(Press-News.org) Philadelphia, Pa. (August 26, 2013) - From freshman through senior year, college football players achieve significant increases in strength and size, reports a study in the September issue of The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, official research journal of the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA).
The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
But even with modern training regimens, these athletes show limited changes in speed and power, according to the study by Bert H. Jacobson, EdD, FACSM, and colleagues of Oklahoma State University, Stillwater. They believe their results have implications for tracking the progress and development of football players by position, as well as for evaluating potential recruits.
How Much Do College Football Players Improve Over Time?
The researchers analyzed the findings of preseason evaluations of players from Oklahoma State's NCAA Division I football program over a seven-year period. Measures of size, strength, speed, and power were tracked across all four years of eligibility.
Evaluations were performed before the start of each football season, after summer training camp. The study included data on a total of 92 offensive and defensive linemen and 64 players in skill positions—wide receivers and defensive backs.
"All strength measures improved significantly over the years of training," Dr Jacobson and coauthors write. For example, among linemen, maximum bench press strength increased by 18 percent from freshman to senior year: from approximately 350 to 410 lb. For skill players, bench press strength increased by 34 percent: from about 230 to 310 lb, with most of the increase in the first two years.
For linemen, body mass increased each year, while body fat progressively decreased. Skill players had a significant increase in body mass through the first two years; body fat remained low through all four years.
Strength Increases, but Little Change in Power and Speed
In contrast, there were no significant changes in measures of speed, such as 40-yard sprint time; or power, such as vertical jump height. Skill players showed a small increase in power between the first and second years. For linemen, there was no significant change in power. Neither group increased significantly in speed.
Partly because of sophisticated training programs, today's athletes are stronger, faster, and more powerful than in the past. The new study is one of the first to analyze detailed information on measures of physical performance in collegiate football players throughout their four years of eligibility.
"These data provide a theoretically predictable 4-year rate of change in anthropometric, strength, and power variables for Division I football players," Dr Jacobson and coauthors write. They believe their results will help strength and conditioning professionals ensure that these elite athletes stay on track in terms of developing increased size and strength.
However, the study finds little or no change in the key attributes of power and speed. The initial increase in power among skill players appears "negligible," compared to the large gains in strength; neither group shows improvement in speed over the course of their careers
Based on their findings, the researchers suggest that recruiting efforts should focus on identifying athletes who have previously demonstrated superior power and speed. "These variables are particularly difficult to positively alter in four years of training at the college level."
So why can't athletes develop greater speed and power? "Theoretically, speed and power are variables that are greatly dependent on muscle fiber type," Dr Jacobson explains. "With respect to fast- and slow-twitch fibers, people are born with a certain proportion of each and those individuals who possess a greater ratio of fast-twitch fibers are naturally faster."
###
About The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research
The editorial mission of The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (JSCR) is to advance the knowledge about strength and conditioning through research. A unique aspect of this journal is that it includes recommendations for the practical use of research findings. While the journal name identifies strength and conditioning as separate entities, strength is considered a part of conditioning. The journal wishes to promote the publication of peer-reviewed manuscripts which add to our understanding of conditioning and sport through applied exercise science. The JSCR is the official research journal of the National Strength and Conditioning Association.
About Wolters Kluwer Health
Wolters Kluwer Health is a leading global provider of information, business intelligence and point-of-care solutions for the healthcare industry. Serving more than 150 countries and territories worldwide, Wolters Kluwer Health's customers include professionals, institutions and students in medicine, nursing, allied health and pharmacy. Major brands include Health Language®, Lexicomp®, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Medicom®, Medknow, Ovid®, Pharmacy OneSource®, ProVation® Medical, and UpToDate®.
Wolters Kluwer Health is part of Wolters Kluwer, a market-leading global information services company. Wolters Kluwer had 2012 annual revenues of €3.6 billion ($4.6 billion), employs approximately 19,000 people worldwide, and maintains operations in over 40 countries across Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, and Latin America. Follow our official Twitter handle: @WKHealth.
Through 4 years' training, college football players gain strength and size
But little change in speed or power, says study in Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research
2013-08-26
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
NASA sees Depression Pewa pass in Pacific
2013-08-26
Tropical Depression Pewa dissipated in the northwestern Pacific Ocean early on Aug. 26, 2013. NASA satellite data on the previous day showed that rainfall had greatly diminished in the depression.
On Aug. 25, Tropical Depression Pewa's circulation had expanded and the storm weakened. Forecasters at the Joint Typhoon Warning Center expected Pewa would dissipate over the next day. Earlier thoughts were that Pewa might hang together and become an extra-tropical storm, but it appears that the life is leaving the storm.
The Joint Typhoon Warning Center's official, final ...
Rethinking investment risk
2013-08-26
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Financial innovation is supposed to reduce risk -- in theory, at least. Yes, new financial instruments based on the housing market helped cause the financial crisis of 2008. But in the abstract, those same instruments have the potential to spread risk more evenly throughout the marketplace by making it possible to trade debt more extensively, rather than having it concentrated in a relatively few hands.
Now a paper published by MIT economist Alp Simsek makes the case that even in theory, financial innovation does not lower portfolio risk. Instead, it ...
NASA sees quick forming Tropical Storm Fernand soaking Mexico
2013-08-26
During the week of Aug. 18, the low pressure area designated as System 95E was lingering in the western Caribbean Sea and moved into the southwestern Gulf of Mexico, where it exploded into Tropical Storm Fernand late on Aug. 25. On Aug. 26, NASA's TRMM satellite saw towering thunderstorms in Fernand were still raging over mainland Mexico, dropping heavy rainfall.
