Department of Health and Exercise Science, Exercise Physiology Laboratory, Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ, USA.
USF Muscle Lab, Exercise Science Program, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA.
Eur J Sport Sci. 2023 Jan;23(1):82-91. doi: 10.1080/17461391.2021.2023657. Epub 2022 Feb 24.
The prescription of resistance exercise often involves administering a set number of repetitions to be completed at a given relative load. While this accounts for individual differences in strength, it neglects to account for differences in local muscle endurance and may result in varied responses across individuals. One way of potentially creating a more homogenous stimulus across individuals involves performing resistance exercise to volitional failure, but this has not been tested and was the purpose of the present study. Individuals completed 2 testing sessions to compare repetitions, ratings of perceived exertion (RPE), muscle swelling and fatigue responses to arbitrary repetition (SET) vs. failure (FAIL) protocols using either 60% or 30% one-repetition maximum. Statistical analyses assessed differences in the variability between protocols. Forty-six individuals (25 females and 21 males) completed the study. There was more variability in the number of repetitions completed during FAIL when compared to SET protocols. Performing the 60% 1RM condition to failure appeared to reduce the variability in muscle swelling (average variance: 60%-SET = .034, 60%-FAIL = .023) and RPE (average variance: 60%-SET = 4.0, 60%-FAIL = 2.5), but did not alter the variability in muscle fatigue. No differences in variability were present between the SET-30% and FAIL-30% protocols for any of the dependent variables. Performing resistance exercise to failure may result in a more homogenous stimulus across individuals, particularly when using moderate to high exercise loads. The prescription of resistance exercise should account for individual differences in local muscle endurance to ensure a similarly effective stimulus across individuals.Highlights There is a large variance in the number of repetitions individuals can complete even when exercising with the same relative load.Ratings of perceived exertion and muscle swelling responses become more homogenous when exercising to volitional failure as compared to using performing a set number of repetitions, particularly when moderate to higher loads are used.The prescription of exercise should take into consideration the individual's local muscle endurance as opposed to choosing an arbitrary number of repetitions to be completed at a given relative load.
抗阻运动的处方通常涉及在给定的相对负荷下完成一定次数的重复。虽然这考虑了个体之间的力量差异，但它忽略了局部肌肉耐力的差异，并且可能导致个体之间的反应不同。一种可能的方法是通过让个体进行抗阻运动至力竭来创建更同质的刺激，但这尚未得到验证，也是本研究的目的。个体完成了 2 次测试，以比较使用 60%或 30%的 1 次重复最大负荷（1RM）时，任意重复（SET）与失败（FAIL）方案在重复次数、主观用力感觉（RPE）、肌肉肿胀和疲劳反应上的差异。统计分析评估了方案间差异的变异性。46 名个体（25 名女性和 21 名男性）完成了这项研究。与 SET 方案相比，FAIL 方案中完成的重复次数的变异性更大。在使用 60%的 1RM 至力竭的情况下，肌肉肿胀（平均方差：60%-SET=0.034，60%-FAIL=0.023）和 RPE（平均方差：60%-SET=4.0，60%-FAIL=2.5）的变异性降低，但肌肉疲劳的变异性没有改变。对于任何依赖变量，SET-30%和 FAIL-30%方案之间的变异性没有差异。在使用中等至高负荷的情况下，抗阻运动至力竭可能会使个体之间的刺激更加同质。抗阻运动的处方应该考虑个体的局部肌肉耐力差异，以确保个体之间的刺激效果相似。
要点
即使使用相同的相对负荷，个体能够完成的重复次数也存在很大差异。
与完成设定次数的重复相比，当进行至力竭的运动时，RPE 和肌肉肿胀反应变得更加同质，尤其是当使用中等到更高的负荷时。
运动的处方应该考虑到个体的局部肌肉耐力，而不是选择在给定的相对负荷下完成任意次数的重复。
