The Effect of Traditional and Non-Traditional Weight Training on Muscular Endurance

Background/Purpose: Non-traditional resistance training programs have become an ever increasing interest to all ages, especially college-aged students. These types of programs are purported to be efficient and effective workouts that improve aerobic and/or anaerobic fitness levels and may be considered less time intensive than the traditional routines. Non-traditional programs, such as CrossFit™ incorporate constantly varied, high intensity, functional movements aimed at forging a broad level of fitness. The need is to examine the non-traditional programs against the traditional programs before use is recommended. The purpose of the current study was to examine the effect of resistance training class (i.e., Non-traditional Resistance Training vs. Traditional BIP Weightlifting) on fitness changes across 12 weeks of training.

Method: Sixty-seven participants were recruited from four existing resistance training classes – 2 Traditional and 2 Non-Traditional. The YMCA Bench Press Test was used to assess change in upper body muscular endurance. Testing was performed at the start and end of the semester and the change was recorded for muscular endurance (posttest – pretest).

Analysis/Results: Percent change and a Factorial ANOVA (Training Type * Time) was used to examine endurance changes between class types.

Several participants failed to complete both post testing sessions and therefore analyses were conducted on the delimited sample with complete scores (n = 15 Traditional, n = 17 Non-traditional). Muscular endurance changes were similar between traditional resistance training and non-traditional groups. At six weeks, muscular endurance improved slightly more among traditional group participants compared to non-traditional participants (19% vs. 15%). However, at 12-weeks, muscular endurance improved slightly more among non-traditional participants compared to traditional participants (33% vs. 27%). Factorial ANOVA with repeated measures confirmed these descriptive statistics as there was a main effect for time (F = 22.23, p = .000) but not training type (F = 0.12, p = .73) or interaction (F = 0.61, p = .55).

Conclusions: It was found that similar improvement in muscular endurance occurred in each training group following the 12-week study. The results support the use of non-traditional resistance training as an alternative university resistance training program.