MUSCLE PERFORMANCE AND

RESISTANCE
EXERCISE

DEFINITIONS AND GUIDING PRINCIPLES

• The three elements of muscle performance—
• Strength
• Power
• Endurance—can be enhanced by some form of resistance
exercise.
Potential Benefits of Resistance
Exercise
• Enhanced muscle performance:
restoration, improvement or
maintenance of muscle strength,
power, and endurance
• Increased strength of connective
tissues: tendons, ligaments,
intramuscular connective tissue
• Greater bone mineral density or
less bone demineralization
• Decreased stress on joints during
physical activity
• Reduced risk of soft tissue injury
during physical activity
• Possible improvement in capacity
to repair and heal damaged soft
tissues due to positive impact on
tissue remodeling
• Enhanced physical
performance during daily
living, occupational, and
recreational activities
• Positive changes in body
composition: ↑ lean muscle
mass or ↓ body fat
• Enhanced feeling of physical
well-being
• Possible improvement in
perception of disability and
quality of life
STRENGTH
• Muscle strength is a broad Strength training.
term that refers to the ability • Strength training
of contractile tissue to (strengthening exercise) is
produce tension and a defined as a systematic
resultant force based on the procedure of a muscle or
demands placed on the muscle muscle group lifting,
• Functional strength relates to lowering, or controlling heavy
the ability of the loads (resistance) for a
neuromuscular system to relatively low number of
produce, reduce, or control repetitions or over a short
forces, contemplated or period of time.
imposed, during functional
activities, in a smooth,
coordinated manner
 STRENGTH
The most common adaptation to heavy resistance exercise is an
increase in the maximum force-producing capacity of muscle, that is,
•An increase in muscle strength,
•Primarily as the result of neural adaptations and an increase in muscle
fiber
POWER
• Muscle power
• Another aspect of muscle
performance
• It is related to the strength
and speed of movement
• It is defined as the work
(force distance) produced
by a muscle per unit of
time (force distance/time). • Repeated Bursts of less
• The rate of performing work
• Power can be expressed
by either a
• Single Burst of high-
intensity activity (such as
lifting a heavy piece of
luggage onto an
overhead rack or
performing a high jump)
anaerobic power
intense muscle activity
(such as climbing a flight
of stairs). aerobic power
Power Training POWER
Many motor skills in our lives are composed of movements that are
explosive and involve both strength and speed

•Muscle strength is a necessary foundation for developing muscle power

•Power can be enhanced by either increasing the work a muscle
must perform during a specified period of time or
reducing the amount of time required to produce a given force

•The greater the intensity of the exercise and the shorter the time
period taken to generate force, the greater is the muscle power

