However, the neuromuscular responses are unknown. Thus, the goal of this study was to investigate neuromuscular responses to a single bout of shorter (every second = H1) and longer (every 3s = H3) kick striking time intervals, measured with the countermovement jump (CMJ). METHODS: Nine professional Muay Thai fighters participated in this randomized, cross-over trial. CMJs were measured on force plates before and after (post 0min, post 5min, post 10min, post 20min and post 30min) two striking (1set x 20reps) conditions (H1; H3). RESULTS: Although no difference was observed between H1 and H3 values, neuromuscular fatigue parameters displayed different patterns over time. CMJ height decreased immediately after H3 striking (P<0.05), whereas for H1 condition CMJ height decreased from post20 as compared to baseline (P<0.05). Peak force in H3 condition was significantly lower at post10, post20 and post30 as compared to baseline. For H1, peak force values were lower than baseline only at post30. Peak power was significantly lower than baseline for both middle kick procedures. A slight but significant increase was observed at post5 for H3 condition, but decreased further post10 and remained constant during subsequent tests. In contrast, for H1 condition peak power remained unaffected after post10, whereas it decreased post20 and post30 minutes only when compared to post0. CONCLUSIONS: Results showed that both kick striking modes provoke comparable neuromuscular fatigue but H3 condition showed the potential to induce post activation potentiation. Muay Thai and conditioning