Sex-related differences in the load-velocity and load-power relationships of the decline bench press exercise

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to analyse the load-velocity and load-power relationships of the decline bench press exercise (DBPE) and to compare sex-related differences. Twelve young healthy men and women performed a progressive loading test for the determination of 1RM strength and individual load-velocity and load-power relationship in the DBPE. A very close relationship between mean propulsive velocity (MPV) and %1RM was observed (R² = 0.94). This relationship improved when plotting data separately by sex (R² = 0.96–97). Individual load-velocity profiles gave an R² = 0.99 ± 0.01. The relationship between mean propulsive power (MPP) and %1RM was R² = 0.23. When separating data by sex, R² = 0.64–73 were obtained. Individual load-power profiles gave an R² of 0.93 ± 0.07. Significant sex-related differences were found for MPV, with males having faster velocities than females from 30% to 40% 1RM (p = 0.01) and for MPP, with males having greater MPP (W) than females from 30% to 95% 1RM (p < 0.001). The results of this study show that a strong correlation exists between relative load and MPV/MPP in the DBPE, allowing the possibility of using one to predict the other with great precision, especially when a sex-specific equation is used.

KEYWORDS:

• Strength
• velocity-based training
• women
• resistance training
• intensity of load

Acknowledgments

We thank the subjects for their effort and commitment to the study; Elena Pérez-Calzado, Nerea Vega-Retuerta and Patricia León-García for their help during the recruitment process and Dr. Ana Belén Peinado for comments that greatly improved the study. We dedicate this manuscript to our mentor Dr. Jesús Rivilla-García.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2024.2386207.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.