Oxygen consumption, heart rate, and blood lactate responses to an acute bout of plyometric depth jumps in college-aged men and women

Although plyometrics are widely used in athletic conditioning, the acute physiologic responses to plyometrics have not been described. The purpose of this study was to investigate the oxygen consumption, heart rate, and blood lactate responses to a single session of plyometric depth jumps. Twenty recreationally trained college-aged subjects (10 men, 10 women) participated in a single session of 8 sets of 10 box depth jumps from a height of 0.8 m with 3 minutes of passive recovery between each set. Plyometric depth jumping elicited 82.5 ± 3.1% and 77.8 ± 3.1% of the measured maximal oxygen consumption (V̇o₂max) for women and men, respectively, with no difference in oxygen consumption in ml/kg/min or percent V̇O₂max between sexes or sets. Heart rate significantly increased (p < 0.05) from 68.1 ± 2.9 beats·min^-1 at rest to 169.6 ± 1.2 beats·min^-1 during depth jumping. Sets 5 to 8 elicited a higher (p < 0.05) heart rate (173.3 ± 1.3 beats·min ^-1) than sets 1 to 4 (164.6 ± 1.8 beats·min ^-1). Women exhibited a higher heart rate (p < 0.05) during sets 1 and 2 (169.9 ± 2.8 beats·min^-1) than men (150.7 ± 4.4 beats·min^-1). The blood lactate concentrations were significantly (p < 0.05) increased above resting throughout all sets (1.0 ± 0.2 mmol·L^-1 compared with 2.9 ± 0.1 mmol·L^-1), with no differences between sexes or sets. Plyometric depth jumping significantly increased oxygen consumption, heart rate, and blood lactate in both men and women, but no significant difference was found between the sexes. Plyometric depth jumping from a height of 0.8 m has similar energy system requirements to what Wilmore and Costill termed "Aerobic Power" training, which should enhance V̇O₂max, lactate tolerance, oxidative enzymes, and lactate threshold.