Applied Sciences (Jul 2023)
Pilot Study on Exercise Performance Level and Physiological Response According to Rest Intervals between Sets during 65% 1RM Bench Press Exercise
Abstract
The purpose of this study was a pilot study to determine the performance level and physiologic responses (heart rate and heart rate recovery (%)) of six different rest interval conditions during the performance of seven sets of a 65% 1RM bench press exercise. Eight healthy male university students who were 20 years of age and enrolled at University C were tested. The subjects’ bench press 1RM was measured before the experiment, and they performed bench press exercises with six different rest intervals (30 s, 1 min, 2 min, 3 min, 4 min, and 5 min), which were randomized and crossed over. The experimental measurements were performed once a week and repeated six times per rest interval condition (six intervals) to minimize the learning effect for the subjects. A two-way repeated measures ANOVA was used to verify the data, post-comparison (contrast: repeat) was used to establish statistical significance, and the following results were obtained. First, the level of exercise performance (reps) between sets across the six rest interval conditions showed significant differences (p p p p p p p p < 0.05), with a high effect size (ES ≥ 0.37). Taken together, there were significant differences in performance levels (reps), physiological responses, and recovery between rest interval conditions during the equal-intensity resistance exercises in this study. Furthermore, the performance levels between rest interval conditions during the 65% 1RM bench press exercise in this study suggest that rest intervals of 2–3 min may be effective for improving muscular endurance, while rest intervals of 4–5 min may be effective for improving muscle hypertrophy. This suggests that manipulating the rest intervals between sets during resistance training at the same intensity may lead to better training outcomes.
Keywords
