A research group out of Norway just published a new paper where they had moderately trained men and women do one of three programs for 8-weeks:
- 3x/wk Bench press 4 x 4 @ 85% 1RM (MST)
- 3x/wk Bench press x 8-12 x 3 sets at ∼70-80% of 1RM (HT)
- 3x/wk Bench Press x 6-7 reps x 4 sets @ 40% of 1RM (EST)
1RM improvement was greatest in the MST group by quite a bit, e.g. 21.5% in MST vs 5.9% in ET. The researchers also found that the rate of force development and bar speed at most intensities were also better with MST than any other group. Yes, the MST group was able to move the bar faster than the EST group despite not training high velocity force production directly. Interesting, right?
To me, this seems to corroborate previous data, where measures of weighted power production (e.g. bar velocity) seem to be very well developed using traditional resistance training. In other words, if you’re testing someone’s power output via how fast they squat, bench, deadlift, or similar variation, you probably don’t need to train “speed work” directly. Conversely, most of the data looking at measurements of power involving bodyweight only, e.g. vertical jump, broad jump, etc., points to a benefit of direct power training.
Practically speaking, this doesn’t really do much for how I program, as I don’t have people do a lot of direct power training unless they need it for sport. For those individuals, I am happy to use traditional plyometrics or light barbell work depending on preferences.