e.g plyometric training or stretch-shortening drills

ENDURANCE
• Endurance is a broad term
that refers to the ability to
perform low-intensity,
repetitive, or sustained
activities over a prolonged
period of time
• Cardiopulmonary endurance
(total body endurance) is
associated with repetitive,
dynamic motor activities such
as walking, cycling, swimming,
or upper extremity ergometry, •
which involve use of the large
muscles of the body
• Muscle endurance (sometimes
referred to as local endurance) is
the ability of a muscle to
contract repeatedly against a
load (resistance), generate and
sustain tension, and resist
fatigue over an extended period
of time
• The term aerobic power is
sometimes use interchangeably
with muscle endurance
Maintenance of balance and
proper alignment of the body
segments requires sustained
control (endurance) by the
postural muscles.
ENDURANCE
• almost all daily living tasks
require some degree of
muscle an cardiopulmonary
endurance.
• Endurance training
(endurance exercice) is
characterized by having a
muscle contract and lift or
lower a light load for many
repetitions or sustain a
muscle contraction for an
extended period of time
The key elements of
endurance training
• Low-intensity muscle
contractions
• A large number of
repetitions
• A prolonged time period.
Endurance training increases
in oxidative and metabolic
capacities, of the muscles
which allows better delivery
and use of oxygen.
OVERLOAD PRINCIPLE
• Application of the Overload
• If muscle performance is to Principle
improve, a load that exceeds • The overload principle focuses
the metabolic capacity of the on the progressive loading
muscle must be applied; that
is, the muscle must be of muscle by manipulating,
challenged to perform at a • For example, the intensity or
level greater than that to
which it is accustomed volume of exercise
• If the demands remain • Intensity of resistance exercise
constant after the muscle has refers to how much weight
adapted, the level of muscle (resistance) is imposed on the
performance can be muscle
maintained but not increase • volume encompasses variables
such as repetitions, sets, or
frequency of exercise,
OVERLOAD PRINCIPLE
PRECAUTION
• Any one or more of which can be• To ensure safety, the extent and
gradually adjusted to increase progression of overload must
the demands on the muscle. always be applied in the context
• In a strength training program of the underlying pathology, age
the amount of resistance of the patient, stage of tissue
applied to the muscle is healing, fatigue, and the overall
incrementally and progressively abilities and goals of the patient.
increased.
• For endurance training, more • The muscle and related body
emphasis is placed on increasing systems must be given time to
the time a muscle contraction is adapt to the demands of an
sustained or the number of increased load or repetitions
repetitions performed than on before the load or number of
increasing repetitions is again increased
resistance.
SAID PRINCIPLE
• The SAID principle (specific • The SAID principle helps
adaptation to imposed therapists determine the
demands) suggests that a exercise prescription and
framework of specificity is a which parameters of
necessary foundation on exercise should be
which exercise programs selected to create
should be built specific training effects
• This principle applies to all that best meet specific
body systems and is an functional needs and
extension of Wolff’s law goals.
(body systems adapt over
time to the stresses placed
on them).
SAID PRINCIPLE
• Specificity of Training • Specificity of training should
• Specificity of training, also also be considered relative to
referred to as specificity of mode (type) and velocity of
exercise as well as patient or
exercise, is a widely accepted limb position (joint angle) and
concept suggesting that the the movement pattern during
adaptive effects of training, exercise
such as improvement of • EXAMPLE, if the desired
strength, power, and
endurance, are highly specific functional outcome is the
ability to ascend and descend
to the training method stairs, exercise should be
employed. performed eccentrically and
concentrically in a weight-
bearing pattern and
progressed to the desired
speed
SAID PRINCIPLE
• It has been suggested that Transfer of Training
the basis of specificity of • In contrast to the SAID
training is related to principle, carryover of
morphological and metabolic training effects from one
changes in muscle as well as variation of exercise or task
neural adaptations to the to another has also been
training stimulus associated reported. This phenomenon
with motor learning. is called transfer of training,
overflow, or cross-training
• Transfer of training has been • A program of exercises
reported to occur on a very designed to develop
limited basis with respect to muscle strength has also
the velocity of training and been shown to improve
the type or mode of exercise muscular endurance at
• It has also been suggested least moderately.
that a cross training effect • In contrast, endurance
can occur from an exercised training has little to no
limb to a non exercised, cross-training effect on
contralateral limb in a strength
resistance training program
• The over flow effects are
substantially less than the
training effects resulting
from specificity of training
 Reversibility Principle
• Adaptive changes in the
body’s systems, such as
increased strength or
endurance, in response to a
resistance exercise program
are transient unless training-
induced improvements are
regularly used for functional
activities or unless an
individual participates in a
maintenance program of
resistance exercises
• Detraining, reflected by a
reduction in muscle
performance, begins within
a week or two after the
cessation of resistance
exercises and continues until
training effects are lost.
• It is imperative that gains in
strength and endurance are
incorporated into daily
activities as early as possible
in a rehabilitation program.
• It is also advisable for
patients to participate in a
maintenance program of
resistance exercises as an
integral component of a life
long fitness program.