Unilateral Elbow Flexion and Leg Press Training Induce Cross-Education But Not Global Training Gains in Children.

PURPOSE

Whereas cross-education has been extensively investigated with adults, there are far fewer youth investigations. Two studies suggested that children had greater global responses to unilateral knee extensor fatigue and training, respectively, than adults. The objective of this study was to compare global training responses and cross-education effects after unilateral elbow flexion (EFlex) and leg press (LP) training.

METHODS

Forty-three prepubertal youths (aged 10-13 y) were randomly allocated into dominant LP (n = 15), EFlex (n = 15) training groups, or a control (n = 13). Experimental groups trained 3 times per week for 8 weeks and were tested pretraining and posttraining for ipsilateral and contralateral 1-repetition maximum LP; knee extensor, knee flexors, elbow flexors; and handgrip maximum voluntary isometric contractions (MVIC), and countermovement jump.

RESULTS

In comparison to no significant changes with the control group, dominant elbow flexors training demonstrated significant ( P < .001) improvements only with ipsilateral and contralateral upper body testing (EFlex MVIC [15.9-21.5%], EFlex 1-repetition maximum [22.9-50.8%], handgrip MVIC [5.5-13.8%]). Dominant LP training similarly exhibited only significant ( P < .001) improvements for ipsilateral and contralateral lower body testing (LP 1-repetition maximum [59.6-81.8%], knee extensor MVIC [12.4-18.3%], knee flexor MVIC [7.9-22.3%], and countermovement jump [11.1-18.1%]).

CONCLUSIONS

The ipsilateral and contralateral training adaptations in youth were specific to upper or lower body training, respectively.