MUSCULAR ENDURANCE REPETITIONS TO PREDICT BENCH PRESS STRENGTH IN MENOF DIFFERENT TRAINING LEVELS

The purpose of this study was to determine the accuracy of predicting maximal bench press (BP) strength (1-RM) from relative endurance perfo rmance in various groups of men, The subjects included untrained stude nts (n=35), resistance trained students (n=28), college wrestlers (n=2 1), soccer players (n=22), football players (n=51), high school studen ts (n=35), and resistance-trained middle-aged men (n=24). Each subject performed a 1-RM test according to the same standard procedure. Withi n 4-10 days, the subject selected a weight to perform as many repetiti ons as possible to failure. Six relative endurance prediction equation s produced validity coefficients of r=0.86 to 0.98 in each group and r =0.82 to 0.98 in the composite group (n=220). In subjects completing l ess than or equal to 10 repetitions-to-failure, three equations signif icantly overpredicted and two significantly underpredicted 1-RM scores . The Brzycki equation was the most accurate, In subjects completing > 10 repetitions to failure, three equations significantly overpredicted and three significantly underpredicted 1-RM scores. While caution sho uld be used when employing relative muscular endurance performance to estimate 1-RM strength in the bench press, the average of two equation s may reduce the error.