Health & Well-Being
Supervision maximizes training results
Exercise enthusiasts, new and experienced, often wonder if a personal trainer or exercise supervisor can help them get fit faster. The Indianapolis-based American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), recently published a study in its official monthly journal, Medicine & Sports in Exercise, that addressed this question specifically for fitness performance related to weight training.
Building on previous research that hinted at a relationship between fitness improvement and supervision of training, the team of researchers, led by Scott A. Mazzetti, of Ball State University in Muncie, IN, decided to attack the problem directly. "Too many variables made it impossible to accurately correlate strength improvement with supervision," notes Mazzetti. "We thought one-to-one supervision would make a pronounced difference, so we designed a test that would compare the changes in maximal strength in supervised vs. unsupervised resistance training."
Twenty-eight men ages 18-35 were chosen for the study; all had a year or two of experience at resistance training, but had never worked with a personal trainer.
The men in the supervised group showed a 30% to 45% higher improvement in maximal strength indices over a 12-week period than the unsupervised group. Moreover, the supervised group reached that peak approximately 30% faster than the unsupervised group.
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