Research Advancement of Postactivation Potentiation in Skeletal Muscle

Postactivation Potentiation (PAP) is favored by scholars and fitness coaches for its effectiveness in breaking through the limitation of power. To promote the practical application of PAP, this paper analyzed the effects of PAP on sports performance with Meta-analysis and discussed its physiological mechanisms accordingly. PAP is effectively in improving the abilities of jumping, sprinting and throwing, and its effect size is closely related to the athletes' physiological and training characteristics. The possible physiological mechanisms of PAP are as follows: enhanced phosphorylation of myosin regulatory light chains, increased recruitment of higher order motor units, and decreased pennation angle after high intensity exercise training. This paper summarized the current literatures and highlighted the research directions for further PAP research, so as to provide some ideas for strength training.