Summary: | Introduction: The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of daily one-repetition maximum (1RM) training of the back squat on maximal strength. Material and methods: Three competitive lifters performed the squat for 37 consecutive days and are reported as individual cases. Participant 1 (P1) (body mass = 80.5 kg; age = 28 yrs.) and participant 3 (P3) (body mass = 108.8 kg; age = 34 yrs.) were powerlifters; participant 2 (P2) (body mass = 64.1 kg; age = 19 yrs.) was a weightlifter. Each participant had at least 5 years of training experience with the squat. During days 1-35, participants performed a 1RM squat followed by 5 volume sets of 3 repetitions at 85% or 2 repetitions at 90% of the daily 1RM. On day-36, participants performed only 1 set of 1 repetition at 85% of day-1 1RM; and a final 1RM was performed on day-37. Results: Absolute and percent changes for P1 from day-1 to day-37 were +5 kg/2.3%, and from day-1 to peak (greatest 1RM of the period) were +12.5 kg/5.8%. P2 experienced a 13.5 kg/10.8% increase in 1RM from both day-1 to day-37 and day-1 to peak. P3 demonstrated a 21.0 kg/9.5% increase from both day-1 to day-37 and day-1 to peak. All 3 participants exhibited significant (p < 0.05) correlations between time (days) and 1RM (P1: r = 0.65, P2: r = 0.78, P3: r = 0.48). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that daily 1RM training effectively produced robust changes in maximal strength in competitive strength athletes in a relatively short training period.
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