Faculty Mentor(s)

Dr. Maureen Dunn, Department of Kinesiology

Document Type

Poster

Event Date

4-21-2017

Abstract

Using wider bar diameters during “pulling” exercises (such as pull-ups), may activate muscles in the forearm influencing grip strength. Fat Gripz™ bar attachments, devices used to increase bar diameter, were used in this study. The purpose was to examine whether performing pull-up training using Fat Gripz™ (FG, n=8) would improve grip strength, 1RM lat pull-down, pull-ups to failure, and shot speed of male collegiate lacrosse players compared to using a standard diameter pull-up bar (CON, n=6). It was hypothesized that dependent variables would have a greater increase in the FG group than the CON group due to enhanced forearm muscle activation. All participants performed 3 sets of supervised pull-ups to failure 3 times/week for 5 weeks. Following training pull-ups to failure increased for both groups (pre:9.64±3.65, post:16.57±7.32, p0.05 for all dependent variables). Interestingly, the FG group averaged significantly less pull-ups per set than the CON group over the course of the 5 week training period (CON: 10.23±1.29 reps/set, FG: 6.15±1.11 reps/set, p=0.034). Therefore, while our hypothesis that the FG group would improve to a greater degree with training than the control group was not supported, there is evidence to suggest that training with a wider bar diameter can result in similar performance improvements with less training volume. Further research is warranted to study the effects of resistance training with wide diameter bars.

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