The Effect of a Progressive Relaxation Training Period on Muscle Efficiency and Performance of Archery Athletes

The Purpose of the current study was to examine the effect of a progressive relaxation training period on muscle efficiency and performance of archery athletes. ‎

In this semi-experimental study, which was conducted with a pre-test-post-test design with a control group, 40 male archery athletes were randomly selected and placed in two groups of relaxation and control exercises. In the pre-test stage, the participants made 9 archery throws, during which the electrical activity was recorded using an electromyography device. According to the method proposed in the methodology of the research, the training phase of progressive relaxation was done in six weeks and three sessions each week and each session lasted 30 minutes. After the training phase, the post-test phase was conducted, where the participants performed 9 archery throws, as in the pre-test phase, during which the electrical activity was recorded using an electromyography device. The data was analyzed by univariate covariance analysis.‎

The results indicated that progressive relaxation intervention on performance (P<0.05), the electrical activity of biceps muscle (P<0.05) and triceps muscle electrical activity (P<0.05) has a significant effect.‎

In general, the results of the present study emphasize the importance of a progressive relaxation program on muscle efficiency and archery performance.