The effects of familiarization sessions on maximal strength testing in pre-pubescent children

Abstract

It was hypothesized that the number of familiarization sessions may have an effect on the pre-testing measures recorded before a training study. This study considered a group of children (8-12 years old) placed into familiarization (FM, 4 sessions) and non-familiarization (NFM, 2 sessions) groups. Strength values in a vertical chest press and horizontal leg press were recorded for both groups. The FM group displayed strength increases in the chest press, while both groups increased leg press strength (a 0.05). The FM group also displayed significant increases over the NFM group in both exercises. The results demonstrated that, in the FM group, significant changes in chest press strength were made in the last two sessions while significant leg press changes were noted in the first two sessions. It can be concluded that the amount of familiarization sessions performed prior to testing can have an impact on pre-testing strength measures.