Sport Sci Health (2012) 8:23–29
DOI: 10.1007/s11332-012-0123-8
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Cardiovascular and blood lactate responses to acute plyometric exercise
in female volleyball and handball players
Hamid Arazi · Abbas Asadi · Maryam Nasehi · Alireza Delpasand
Received: 7 January 2012 / Accepted: 17 January 2012
© Springer-Verlag 2012
Abstract Although plyometrics are widely used in ath-
letic conditioning, the acute cardiovascular responses to
plyometric exercise in female subjects have not been de-
scribed. The purpose of this study was to assess the acute
effects of plyometric exercise on cardiovascular respons-
es, as well as blood lactate concentrations in female vol-
leyball and handball players. Eight semiprofessional vol-
leyball plays and ten handball players volunteered to par-
ticipate in this study. Subjects performed five sets of box
jumps and depth jumps with ten repetitions, respectively.
After each set of exercises, blood pressure and heart rate
were assessed. Blood lactate concentration was measured
before and after exercise. Muscle soreness was also mea-
sured immediately before and immediately after plyo-
metric exercise as well as 24, 48 and 72 h after plyomet-
ric exercise. No differences were found in any physiolog-
ical indices between volleyball and handball players, ex-
cept heart rate during box jump set 2 and the rate pres-
sure product (RPP) during box jump sets 2 and 5 and depth
H. Arazi (쾷) · M. Nasehi · A. Delpasand
Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences
Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, University of Guilan
P.O. Box 1438, Rasht, Iran
e-mail: hamidarazi@yahoo.com
A. Asadi
Islamic Azad University, Roudbar Branch, Roudbar, Iran
jump set 1 (P > 0.05). Plyometric exercise increased heart
rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and RPP after
each set of exercises (P < 0.05). Also, heart rate and RPP
were higher during the depth jump exercise (P < 0.05).
Plyometric exercise did not induce any significant changes
in muscle soreness (P > 0.05). The blood lactate concen-
trations were significantly increased above resting levels
(P < 0.05). These findings suggest that plyometric box and
depth jumping can be used in an overall programme to
properly prepare athletes for competition in events that re-
quire both aerobic and anaerobic metabolism components.
Key words Blood pressure · Heart rate · Plyometric
exercise · Blood lactate
Introduction
Plyometric exercise, such as jumping, bounding and hop-
ping, is a widely used training mode for improving the
ability of skeletal muscle to generate power [1]. Plyo-
metrics consists of a rapid stretching of a muscle (ec-
centric phase) immediately followed by a concentric or
shortening action of the same muscle and connective tis-
sue [2]. This rapid combination of eccentric and concen-
tric action by muscle is called the stretch-shortening cy-
cle [2]. Plyometric training has been shown to improve
jumping ability [3], agility [4], running economy [5, 6],
strength [7] and overall athletic performance [8].
Generally, it is accepted that plyometric exercise involves
eccentric work. This type of exercise may lead to injury.
High impact forces on the order of three to four times body
weight can occur when landing in activities such as the
depth jump [9]. Eccentric exercise (e.g. the depth jump) has
been shown to result in symptoms of muscle damage, in-
24
cluding muscle soreness [10], creatine kinase increases [11]
and losses in force-generating ability and strength [10].
Previous studies have commonly examined the effects of
acute intense plyometric exercise (e.g. the depth jump) on
anaerobic variables, and have shown decreases in anaerobic
variables following eccentric exercise [1, 10–13]. Aerobic-
type activities are another area in which plyometrics may be
effective. Long-term plyometric training (e.g. 6 or 9 weeks)
has been shown to produce positive changes in running
economy. The improvement in running economy depends on
an increases in musculotendinous stiffness that may enhance
the runner’s ability to store and use the energy produced dur-
ing landing [5, 6, 14]. Consequently, it is well accepted that
plyometric training is beneficial for aerobic-type activities
and in many sport disciplines that use this type of exercise.
