An exploratory systematic review of countermovement jump and squat jump operating procedures: reliability and usefulness of these measures/tests in a public health context

Purpose: countermovement jump (CMJ) and squat jump (SJ) are two vertical jumps (VJ) tests used to evaluate the lower limb reactive strength and the concentric power of the legs [1], respectively. Because the main problem of these two jumps is the lack of standardization in the test administration [2], the objectives were to gather information and investigate the standard aspects between CMJ and SJ protocols, to identify the most common method used or, if not evident, to design standardized operating execution procedure. Methods: PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus databases were used for the electronic search (from January 2010 to June 2018). Original articles, systematic reviews and meta-analysis in which CMJ or SJ were used to assess muscular fitness in adolescences were eligible for further analysis. English language was imposed like limit. Abstracts, citations, statements and books were excluded. In a second moment, authors analysed the CMJ and SJ methods. Results: A total of 104 studies (CMJ: 102, SJ: 46) met the inclusion criteria. The description of the CMJ and SJ test methodology was highly diverse within the literature with the protocol developed by Bosco et al. [3], the one most used in the studies examined, that was utilized by five and three different authors, respectively. Conclusions: Because there is no a standardized method for the two jumps, we created new CMJ and SJ protocols based on the positive aspects of the ones analysed. References 1. Young W (1995) Laboratory strength assessment of athletes. New Stud Athl 10:89–96 2. Van Praagh E, Dore E (2002) Short-term muscle power during growth and maturation. Sports Med 32(11):701–728 3. Bosco C, Luhtanen P, Komi PV (1983) A simple method for measurement of mechanical power in jumping. Eur J Appl