Comparing the effect of hip thrust performance against vertical and horizontal jumping after a 14-week intervention period

To date, there is a lack of substantial research on the hip thrust exercise, and in particular the correlation between the hip thrust exercise and both vertical and horizontal force production. This study seeks to address this gap, and contribute new knowledge on the hip thrust for research and practice. The aim of this study, therefore, is to discover the effects of hip thrust performance on vertical and horizontal jumping. To meet these objectives, this study used a 14-week intervention programme with 11 collegiate female athletes aged 18-24. The programme involved two resistance training sessions a week, that centred on the hip thrust exercise. Pre and post testing was used to measure the following: vertical squat jump, vertical countermovement jump, horizontal squat jump, horizontal countermovement jump and hip thrust 3 repetition maximum (3RM). This was a randomised within subject study. A repeated measures ANOVA was completed to compare participants' scores as well as the statistical significance (p < 0.05) between the pre and post testing results. It was hypothesised prior to the study that the horizontal jumps would improve more significantly than the vertical at the conclusion of the intervention. This was due to recent research that has argued that horizontal force has a stronger correlation with horizontal directional activities. However, in the end, this study found that both vertical and horizontal jumping improved substantially (ranging from 5.42% to 7.67%), with no statistically significant difference between the two (p = 0.237). This reveals the potential impact of horizontal exercises on vertical force production, and the wide ranging benefits of the hip thrust exercise for strength and conditioning programmes.