Unfortunately, there are few data on the cardiovascular re-
sponses to plyometric exercise. To the best of our knowl-
edge, only one study has examined the effects of acute ply-
ometric exercise on cardiovascular and blood lactate re-
sponses. Brown et al. [15] examined the effects of eight sets
of ten depth jumps on oxygen consumption, heart rate, blood
pressure and blood lactate responses in men and women, and
found increases in all variables after an acute bout of exer-
cise. Although the effects of plyometric exercise on cardio-
vascular responses have been investigated in a previous
study [15], there is little information on such responses.
Previous studies have generally included male sub-
jects [1, 10, 12, 13], and there are few data about the ef-
fects of plyometric exercise in female subjects, especial-
ly volleyball and handball players. Therefore, the purpose
of the present study was to determine heart rate, blood
pressure and blood lactate responses to acute plyometric
exercise in female volleyball and handball players.
Materials and methods
Participants
The study group comprised eight female volleyball play-
ers and ten female handball players. The participants
played collegiate volleyball and handball and participat-
ed regularly in volleyball and handball practice for three
sessions a week for 90 min. The subjects were healthy,
free of lower body injuries and had no medical, cardio-
vascular and orthopaedic problems. Before data collec-
tion, the participants were informed of the requirements
of the study and provided written informed consent. The
participants were asked not to change their sleeping, eat-
ing or drinking habits during the study. The research pro-
ject was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of
Helsinki and was approved by the University Review
Board for use of Human Subjects. The characteristics of
the participants are presented in Table 1.
Sport Sci Health (2012) 8:23–29
Table 1 Characteristics of the participants (values are means ± SD)
Characteristic Volleyball players Handball players
(n = 8) (n = 10)
Age (years) 21.75 ± 1.66 21.90 ± 1.85
Weight (kg) 57.68 ± 5.92 60.50 ± 7.19
Height (cm) 170.75 ± 4.89 167.70 ± 5.61
Experience (years) 6.12 ± 2.29 5.2 ± 4.07
SBP (mm Hg) 112.5 ± 8.8 111 ± 5.6
DBP (mm Hg) 71.2 ± 8.3 70 ± 6.6
Resting heart rate (bpm) 62.37 ± 3.23 66.38 ± 7.13
Study design
Data were collected over a period of 1 week. In the first
session, age, height, weight and sport experience were
measured, and each participant was instructed in the prop-
er form and technique for the box jump and depth jump
exercises (familiarization session). Two days after the fa-
miliarization session, subjects performed a 10-min warm-
up and were then seated on a comfortable couch for 5-
min, and blood pressure, heart rate and blood lactate lev-
el were then measured. Subjects performed five sets of
ten box jumps and five sets of ten depth jumps. Blood
lactate levels before and 3 min after exercise were deter-
mined. Heart rate and blood pressure were measured im-
mediately after the final jump of each set. Muscle sore-
ness was assessed before exercise, immediately after ex-
ercise, and 24, 48 and 72 h during recovery, and rating
of perceived exertion (RPE) was assessed only after ex-
ercise. Test sessions were performed at the same time of
day and all tests and exercise procedures were directly su-
pervised by an investigator.
Plyometric exercise
After a 10-min warm-up (e.g. light running, static stretch-
ing and ballistic movements), participants performed a
plyometric protocol including of 50 box jumps on a 50-
cm box (five sets of ten repetitions) and 50 depth jumps
from a 50-cm plyometric box (five sets of ten repetitions)
[2, 12]. Participants had a rest of 2 and 3 min between
sets and exercises, respectively. The exercises were per-
formed on a wrestling-type mat) that produces less strain
on muscle, bones and connective tissue [12, 16].
