[Title Unknown]

Research suggests that heating tissue before exercise may improve sport performance. Ultrasound and pulsed short wave diathermy are two modalities that can be used to heat tissue in preparation for activities that may include vertical jump. However, few studies have specifically compared these deep heating modalities potential to improve performance. The goal of this study was to determine if there is a significant gain in vertical jump performance when using ultrasound or pulsed short wave diathermy prior to activity.Our study included 6 healthy college aged students, 3 males and 3 females, who had no injury to a lower extremity within the past 6 months. The subjects agreed not to work out 24 hours before testing and each subject completed both tests conditions within a 48 hour period. Participants completed 3 trials of single leg vertical jump on their dominant leg using a Just Jump Mat prior to and immediately following each trial. For each trial, pulsed short wave diathermy and ultrasound treatments were administered over the belly of the gastrocnemius for 20 minutes to induce vigorous heating of the muscle tissue. Neither pulsed short wave diathermy, nor ultrasound improved the patients’ vertical jump.However there was a main effect for time whereby vertical jump performance decreased for both ultrasound and pulsed short wave diathermy. The results of this study suggest that the use of passive heating prior to activity does not improve single leg vertical jump. Passive heating may induce muscle relaxation and sedation, which subsequently hinders optimal performance. Therefore, it is important for clinicians to encourage athletes to perform a dynamic warm up after heating to maximize performance.