Singles (and doubles....and triples) for Power......

This is a study that supports the idea that doing sets of singles can increase your power. I remember years ago in that great magazine HARDGAINER there was a sries by a guy called John McKean promoting training with singles. Art DeVany has his own take on this - what he calls alactic sets. He describes a workout based around this principle here. I described alactic workouts as workouts that did not produce the abundance of lactic acid that my Hierarchical sets were intended to do. After a warm up on the particular exercise to lube the joints and get the muscles ready, I do 5 one reps separated by a 5 second pause. That means I lift a heavy weight one time, put it down, rest 5 seconds, and then do another rep. I continue until I have done 5-1 reps in all. Then I move to the next exercise.

Well, this article seems to lend support to this approach for the training of power.

Effect of Interrepetition Rest Intervals on Weight Training Repetition Power Output
Trent W. Lawton and Rod P. Lindsell



ABSTRACT

Lawton, T., J. Cronin, and R. Lindsell. Effect of interrepetition rest intervals on weight training repetition power output. J. Strength Cond. Res. 20(1):172–176. 2006.—

The purpose of this study was to determine the change in weight training repetition power output as a consequence of interrepetition rest intervals. Twenty-six elite junior male basketball and soccer players performed bench presses using a 6 repetition maximum (6RM) load. The power output for each repetition was recorded using a linear encoder sampling each 10 ms (100 Hz).

Subjects were assigned to 1 of 3 intervention groups, differentiated by the arrangement of rest intervals within the 6 repetitions: 6 × 1 repetition with 20-second rest periods between each repetition (Singles); 3 × 2 repetitions with 50 seconds between each pair of repetitions (Doubles); or 2 × 3 repetitions with 100 seconds of rest between each 3 repetitions (Triples). A timer was used to ensure that the rest interval and duration to complete all interrepetition interventions was equated across groups (118 seconds). Significantly (p < 0.05) greater repetition power outputs (25–49%) were observed in the later repetitions (4–6) of the Singles, Doubles, and Triples loading schemes. Significantly greater total power output (21.6–25.1%) was observed for all interrepetition rest interventions when compared to traditional continuous 6RM total power output. No significant between-group differences were found (p = 0.96).

We conclude that utilizing interrepetition rest intervals enables greater repetition and total power output in comparison to traditional loading parameters.