Blood pressure and heart rate measurements
Systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure
(DBP) were measured by the indirect auscultatory method
using a mercury column sphygmomanometer (Missouri)
and a stethoscope (Rappaport). Blood pressure was as-
Sport Sci Health (2012) 8:23–29
sessed after the final jump of each set. During the mea-
surements, the volunteers remained seated on a comfort-
able couch in an environment without noise or variation in
temperature. The heart rate was recorded as the highest val-
ue reached during the first 20 s of the 2-min recovery pe-
riod between sets and the end of 20 s of the 3-min recov-
ery between exercises using a Polar S610i heart rate mon-
itor [15]. The rate pressure product (RPP) was calculated
(SBP × heart rate), as it is considered a reliable predictor
of myocardial oxygen demand [17]. All measurements
were performed by the same researcher in a enclosed sports
hall area with a stable temperature of 27±1°C.
Blood lactate
Blood lactate concentrations were measured in fingertip
capillary blood samples before exercise and 3 min after
exercise using a blood lactate analyser (Lactate Scout;
SensLab, Leipzig, Germany). Before sampling, the fin-
gertip was cleaned using ethanol [11].
Muscle soreness
Soreness of the rectus femoris, biceps femoris and gas-
trocnemius muscles was assessed using an established
self-report ordinal scale ranging from 1 (no soreness) to
10 (very, very sore) [13]. This scale has been previously
used in other muscle soreness investigations (for example
see [1, 11, 13]). The muscle soreness scale was modified
by inserting a picture of each specific muscle. Subjects
were asked to rate the soreness of each individual muscle
subjectively by palpation. Muscle soreness was evaluated
before, immediately after, and 24, 48 and 72 h after the
plyometric exercise. The reliability coefficient for repeti-
tive measurements of muscle soreness was 0.98.
Rating of perceived exertion
RPE was measured after the final set of exercise using
the 15-point Borg scale by asking the participant to point
to the number on a paper [18].
Statistical procedures
The normality of the distributions of the dependent vari-
ables was checked and subsequently confirmed using the
Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. A two-way analysis of vari-
ance with repeated measures was applied. When a sig-
nificant F-value was achieved, the least significant dif-
25
ference post hoc test was used for pair-wise compar-
isons. The Pearson (r) correlation coefficient test was
used to evaluate the relationship between the blood lac-
tate concentration and RPE. All statistical analyses were
performed through the use of a statistical software pack-
age (SPSS®, Version 16.0, SPSS., Chicago, IL) and sta-
tistical significance was set at P < 0.05. Values are ex-
pressed as means and standard deviations.
Results
Blood pressure
There were no significant differences in SBP and DBP be-
tween volleyball and handball (P > 0.05). SBP signifi-
cantly increased after plyometric exercise in the volleyball
and handball players (P < 0.05). There were no signifi-
cant differences in SBP between box jumps and depth
jumps (except during set 1 in the volleyball players;
P > 0.05). DBP increased during box jumps in the hand-
ball players, but only during set 3 in the volleyball play-
ers (P < 0.05). During depth jumps, the handball players
showed significant increases in DBP during sets 3 and 5
in relation to the pre-exercise value, while volleyball play-
ers showed an increase only during set 2 (P < 0.05). The
changes in SBP and DBP are presented in Fig. 1.
Fig. 1 SBP (a) and DBP (b) before (Pre) and during exercise sets
(1–5) in volleyball and handball players (the data presented are means
± SD). *P < 0.05 vs. Pre value, $P < 0.05 vs. set 1 value, &P < 0.05
vs. box jump value, aP < 0.05 vs. set 2 value, bP < 0.05 vs. End of re-
covery value, #P < 0.05 vs. during box jumps
26
Fig. 2 Heart rate before (Pre) and during exercise sets (1–5) in vol-
leyball and handball players (the data presented are means ± SD).
