In-Season Weightlifting Training Exercise in Healthy Male Handball Players: Effects on Body Composition, Muscle Volume, Maximal Strength, and Ball-Throwing Velocity

Souhail Hermassi, Mohamed Souhaiel Chelly, Nicola Luigi Bragazzi, Roy J Shephard and René Schwesig
Additional contact information
Souhail Hermassi: Sport Science Program, College of Arts and Sciences, Qatar University, Doha 2713, Qatar
Mohamed Souhaiel Chelly: Research Unit (UR17JS01) Sport Performance, Health & Society, Higher Institute of Sport and Physical Education, Ksar-Saîd, University of “La Manouba”, Tunis 2010, Tunisia
Nicola Luigi Bragazzi: Laboratory for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (LIAM), Department of Mathematics and Statistics, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, ON M3J 1P3, Canada
Roy J Shephard: Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A1, Canada
René Schwesig: Department of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, 06097 Halle, Germany

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 22, 1-14

Abstract: This study assessed the impact of 8 weeks biweekly in-season weightlifting training on the strength, throwing ability, and body composition of healthy male handball players. Twenty players (age: 21.2 ± 0.7 years, height: 1.83 ± 0.08 m, body mass: 83.3 ± 7.5 kg, body fat: 13.2 ± 1.4%, upper limb muscle volume: 3.16 ± 0.16 L) were randomly allocated between experimental (EG) and control (CG) groups. Measures of one-repetition maximal strength included bench press, pull-over, snatch, and clean and jerk. Throwing velocity was investigated by standing, running, and jump throws, and the power of the upper limbs was estimated from the total distance of a 3-kg medicine ball overhead throw. Muscle volumes were estimated anthropometrically. Training sessions comprised 3–4 sets of explosive weightlifting exercise at 75%–90% of 1RM (repetition maximum). Significant interaction effects (time x group) were found for all strength and throwing variables, ranging from η p 2 = 0.595 (pull-over) to η p 2 = 0.887 (medicine ball throw), with the largest between-group difference (more than 40%, Δd = 6.65) and effect size (d = 6.44) for the medicine ball throw, and the smallest (about 23%, Δd = 1.61) for the standing shot performance. Significant interaction effects were also detected for all anthropometric parameters (body mass: η p 2 = 0.433; body fat: η p 2 = 0.391; upper limb muscle volume: η p 2 = 0.920, with an almost 20% gain of muscle volume). It can be concluded that 8 weeks of biweekly in-season weightlifting training yielded substantial increases of muscle volume, maximal strength of the upper limbs, and ball throwing velocity in healthy handball players relative to their standard training program.

Keywords: muscle volume; weightlifting exercises; maximal strength; throwing velocity; healthy handball players (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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