Effect of Wearable Resistance Loading during Warm-Up Protocol on Front Kick Biomechanics in Taekwondo

Research purpose. This study aims to examine and determine the effect of wearable resistance loading during warm-up protocol on front kick movement mechanics and muscle activation. Materials and methods. Twenty-five (N = 25, height = 174.00 ± 4.76 cm, weight = 75.93 ± 13.64 kg, age = 22.57 ± 1.36 years) male university taekwondo athletes were recruited as participants of the study. Wearable resistance with loading of 0%, 5% and 10% of the athletes’ body mass were attached to participants’ thigh and shank. Kinematics, kinetics and muscle activation during front kick were assessed. Results. Overall, the results showed that there were no significant differences found between different WR loading in kinematics, kinetics and muscle activation during front kick movement. The results reflected that there were no detrimental effects of wearing wearable resistance during warm-up sessions. The findings are somewhat surprising as it was hypothesized that WR loading would produce effects on the mechanics of kicking and muscle activation. Wearable resistance did not increase kicking performance which was reflected by kicking velocity. This might be due to percentage of loading used which are seen as not reducing the performance, which reflects that the wearable resistance can be used during warm-up in training sessions as an add-on to resistance training. Conclusions. We suggest that future studies should examine the chronic effects of wearable resistance as specific tools to be used in enhancing the performance of taekwondo kicks.