Blood flow restriction does not confer additional benefits to acute countermovement jump responses following bodyweight squat–induced post-activation performance enhancement in female recreational athletes

Abstract

Post-activation performance enhancement (PAPE) is widely used to acutely improve neuromuscular performance; however, the effectiveness of combining blood flow restriction (BFR) with bodyweight squat exercise remains unclear. This study aimed to determine whether adding BFR to a bodyweight squat–based conditioning protocol enhances PAPE responses in countermovement jump (CMJ) performance in female recreational athletes. Twenty healthy female participants (age: 19.1 ± 1.1 years) completed a randomized crossover design involving BFR (KAATSU C4 device, cycle mode) and non-BFR conditions. Both conditions consisted of a bodyweight squat protocol (3 × 10 repetitions), followed by CMJ assessments at baseline and at 3, 6, and 9 min post-exercise. Jump height, relative maximal power (RMP), and rate of force development (RFD) were measured using a force plate. A significant main effect of time was observed for jump height (p = .001), and a significant main effect of condition was also identified (p = .020). However, no significant condition × time interaction was found (p = .853). No significant effects were observed for RMP or RFD (p > .05). These findings suggest that the bodyweight squat protocol alone was sufficient to elicit a PAPE response, whereas the addition of BFR did not provide meaningful improvements in CMJ performance. Practitioners aiming to acutely enhance jumping performance may therefore prioritize the bodyweight squat protocol used in this study without the addition of BFR.