ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Physiol.
Sec. Exercise Physiology
Responder Signatures and Predictors of Upper-and Lower-Limb Power Responsiveness to Maximal Strength versus Plyometric Dry-Land Training in Swimmers
Liuxi Yang 1
Qi Xu 2
Yu Chen 3
JiuShu Zhou 3
1. College of Aviation, Civil Aviation Flight University of China, 618307, Guanghan, China, Guanghan, China
2. Gdansk University of Physical Education and Sport, Gdańsk, Poland
3. School of Physical Education, Chengdu Sport University, 610041, Chengdu, China, Chengdu, China
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Abstract
Objectives: To quantify upper- and lower-limb power responsiveness to maximal strength (MSTG) versus plyometric training (PTG) versus control (CG), and to identify stable responder signatures from the 2D change vector (ΔUpper, ΔLower). Methods: Twenty-seven university swimmers were randomized to MSTG, PTG, or CG (n = 9 each) for 6 weeks with testing at Pre, Mid, and Post. Upper- and lower-limb power constructs were derived via baseline-fitted PCA from bench press power plus medicine-ball throw and from CMJ, SJ, DJ, plus SLJ, respectively; responsiveness was Post–Pre. Group contrasts used permutation tests with Holm adjustment and bootstrap confidence intervals. Responder signatures were identified by Ward clustering with cluster-number selection and bootstrap stability. Results: ΔUpper was 0.962 ± 0.129 (MSTG), 0.762 ± 0.218 (PTG), and 0.332 ± 0.058 (CG); MSTG–PTG mean difference was 0.200 (95% CI [0.047, 0.356], p = 0.030, g = 1.065), and both exceeded CG (p < 0.001). ΔLower was 0.822 ± 0.125 (MSTG), 0.758 ± 0.150 (PTG), and 0.388 ± 0.059 (CG); MSTG–PTG was 0.065 (p = 0.331), while both exceeded CG (p < 0.001). Clustering selected k = 2 (silhouette 0.608) with high stability (ARI 0.840 [0.591, 1.000]) and strong group association (χ² = 18.900, p < 0.001). Conclusions: In this sample, MSTG elicited larger upper-limb responsiveness than PTG, while both approaches improved upper- and lower-limb constructs versus CG, and responder signatures were stable and strongly aligned with training modality. In exploratory models within our sample, short-duration intervention, training allocation (stimulus) dominated modeled responsiveness and baseline sprint performance showed an inverse association with high-responder membership, patterns consistent with short-block trainability/ceiling effects, therefore these predictive findings should be interpreted as context-specific and not generalized beyond similar swimmer levels and intervention doses.
Summary
Keywords
Dry-land Training , hierarchicalclustering, inter-individual variability, Neuromuscular power, responder classification, strengthand conditioning, swimming performance
Received
29 January 2026
Accepted
18 February 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Yang, Xu, Chen and Zhou. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Qi Xu
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