Does delayed exercise-based priming improve subsequent athletic performance? A systematic review and multilevel meta-analysis

Zitao Wang, Haitao Li, Wanyuan Xia, Ziqi Jin, Shiping Fu and Zhenxin Nie

PLOS ONE, 2026, vol. 21, issue 7, 1-13

Abstract: This systematic review and multilevel meta-analysis examined whether delayed exercise-based priming improves subsequent athletic performance. Following PRISMA 2020 principles, 3,095 records were identified; after removing 1,107 duplicates, 1,988 unique records were screened, 212 full-text reports were assessed, 186 reports were excluded at eligibility, and 26 studies were included. Eighteen studies contributed 46 effect sizes to the quantitative synthesis. Risk of bias was assessed with RoB 2 principles calibrated for crossover exercise trials, and certainty was evaluated using GRADE. A three-level random-effects model showed a small positive average effect of delayed priming on subsequent performance (g = 0.232, 95% CI [0.092, 0.372], p = .002), with cluster-robust inference supporting the same conclusion (p = .004). The prediction interval crossed zero (−0.265 to 0.730), and the overall certainty of evidence was low. Delayed exercise-based priming can be used as a practical competition-day strategy when embedded in planned preparation windows, although protocol selection and athlete response should be checked in training before competition use.

Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0354720 (text/html)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id= ... 54720&type=printable (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0354720

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0354720

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in PLOS ONE from Public Library of Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by plosone ().