Background/Purpose Due to the limited PE class time, after-school physical activity programs have become an important supplement to PE classes in increasing students' physical activity and fitness level. This study investigated effect of an after-school strength training program on improving muscular strength and endurance among high school adolescents.
Method Sixteen high school students constituting an intervention group participated in an eight-week after-school strength training program containing three 45-minute sessions per week. In each session the participant went through ten muscle-strengthening exercises/stations to perform three sets of ten repetitions at each station with 50-60% of the individual's one repetition maximum in the first three weeks of the intervention, 60-70% in the next three weeks, and 70-80% in the last two weeks. Another sixteen high school students from the same school district made up a control group without receiving any intervention. Two groups had similar ages (15.63±1.03 vs. 15.70±1.13), contained the same number of males (11 males), were all enrolled in PE classes meeting twice/week, and received a pretest (before intervention) and posttest (after intervention) of push-ups and curl-ups.
Analysis/Results Results of one-way ANCOVA indicated significant differences in adjusted means in the posttest scores in favor of the intervention group while controlling for the pretest scores. Specifically, the posttest scores (adjusted means) of push-ups were 22.09±8.08 for the intervention group vs. 18.16±6.66 for the control group (p < .05), and curl-ups were 68.14±11.57 vs. 54.55±21.04 (p < .05).
Conclusions The after-school strength training program is effective in increasing high school students' muscular strength and endurance.