Graduate Program

Kinesiology and Sports Studies

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Semester of Degree Completion

2009

Thesis Director

Jeffrey Willardson

Thesis Committee Member

Phyllis Croisant

Thesis Committee Member

Unknown

Abstract

In order to achieve specific muscular adaptations, repetitions need to be maintained within a certain repetition range throughout consecutive sets; however, maintaining repetition performance can be difficult when using short rest intervals (i.e. :S I-minute). Therefore, purpose of this study was to determine whether a 0%, 5%, 10%, or 15% decrease in resistance would be the most effective in maintaining repetitions over consecutive sets in the squat, leg curl, and leg extension. Eleven male college students volunteered to participate in the seven week study. Each participant was tested over the first three weeks, with one testing session each week. During these testing sessions, a 1 ORM was assessed for the free weight parallel squat, leg curl, and leg extension. The last four weeks were used to assess which condition (0%, 5%, 10%, 15%) enabled each subject to maintain repetitions over three sets of each exercise using the 10-RM that was established during the first three weeks. The subjects were randomly assigned to each condition. Participants completed one condition each week. During conditions 2, 3, and 4 (i.e. 5%, 10%, 15% decrease in load) the resistance was lowered after the first and second sets of each exercise; however, the weight was held constant for all three sets in each exercise during condition 1. Subjects were only given I-minute of rest between each set and 2-minutes of rest between exercises.

Post hoc pairwise comparisons indicated that when averaged across sets, significantly fewer repetitions were accomplished for the back squat and leg curl in . condition 1 versus 4 (p < 0.05). Conversely, for the leg extension, there were no significant differences in the repetitions accomplished between conditions (p > 0.05). Post hoc pairwise comparisons also indicated that for set 3, significantly fewer repetitions (across exercises) were accomplished for conditions 1, 2, and 3 versus condition 4 (p < 0.05). Overall, subjects were able to maintain a 10-RM range for all three sets with the use of a 15% drop in resistance after the first and second set in the back squat and leg curl. Results also indicated that the load could be kept constant over all three sets for the leg extension. Hypertrophy occurs in skeletal muscles in response to specific types of resistance training. According to previous studies, individuals will experience the greatest gains in muscle size when repetitions are maintained around ten with short rest intervals between sets (e.g. 60-seconds). In summary, the current study demonstrated that a 10-RM could be maintained over three sets by dropping the resistance 15% after the first and second sets.

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