Mechanical and Metabolic Responses to Traditional and Cluster Set Configurations in the Bench Press Exercise

Abstract

García-Ramos, A, González-Hernández, JM, Baños-Pelegrín, E, Castaño-Zambudio, A, Capelo-Ramírez, F, Boullosa, D, Haff, GG, and Jiménez-Reyes, P. Mechanical and metabolic responses to traditional and cluster set configurations in the bench press exercise. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2017-This study aimed to compare mechanical and metabolic responses between traditional (TR) and cluster (CL) set configurations in the bench press exercise. In a counterbalanced randomized order, 10 men were tested with the following protocols (sets × repetitions [inter-repetition rest]): TR1: 3 × 10 (0-second), TR2: 6 × 5 (0-second), CL5: 3 × 10 (5-second), CL10: 3 × 10 (10-second), and CL15: 3 × 10 (15-second). The number of repetitions (30), interset rest (5 minutes), and resistance applied (10 repetition maximum) were the same for all set configurations. Movement velocity and blood lactate concentration were used to assess the mechanical and metabolic responses, respectively. The comparison of the first and last set of the training session revealed a significant decrease in movement velocity for TR1 (Effect size [ES]: -0.92), CL10 (ES: -0.85), and CL15 (ES: -1.08) (but not for TR2 [ES: -0.38] and CL5 [ES: -0.37]); while blood lactate concentration was significantly increased for TR1 (ES: 1.11), TR2 (ES: 0.90), and CL5 (ES: 1.12) (but not for CL10 [ES: 0.03] and CL15 [ES: -0.43]). Based on velocity loss, set configurations were ranked as follows: TR1 (-39.3 ± 7.3%) > CL5 (-20.2 ± 14.7%) > CL10 (-12.9 ± 4.9%), TR2 (-10.3 ± 5.3%), and CL15 (-10.0 ± 2.3%). The set configurations were ranked as follows based on the lactate concentration: TR1 (7.9 ± 1.1 mmol·L) > CL5 (5.8 ± 0.9 mmol·L) > TR2 (4.2 ± 0.7 mmol·L) > CL10 (3.5 ± 0.4 mmol·L) and CL15 (3.4 ± 0.7 mmol·L). These results support the use of TR2, CL10, and CL15 for the maintenance of high mechanical outputs, while CL10 and CL15 produce less metabolic stress than TR2.

Cluster vs. traditional training programmes: changes in the force–velocity relationship

“…The main findings of the present study were: (i) TT entailed greater lactate production and velocity loss in comparison with CT; (ii) both training programmes produced similar gains in 1RM; (iii) for BP, changes in F-V were similar for TT and CT (i.e., no shift of the slope and higher force and velocity axis intercept values); (iv) for SQ, changes in F-V parameters were observed with CT towards a velocity profile, whereas these changes were not observed in TT and (v) no pre-post differences were observed between training conditions regarding the position of V 1RM on F-V of both exercises whereas the gain of F 1RM /F 0 was only significant in SQ for CT. In agreement with other studies (García-Ramos et al, 2020;Gorostiaga et al, 2012), blood lactate concentration after training sessions were higher in TT in comparison with CT. This suggests that short sets, with recovery between a cluster of repetitions reduce the glycolytic involvement of the session (Haff et al, 2008).…”

The Acute Neuromuscular Responses to Cluster Set Resistance Training: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Power was the most assessed outcome (16 individual studies, n = 181 individuals) (peak power: SMD = 0.356, 95% CI 0.057–0.655, p = 0.019; mean power: SMD = 0.692, 95% CI 0.395–0.990, p < 0.001) [19, 21–25, 41, 42, 44–49, 51, 59], followed by velocity (14 individual studies, n = 170 individuals) (peak velocity: SMD = 0.815, 95% CI 0.105–1.524, p = 0.024; mean velocity: SMD = 0.863, 95% CI 0.319–1.406, p = 0.002) [21, 25, 43, 46–52, 55–58] and then force (11 individual studies, n = 123 individuals) (peak force: SMD = 0.306, 95% CI − 0.028 to 0.584, p = 0.031; mean force: SMD = 0.572, 95% CI − 0.157 to 1.301, p = 0.124) [21, 25, 41, 45, 46, 48, 49, 51, 53–55]. The individual study, subgroup analyses and overall SMD ± 95% CI for kinetic variables can be found in Fig.…”

“…A total of 20 studies included in the meta-analysis used a strength-based exercise, of which 15 used a back squat or half-squat exercise [23–25, 41–43, 46–50, 52, 53, 55, 59], three used the bench press exercise [22, 56, 58], one used the deadlift [45] and one used an isometric knee extension exercise [54]. Two studies assessed a WL task (i.e.…”

“…A total of 15 studies included in the meta-analysis used a heavy loading scheme [19, 21, 22, 25, 41–43, 45, 48–50, 52, 53, 55, 59], ten used a moderate loading scheme [23–25, 44, 46–48, 50, 56, 58], two used a low loading scheme [42, 54] and three used a load considered optimal for power development [42, 51, 57]. It should be noted that three studies used more than one loading scheme [42, 48, 50].…”

“…Twelve studies included in the meta-analysis used experienced individuals [21, 23–26, 43, 44, 46, 49, 53, 55, 58], nine studies used recreational individuals [41, 42, 45, 50, 51, 54, 56, 57, 59], while three used athletic individuals [19, 22, 52]. One study [47] used a combination of recreational and experienced individuals.…”