Superset Strength Training for Time-efficiency

Superset Strength Training for Time-efficiency - A Randomized Controlled Pilot Study

Physical inactivity is a global challenge and there is an urgent need to find strategies to increases people's activity levels. Strength training is one of the activities that is recommended to engage in regularly by both the American College of Sports Medicine and the World Health Organization. Understanding how strength training can be done effectively without spending much time could potentially increase people's involvement in strength training, as lack of time often is reported as barrier to training. Superset strength training can potentially be a time-efficient way of strength training, as this training method has been found to take half the time of the traditional ways of training.

The aim of the present study is therefore to compare the effects of superset strength training and traditional strength training on muscular strength, body composition and fatigue.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Sedentary Lifestyle
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Superset strength training; Behavioral: Traditional strength training

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 30
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Norway
  • Trondheim, Norway, 7491
    • Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 45 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• living in Trøndelag
• did not perform weekly strength training during the past 6 months.

Exclusion Criteria:

• any known severe somatic condition (e.g., autoimmune and systemic inflammatory diseases, cancer, severe osteoporosis)
• any known severe psychiatric condition
• other contraindications for heavy resistance training (e.g. shoulder pain).

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Superset strength training; This is the experimental group that performs strength training with sets and rest intervals programmed in a superset manner	Behavioral: Superset strength training; Three weeks of familiarization (two times per week) to the exercises leg-press, bench press, lateral pulldown and seated rows, followed by superset strength training two days per week for 12-weeks. Superset 1 are bench-press and seated rows, and superset 2 are leg-press and lateral pulldown. Each superset is performed three times.
Active Comparator: Traditional strength training; This is the comparator group that engages in strength training with sets and rest intervals programmed in accordance with the recommendations from The American College of Sports Medicine	Behavioral: Traditional strength training; Three weeks of familiarization (two times per week) to the exercises leg-press, bench press, lateral pulldown and seated rows, followed by strength training two days per week for 12-weeks. Each exercise is performed for three sets with rest intervals between each set.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in muscular strength	Change in one repetition maximum strength (weight in kilograms) for all exercises	3 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in body weight	Assessed using a body composition analyzer (i.e. InBody)	3 months
Change in muscle mass	Assessed using a body composition analyzer (i.e. InBody)	3 months
Change in body composition fat mass	Assessed using a body composition analyzer (i.e. InBody)	3 months
Change in body composition BMI	Assessed using a body composition analyzer (i.e. InBody)	3 months

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Training load	Assessed by training diaries	continuously for 3 months
Training volume	Assessed by training diaries	continuously for 3 months
Perceived exhaustion	Borg Category Ratio Scale (0-10) - information from training diaries	continuously for 3 months
Participant's experiences with the intervention	Semi-structured focus group interviews with questions regarding the experience participant had during the intervention, questions related to the training program, questions related to motivation and fatigue, questions related to time-efficiency	3 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Norwegian University of Science and Technology
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Vegard moe Iversen, PhD, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): August 5, 2019
• Primary Completion (Actual): December 20, 2019
• Study Completion (Actual): December 20, 2019

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 18, 2019
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 29, 2019
• First Posted (Actual): July 30, 2019

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): July 7, 2020
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 3, 2020
• Last Verified: July 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Muscle strength; Resistance training
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2019-07-VMI

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No