The Effects of Combining Elastic and Free Weight Resistance

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Members may find the below study to be of interest:

The Effects of Combining Elastic and Free Weight Resistance on

Strength and Power in Athletes.

Original Research

Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research. 22(2):567-574, March

2008.

, Corey E; Sforzo, A; Sigg, A

Abstract:

This study was undertaken to determine whether combined elastic and

free weight resistance (CR) provides different strength and power

adaptations than free weight resistance (FWR) training alone.

Forty-four young (age 20 +/- 1 years), resistance-trained (4 +/- 2

years' experience) subjects were recruited from men's basketball and

wrestling teams and women's basketball and hockey teams at Cornell

University. Subjects were stratified according to team, then randomly

assigned to the control (C; n = 21) or experimental group (E; n =

23). Before and after 7 weeks of resistance training, subjects were

tested for lean body mass, 1 repetition maximum back squat and bench

press, and peak and average power. Both C and E groups performed

identical workouts except that E used CR (i.e., elastic resistance)

for the back squat and bench press, whereas the C group used FWR

alone. CR was performed using an elastic bungee cord attached to a

standard barbell loaded with plates.

Elastic tension was accounted for in an attempt to equalize the total

work done by each group. Statistical analyses revealed significant (P

< 0.05) between-group differences after training. Compared with C,

improvement for E was nearly three times greater for back squat

(16.47 +/- 5.67 vs. 6.84 +/- 4.42 kg increase), two times greater for

bench press (6.68 +/- 3.41 vs. 3.34 +/- 2.67 kg increase), and nearly

three times greater for average power (68.55 +/- 84.35 vs. 23.66 +/-

40.56 watt increase).

Training with CR may be better than FWR alone for developing lower

and upper body strength, and lower body power in resistance-trained

individuals. Long-term effects are unclear, but CR training makes a

meaningful contribution in the short term to performance adaptations

of experienced athletes.

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Carruthers

Wakefield, UK