Static stretching (SS), as an effective means of injury prevention, has recently come under scrutiny, with dynamic stretching (DS) seemingly appearing to be slowly replacing it in warm up protocols. The purpose of this study was to investigate the acute effects of DS and SS on power output measured by vertical jump performance (VJP) using a force plate. Thirty recreational athletes, 16 female (height = 1.74 ± 0.08m, mass = 72 ± 7kg, Age = 21 ± 1yrs) and 14 male (height = 1.8 ± 0.07m, mass = 89 ± 20kg, age = 21 ± 1yrs) completed the DS, SS or control protocol with pre-testing and post-testing of their VJP. DS and SS interventions were used in accordance with the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) guidelines. Despite an 11% decrement in VJP pre- (0.37±0.1m) and post- (0.33±0.08m) SS, this was not significant (p>0.05). Similarly, despite a >14% increase in VJP pre- (0.32±0.07) and post- (0.36±0.06) DS this was also not significant (p>0.05). The control group also experienced a small, but non-significant (p>0.05), increase in VJP of 2.83% from pre- (0.36±0.06) to post- (0.37±0.06) measures, attributable to normal fluctuations in performance. There were no significant changes in VJP and nothing could be directly inferred from these results as the range of VJP scores was very large. The large VJP range raises issue of the muscles sensitivity to stretching and was postulated as a possible contributor to mixed results throughout the literature.

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