Effects of Strength Training on Olympic Time-Based Sport Performance: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials
in International Journal of Sports Physiology and PerformanceClick name to view affiliation
Purpose: To evaluate the effect of strength training on Olympic time-based sports (OTBS) time-trial performance and provide an estimate of the impact of type of strength training, age, training status, and training duration on OTBS time-trial performance. Methods: A search on 3 electronic databases was conducted. The analysis comprised 32 effects in 28 studies. Posttest time-trial performance of intervention and control group from each study was used to estimate the standardized magnitude of impact of strength training on OTBS time-trial performance. Results: Strength training had a moderate positive effect on OTBS time-trial performance (effect size = 0.59, P < .01). Subgroup meta-analysis showed that heavy weight training (effect size = 0.30, P = .01) produced a significant effect, whereas other modes did not induce significant effects. Training status as factorial covariate was significant for well-trained athletes (effect size = 0.62, P = .04), but not for other training levels. Meta-regression analysis yielded nonsignificant relationship with age of the participants recruited (β = −0.04; 95% confidence interval, −0.08 to 0.004; P = .07) and training duration (β = −0.05; 95% confidence interval, −0.11 to 0.02; P = .15) as continuous covariates. Conclusion: Heavy weight training is an effective method for improving OTBS time-trial performance. Strength training has greatest impact on well-trained athletes regardless of age and training duration.
Lum is with Sport Science and Sport Medicine, Singapore Sport Inst, Singapore. Lum and Barbosa are with Physical Education and Sports Science, National Inst of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Barbosa is also with the Polytechnic Inst of Braganca, Braganca, Portugal.
© 2023 Human Kinetics