*P < 0.05 vs. handball players, $P < 0.05 vs. Pre value, &P < 0.05 vs.
box jump value, aP < 0.05 vs. set 1 value, bP < 0.05 vs. End of re-
covery value, #P < 0.05 vs. during box jumps
Heart rate
No significant differences were observed in heart rate dur-
ing exercise between the volleyball and handball players
(except during set 2 of the box jumps; P > 0.05). Both
groups showed significant increases in heart rate follow-
ing plyometric exercise (P < 0.05). Heart rates were high-
er during sets 3, 4 and 5 than during set 1 in the volley-
ball players for the box jumps (P < 0.05). There were al-
so significant differences between box jumps and depth
jumps for sets 1, 4 and 5 and sets 1 to 5 in the volleyball
and handball players, respectively (P < 0.05; Fig. 2).
RPP
All subjects showed an enhancement in RPP during ply-
ometric exercise in relation to the pre-exercise value
(P < 0.05; Fig. 3). The RPP was higher during sets 2 and
Fig. 3 RPP before (Pre) and during exercise sets (1–5) in volleyball
and handball players (the data presented are means ± SD). *P < 0.05
vs. handball players, $P < 0.05 vs. Pre value, &P < 0.05 vs. box jump
value, aP < 0.05 vs. set 1 value, bP < 0.05 vs. End of recovery value,
#P < 0.05 vs. during box jumps
Sport Sci Health (2012) 8:23–29
5 of the box jumps and set 1 of the depth jumps in the
volleyball players than in the handball players (P < 0.05).
The RPP was significantly higher during sets 2 to 5 of
the box jumps than during set 1 of the box jumps in the
volleyball players (P < 0.05). For the depth jumps, RPP
was higher than for the box jumps during sets 1 and 2
in the volleyball and handball players and during set 5
in the volleyball players (P < 0.05).
Blood lactate and RPE
Blood lactate concentrations increased significantly dur-
ing plyometric exercise (P < 0.05), from 4.03 ± 1.52 mM
at rest to 6.38 ± 2.38 mM immediately after exercise in
the volleyball players and from 2.83 ± 0.97 mM at rest
to 5.37 ± 2.20 mM immediately after exercise in the
handball players. The correlation coefficients between
the blood lactate concentration and RPE are shown in
Fig. 4. There was no significant relationship between the
blood lactate concentration and RPE (P > 0.05).
Muscle soreness
No significant changes were observed in muscle soreness
following plyometric exercise in the volleyball and hand-
ball players (P > 0.05; Fig. 5).
Discussion
In spite of the apparently widespread use of plyometric
exercise in athletic conditioning, limited information is
available on the cardiovascular responses to a single ses-
sion of plyometric exercise. In the present study plyo-
metric exercise increased SBP and DBP in the female
volleyball and handball players. We found that depth
jumps resulted in greater increases in SBP than box
Fig. 4 Correlation coefficients (Pearson r) between blood lactate con-
centration and RPE in the 18 study participants
Sport Sci Health (2012) 8:23–29
Fig. 5 Soreness values for the rectus femoris, biceps femoris and gas-
trocnemius before (Pre), immediately after (Post), and 24, 48 and 72 h
after exercise in volleyball and handball players (the data presented are
means ± SD)
jumps during set 2. There were no significant differences
in SBP and DBP between volleyball and handball players
(except heart rate during set 2 of the box jumps and RPP
during sets 2 and 5 of the box jumps and set 1 of the depth
jumps). SBP showed a greater variation than DBP. Also,
the changes in DBP were larger in the handball players.
To our knowledge, only Brown et al. [15] have examined
the effects of depth jumps on SBP and DBP. They also
27
found increases in the DBP during sets 1 to 8 from rest
[15]. There were also no significant changes in SBP. In
our study, significant increases in SBP were observed. It
seems that eccentric exercise (e.g. plyometrics) can lead
to increases in blood pressure. It is possible that high in-
tensity plyometric exercise induces an increase in sympa-
thetic nerve activity to the heart and blood vessels and al-
tered vascular responsiveness during exercise [19, 20].
The mechanism or mechanisms responsible for the hy-
pertensive response to exercise are unclear. It is possible that
it is due to an increase in HR. Perhaps alterations in sym-
pathetic nervous system function and vasculature respon-
siveness and the baroreflex are involved in the increases in
blood pressure following plyometric exercise [21]. Other
possible mechanisms for increases in blood pressure may
be increases in HR and sympathetic nerve activity [22].
