The Effects of Traditional, Contrast and Pre-exhaustive Training Methods on Performance Variables

Purpose of the Study: Resistance training is one of the most effective modes of training utilized\ud to increase athletic performance across a wide range of sports and activities of a physical\ud nature. However, to cultivate desired changes in athletic performance, while also accounting for\ud a reduced risk/severity of injury, resistance-training sessions must be tailored and specific to\ud each sport or activity. Numerous training modalities have been developed to account for\ud specificity during resistance-training sessions. The goals of these modalities are to increase\ud specificity of resistance-training sessions with the expectation of optimizing athletic\ud performance and/or injury prevention. Specificity is sometimes accomplished through\ud manipulation of exercise order outside of prescribed traditional protocol norms. The purpose of\ud this study was to investigate the acute effect of three resistance-training modalities, Traditional\ud Training (TT), Contrast Training {CT) and Pre-Exhaustive Training (PT) on three performance\ud measures critical to power performance sports.\ud Procedure: To ascertain if significant differences in performance were evident after acute\ud treatment participants completed three resistance-training sessions of equal volume, varying in\ud intensity and order of exercise completion. After treatment protocol participant's performance\ud was evaluated following a 1-hr recovery period to ascertain if significant differences were\ud evident on performance-tested variables due to treatments. Specifically, declines in vertical\ud leap, agility and repeated-sprint performance may imply direct targeting of physiological\ud systems responsible for performance and imply long-term benefits to such training.\ud Findings: Results indicated significant differences in time (p???0.001) to complete TT, CT and PT\ud protocols. Also, significant differences were evident between Control vertical jump performance\ud and TT (p???0.009), CT (p???0.001) and PT (p???0.034) vertical jump performances respectively.\ud Furthermore, results indicated significant differences in time to complete a T-test between TT\ud and Control protocols (p???0.042) plus CT and Control protocols (p???0.007). Additionally,\ud significant differences were evident between TI and CT protocols versus PT and Control sprint\ud durations (p???0.049).\ud Conclusions: Given that significant differences in performance existed between TI, CT, PT\ud treatments and control protocols, modifications to exercise order outside those of traditional\ud resistance-training protocols may be successful in increasing vertical jump height, agility\ud capabilities and repeated sprint ability while significantly increasing the efficiency of workout\ud sessions