Abstract des Autors

Tapering commonly precedes strength/power competitions to augment performance, and training abstinence is an extreme manifestation of taper. This study compared the effects of different training-abstinence intervals on several indices of strength. Postresting strength performance was compared in 54 young men who had abstained from a standardized weight training program for either 2, 3, 4 or 5 days. Testing included 1RM heel raise strength and isokinetic plantar flexion peak torque at 1.05 and 3.14 rad s1. Heel raise strength was greater at 4 days as compared to 2 or 5 days, whereas performance at 3 days was no different (p>.05) than any of the other rest intervals. Isokinetic plantar flexion peak torque at both 1.05 and 3.14 rad s1 was unaffected by any of the rest intervals. Small to moderate effect sizes were found for heel raise strength for group resting 3 and 4 days as well as for slow and fast isokinetic peak torque for the group resting 4 days. It was concluded that a transient elevation in heel raise strength in young men appears to occur by the fourth day of abstinence from heavy-resistance heel-raise training. Under the same experimental conditions, it appears that a modest increase in both slow and fast isokinetic plantar-flexion strength may also occur. Verf.-Referat