Post-Activation Potentiation (PAP) increases the number of cross bridges that attach by increasing the sensitivity of contractile proteins to ionized calcium (Baudry and Duchateau. J Appl Physiol. 102: 1394-1401, 2007).

Supramaximal Holds (hold a weight near lockout that’s more [~120% of 1RM is a good guide] than you could ever lift through a full range of motion, thus tricking your nervous system into releasing more neural drive to your muscles) followed by your prescribed set will work.

I've found it to also work after a heavy set, whereby the following set (ideally the last set for that exercise) is lighter. But you'll be able to get more reps than you would if you had used the same weight in a normal training fashion.

You'll often see coaches use it on athletes in the following way: heavy set of squats in the 2-3 rep range, then within 30s do some plyometric leg work. Defranco uses it.

Here's an article detailing that immediate use of the PAP is not needed:
http://articles.elitefts.com/articles/training-articles/some-simple-solutions-to-a-%e2%80%98complex%e2%80%99-problem/

I believe that both immediate "use of PAP" or <=5mins later use of it works to some degree.

Enjoy

I've de-racked and held very heavy weights for benching before and the trick does work/

A great set scheme I have used is the Romanian/Russian Transfer Set Scheme, In which you lift 3-5 reps at around 95% followed immediately by a de-rack (preferably by a training partner to speed the process up) and then a lift for around 5 reps at 60% 1RM. The 60% set literally feels like there is nothing on the bar.

Scott, write a bench protocol just so I can get my head round?

Presumably though this technique will fry the CNS fairly quickly?

ollie wrote:Presumably though this technique will fry the CNS fairly quickly?

True, I found a cycle at this really fired my up for performance etc but I don't think this could be done for longer than 3-4 weeks.

Wrote about this at uni, personally when I give out any training sessions to athletes or just mates I find it much better to just use a heavier weight for very few reps before the less resisted movement. Benefits of PAP is all about compromise between PAP itself and level of fatigue (muscular and CNS).

For instance maybe 3-4 sets of ..

85% of 3 rep max squat x 2
2 minutes rest
Vertical jumps x 3
5 minute rest

or could be even lighter like

Weighted vest vertical jump x 3
1 minute rest
Bodyweight vertical jump x 3
4 minute rest

p.s another thing I forgot to mention is that as PAP can increase the rate of force development, its main benefits will be shown in more explosive movements such as jumping rather than heavily resisted weight exercises as it won't neccessarily make you lift more weight

Nice info above guys. I think I recall Alex talking about this kind of thing a while back - is certainly something I'd be interested in playing around with in an organised fashion, but so far just really only do it occasionally after the last rep of my last heavy sets.

Dtlv74 wrote:Nice info above guys. I think I recall Alex talking about this kind of thing a while back - is certainly something I'd be interested in playing around with in an organised fashion, but so far just really only do it occasionally after the last rep of my last heavy sets.

Try and bring PAP in for maybe a cycle every now and again but really structure it so you get the most out of it.

Does having a wank before a ride count as PAP?

cleaver wrote:Does having a wank before a ride count as PAP?

PAP I have found transfers from body part to body part, so squats to jumps, bench to explosive push ups.

In the terms of wanking, so long as there is adequate recovery for replenishment of the said energy system it would transfer well to any other sort of sexual activity.