Influence of various types of muscle contractions on subsequent bench press volume.

Background: The aim of this study was to examine the effect of different conditioning activities (concentric-only, isometric, eccentric-only, and eccentric-concentric) on the volume of bench press exercises.

Methods: Ten male collegiate athletes performed three sets of bench press exercises at 75% of their one-repetition maximum, with a 4-minute rest between sets, until they reached concentric failure. This was done either after one of the four types of contraction activations (concentric-only, isometric, eccentric-only, and eccentric-concentric) or without any conditioning activity, with the order being counterbalanced and randomized across different days. A two-way repeated measures ANOVA was used to assess differences in the number of repetitions, time under tension, and total work across conditions.

Results: The results showed that concentric-only contractions significantly increased the number of repetitions and time under tension compared to the control. Moreover, concentric-only contractions resulted in more repetitions and total work than eccentric-concentric contractions. Additionally, the time under tension was longer for concentric-only contractions than for isometric contractions.

Conclusions: These findings indicate that concentric-only conditioning activities may improve the volume of subsequent bench press exercises.