A comparison of once versus twice per week training on leg press strength in women.

AIM

The purpose of this study was to compare strength differences between 2 groups of untrained women, who performed a single set of the leg press exercise once or twice per week.

METHODS

Twenty-one women were divided randomly into 2 groups: Group 1 (n=10) performed a single set of the leg press exercise once per week, while Group 2 (n=11) performed a single set of the leg press exercise twice per week for a period of 8 weeks. Throughout the duration of the study, an amount of resistance was utilized that allowed for a single set of 6 to 10 repetitions to muscular failure. At the conclusion of the study, subjects were tested for their 6-RM strength. A 2x2 ANOVA was used to compare strength differences. The a level was set at 0.05 in order for differences to be considered significant.

RESULTS

The 2x2 ANOVA demonstrated that strength increases were significant between tests (P=0.0001), but not significant between groups (P=0.757).

CONCLUSIONS

These results indicate that performing a single set of the leg press once or twice per week results in statistically similar strength gains in untrained women.