Method:Four male (20.5±2.1yrs, 1.82±0.07m, 112.68±15.03kg) and four female (19.9±1.7yrs, 1.76±0.05m, 100.78±28.47kg) college track and field athletes involved in the throwing events (shot put, discus, hammer) were recruited to participate in the investigation. The participants performed, in a counterbalanced within-subjects design, two bench press training sessions that consisted of 3 sets of 5 repetitions at 85% 1-RM. One session consisted solely of resistance provided by a standard Olympic barbell, the second session consisted of combined resistance where 85% of the overall tension was provided by an Olympic barbell and 15% was provided by Jump Stretch Elastic Bands (Jump Stretch Inc., Youngstown, OH.). Power was measured twice, with a minimum of 90 sec rest between measurements, at 50% of 1-RM following the conclusion of both lifting sessions using a Power Factor tether type potentiometer (Max Rack Inc., Columbus, OH.)
Analysis/Results:Analysis performed via repeated measures Ancova (Treatment by Time covaried for gender) revealed a significant main effect for Time (F= 5.951, p=0.05) and a significant two way interaction for Treatment*Time (F=54.093, p<0.001). The subjects initial measurement of power immediately following the training session was higher in the combined elastic treatment (437.5±34.89 watts) as compared to the free-weight only condition (391.88±41.01 watts).
Conclusions:Based upon these data it would appear immediately at the conclusion of a training session power production is greater with combined elastic and free-weight training as compared to free-weight training alone.