Acute Effects of Suspension Training on Strength and Power Performances

Recently, suspension straps (TRX) have become a popular form of resistance training. Although TRX can elicit higher muscle activations with respect to traditional exercises (McGill et al 2014), there is a need of information on acute effects of a TRX training session. The aim of this study was to examine strength and power performances before (pre) and after (post) a 45-min TRX session. Six female college students (Age: 26.0±3.8years; Height: 1.7±0.1m; Weight: 58.4±3.2Kg; BMI: 21.0±1.5) performed Squat (SJ) and Countermovement (CMJ) jumps on a portable force plate. Evaluations of lower limbs Maximum Voluntary Contraction (MVC) at 90° angle isometric knee extension were performed through a piezoelectric force transducer, and a hydraulic hand dynamometer was used to measure grip strength (HG). MVC and HG were measured in dominant and non-dominant limbs. The CR10 rate of perceived exertion (RPE, Borg 1998) was administered at the end of the TRX session to evaluate the exercise intensity. Subject rated the TRX session as hard (5.8±2.5). Differences (p<0.05) were found in SJ (pre: 21.0±3.0cm; post: 24.3±1.6cm) and MVC in the dominant limb (pre: 352.7±54.9N; post: 329.4±56.2N). No difference was found in CMJ (pre: 25.1±2.2cm; post: 26.2±1.1cm) and MVC in the non-dominant limb (pre: 322.1±53.1N; post: 321.6±57.5N). For HG, differences (p<0.05) emerged only with respect to hand dominance with higher values in the dominant hand (pre: 309.0±46.3N; post: 312.3±52.1N) with respect to non-dominant one (pre: 289.4±40.6N; post: 289.4±51.8N). These findings indicated that female subjects were able to maintain their strength and improve their power at the end of the TRX session. It is possible to speculate that an exercise-related arousing effect counteracts fatigue effects and facilitates the performance of complex motor tasks such as power performance.