Alterations in strength, body composition and anthropometric measurements consequent to a 10-week weight training program

Abstract

Forty-seven women and twenty-six men volunteered to participate in a 10-week program of intensive weight training, with an average attendance of two days per week, 40 minutes per session. Assessments of strength, body composition and anthropometric girths, diameters and skinfolds were made at the beginning and at the conclusion of the study period. Both groups made similar relative gains in strength and absolute gains in body composition. The men were stronger than the women for all strength measures, although the women exhibited a greater leg strength when expressed relative to lean body weight. Muscular hypertrophy evident in both groups, was confined basically to the upper extremity, and was of substantially greater magnitude in the males. Correlations between absolute strength and girth size indicate a probable relationship between muscle size and strength, but hypertrophy is not a predominant consequence of increasing total body or individual muscle strength.