Impact of Inertial Training on Strength and Power Performance in Young Active Men

Abstract

Naczk, M, Naczk, A, Brzenczek-Owczarzak, W, Arlet, J, and Adach, Z. Impact of inertial training on strength and power performance in young active men. J Strength Cond Res 30(8): 2107–2113, 2016—This study evaluated how 5 weeks of inertial training using 2 different loads influenced strength and power performance. Fifty-eight male physical education students were randomly divided into training and control groups. The 2 training groups (T0 and T10) performed inertial training 3 times per week for 5 weeks using the new Inertial Training and Measurement System (ITMS). Each training session included 3 exercise sets involving the knee extensors muscles. The T0 group used only the mass of the ITMS flywheel (19.4 kg), whereas the T10 group had an additional 10 kg on the flywheel. Before and after training, we evaluated maximum force and power of knee extensors muscles, countermovement jump (CMJ), squat jump (SJ), maximal power output achieved during ergometer test PVT, electromyography of quadriceps, and muscle mass. In T0 and T10, respectively, ITMS training induced significant increases in muscle force (25.2 and 23.3%), muscle power (33.2 and 27%), CMJ (3.8 and 6.7%), SJ (2.2 and 6.1%), PVT (8 and 7.4%), and muscle mass (9.8 and 15%). The changes did not significantly differ between T0 and T10. A 16% significant increase of electromyography amplitude (quadriceps muscle) was noted only in T0. The novel ITMS training method is effective for improving muscular strength and power. Improvements in PVT, CMJ, and SJ indicate that the increased strength and power elicited by ITMS training can translate to improvements in sport performance. The ITMS training can also be useful for building muscle mass.

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“…To date, the influence of inertial training on muscle strength has been tested mainly in healthy subjects and athletes, and the studies showed that relatively short inertial training periods promote skeletal muscle adaptations in strength, power, and size. [14][15][16][17] Our results indicate that inertial training can be used by the elderly to enhance their muscle strength. To the best of our knowledge, the improvement in strength (from 37% to 69% for different muscles) achieved by the elderly persons tested in the present study was extremely high.…”

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“…It should be noted that the authors defined "well-trained" as "sport-participating individuals, elite athletes, and individuals with self-reported high activity level." Within their analysis, several improvements in power output stood out including increases of 32.6% in five weeks [48], 30.0% in six weeks [37], 38.2% in seven weeks [44], and 59.2% in 24 weeks [49]. These are very large increases in power output over short periods of time and should be interpreted with caution.…”

“…[31][32][33][34]36,37,44,[47][48][49][50][51][52]. While many of these studies used protocols similar to those discussed above (i.e., four sets of 7-8 repetitions), other studies reported positive results using three sets of 15-20 s [48,50,51]. A recent meta-analysis concluded that well-trained individuals displayed greater power output adaptations when compared to untrained and moderately-trained individuals following various FIT protocols [29].…”

“…These are very large increases in power output over short periods of time and should be interpreted with caution. In addition, it should be noted that all of the highlighted studies measured power output during the FIT training protocol [37,44,48,49]. Thus, it is possible that the novel training stimulus led to greater performance improvements within the task they were performing.…”

“…While it appears that four sets of seven repetitions may be an effective FIT protocol for hypertrophy, strength, and power output, limited information exists on whether this is optimal for all populations. To the authors' knowledge, only one study has provided information regarding the relative strength of their participants [44], despite several others providing measures of absolute strength [31,34,41,48,57]. From a strength perspective, stronger athletes require a greater overload stimulus than weaker athletes due to their capacity to tolerate heavier loads.…”