The effects of plyometric exercise on HR are not well
understood. As regards of plyometric exercise, Brown et
al. [10] found HR increases during intense plyometric ex-
ercise (depth jumps). In the present study, we found in-
creases in HR, and depth jumps induced greater increas-
es (Fig. 2). The forces and intensity of plyometric exer-
cise, greater involvement of the fast twitch muscle fibres
and the size of the activated muscle mass may also stim-
ulate increases in HR [22, 23]. The exact mechanism by
which the enhancement in HR following plyometric ex-
ercise occurs is unclear; however, motor unit recruitment
may be increased during plyometric exercise [24].
In the present study, we found significant increases in
the RPP during plyometric exercise and greater increas-
es during the depth jump exercise. RPP is regarded as an
important noninvasive means of estimating myocardial
oxygen demand [23]. A significant increase in RPP is pro-
duced during plyometric exercise in response to increas-
es in HR together with SBP [22].
Significant increases in the blood lactate concentration
were found following plyometric exercise in female vol-
leyball and handball players. This result is in agreement
with those of previous studies that examined the effects
of plyometric exercises (e.g. depth jumps and hurdle
jumps) on blood lactate concentration [12, 15]. The blood
lactate data indicate that plyometric exercise as used in
this protocol should be considered as an aerobic power
interval training session [25]. It has been shown that a
larger muscle mass during exercise can induce higher lac-
tate production [26]. The plyometric exercises used in this
study were box jumps and depth jumps, and it is these
types of exercise that recruit larger muscle fibres and con-
sequently, blood lactate increased. It has been shown that
exercise intensity has a positive effect on circulating cor-
tisol, and plyometrics (high intensity exercise) induce the
highest cortisol response, and induce the highest lactate
response [12, 27].
28
We found no significant correlation between lactate
concentration and RPE. Hetzler et al. [28] and Weltman
[29] reported a significant correlation between lactate con-
centration and RPE (using the 15-point Borg scale) after
resistance exercise in men. The discrepancy between our
results and those of previous researchers may be associat-
ed with differences between the sexes (female vs. men) and
the exercise protocols (plyometric vs. resistance exercise).
Overall, the changes in HR, blood pressure and blood
lactate concentration during plyometric exercise as seen
in the present study were similar to those that one would
expect from a strenuous, but not overly rigorous, session
or aerobic power interval training [25].
The lack of statistically significant changes in per-
ceived muscle soreness following the plyometric exercise
protocol is inconsistent with previous reports [1, 10, 11,
13]. This finding does not support the presence of mus-
cle damage following plyometric exercise. The reason for
this discrepancy may be the conditioning status of the
subjects (sedentary vs. trained) or sex differences (men
vs. women). Unfortunately, there are few data on muscle
soreness in women. In this study, we found no signifi-
cant changes in muscle soreness. Perhaps the intensity of
the exercise was not enough to produce muscle soreness,
because the subjects trained for three sessions per week
for 90 min and had good muscle strength. Moreover, this
lack of difference in muscle soreness may be associated
with the execution of the plyometric exercises on a soft
surface (mat), because it is known that performing plyo-
metrics on a soft surface induces less muscle damage than
on a firm surface [10].
In conclusion, in this study we showed that a session
of plyometric exercise increased HR, SBP, DBP and
blood lactate concentration without increasing muscle
soreness. Therefore, the use of plyometric exercise in ap-
propriately trained individuals is most likely safe and ef-
fective for enhancing their sport-specific fitness. Thus,
it is important for coaches and athletes to note that ply-
ometric box and depth jumping can be used in an over-
all programme to properly prepare athletes for competi-
tion in events that require both aerobic and anaerobic me-
tabolism components.
Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank all the
participants for their cooperation in this study.
Conflict of interest statement None.
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