Optimal Stretching Way of the Warm-up Before Competitions for Female Professional Basketball Players.

Purpose: To explore the optimal stretching way of the warm-up before competitions for female professional basketball. Methods: Totally 15 female basketball players from Zhejiang Chouzhou Commercial Bank were recruited in this study. They finished 8-min warm-up firstly, and then participated in stretching exercises according to the arrangement of cross-experiment design, and finally finished 20 min specific warm-up. The subjects were tested for sit-and-reach and reverse vertical jump (CMJ) at three time points, namely, immediately after general preparation, immediately after stretching and immediately after specific preparation. Results; Different stretching interventions had no significant effect on jump height of CMJ, but there was significant difference in height of CMJ jump at different test time points. All three stretching ways could significantly improve the subjects' performance of sit-and-reach, but there was no significant difference among the three ways. Conclusions: All the three stretching ways can improve the flexibility of female professional basketball players in their warm-up before competition, and have no adverse effect on explosive force. The study concluded that static stretching is the best stretching method for the warm-up before competition of female basketball players. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]