On Sunday, Aug. 25 at 5:00 p.m. EDT, System 95E organized quickly into a tropical depression six, and by 7:00 p.m. EDT, the depression strengthened into Tropical Storm Fernand. Fernand was centered in the Bay ...
When is it safe for an athlete to return to play after a concussion? Consensus reports summarized
2013-08-26
New Rochelle, NY, August 26, 2013—Concussions are a common sports injury that can have long-term neurological consequences if not properly diagnosed and treated. Several new or updated guidelines for managing sports concussions were released earlier this year, and their key areas of consensus, including recommendations for return to play, are presented in an article in Journal of Neurotrauma, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal of Neurotrauma website at http://www.liebertpub.com/neu.
Therese A. ...
Women at increasing risk of kidney stones, related ER visits
2013-08-26
VIDEO:
Khurshid R. Ghani, M.D., of Henry Ford's Vattikuti Urology Institute and lead author of the study, explains why the charges for emergency department visits for kidney stones rose to$5 billion...
Click here for more information.
DETROIT -- The risk of women developing kidney stones is rising, as is the number of cases being seen in U.S. emergency departments, while the rate of hospitalization for the disorder has remained stable.
Those are among the findings of a ...
Worldwide ban on flame retardants
2013-08-26
It is a lengthy process before a contaminant is identified as such and its harmful effects are highlighted with a worldwide ban. This is acknowledged by Norbert Heeb, chemist in Empa's Analytical Chemistry Lab. He was involved in uncovering the exact structures of HBCD (hexabromocyclododecane). On closer inspection, the substance turned out to be a whole group of compounds. Together with researchers from ETH Zurich, Eawag and the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), he published several studies that show how HBCD is structured, which forms tend to accumulate in ...
Video games do not make vulnerable teens more violent
2013-08-26
Do violent video games such as 'Mortal Kombat,' 'Halo' and 'Grand Theft Auto' trigger teenagers with symptoms of depression or attention deficit disorder to become aggressive bullies or delinquents? No, according to Christopher Ferguson of Stetson University and independent researcher Cheryl Olson from the US in a study published in Springer's Journal of Youth and Adolescence. On the contrary, the researchers found that the playing of such games actually had a very slight calming effect on youths with attention deficit symptoms and helped to reduce their aggressive and ...
NASA catches Tropical Storm Kong-Rey form in northwestern Pacific
2013-08-26
The northwestern Pacific has generated its fourteenth tropical cyclone and NASA's Aqua satellite flew over the eastern side of the storm early on Aug. 26.
Tropical Storm Kong-Rey formed from low pressure System 91W. It is located east of the northeast Philippines and bringing the region gusty winds, rains and rough seas today, Aug 26.
Aqua passed over Tropical Storm Kong-Rey on Aug. 26 at 0432 UTC/12:32 a.m. EDT as it was strengthening from a tropical depression into a tropical storm. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument aboard Aqua ...
Skin cell defect is surprising allergy trigger
2013-08-26
CHICAGO --- In a new study published in Nature Genetics, Northwestern Medicine and Tel Aviv University scientists have found that a structural defect in skin cells can contribute to allergy development, including skin and food allergies, traditionally thought primarily to be a dysfunction of the immune system.
The finding is related to the team's identification of a new rare genetic disease, called "severe dermatitis, multiple allergies, and metabolic wasting," or SAM, caused by mutations in the molecule desmoglein 1.
"Desmoglein 1 is best understood as the 'glue' ...
Study shows how some inspectors are able to uphold factory labor rules
2013-08-26
CAMBRIDGE, Mass-- The recent factory collapse in Bangladesh has renewed attention to the global issue of workplace standards. In many countries, similar problems have arisen from a lack of enforcement for existing laws pertaining to safety, wages and overtime, or an absence of labor contracts for workers.
These problems occur for a variety of reasons, including a lack of funding for regulators; difficulties acquiring solid information about potential problems in the first place; and corruption in the enforcement process.
"We have a huge problem with enforcement," says ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
Pink skies
Monkeys are world’s best yodellers - new research
Key differences between visual- and memory-led Alzheimer’s discovered
% weight loss targets in obesity management – is this the wrong objective?
An app can change how you see yourself at work
NYC speed cameras take six months to change driver behavior, effects vary by neighborhood, new study reveals
New research shows that propaganda is on the rise in China
Even the richest Americans face shorter lifespans than their European counterparts, study finds
Novel genes linked to rare childhood diarrhea
New computer model reveals how Bronze Age Scandinavians could have crossed the sea
Novel point-of-care technology delivers accurate HIV results in minutes
Researchers reveal key brain differences to explain why Ritalin helps improve focus in some more than others
Study finds nearly five-fold increase in hospitalizations for common cause of stroke
Study reveals how alcohol abuse damages cognition
Medicinal cannabis is linked to long-term benefits in health-related quality of life
Microplastics detected in cat placentas and fetuses during early pregnancy
Ancient amphibians as big as alligators died in mass mortality event in Triassic Wyoming
Scientists uncover the first clear evidence of air sacs in the fossilized bones of alvarezsaurian dinosaurs: the "hollow bones" which help modern day birds to fly
Alcohol makes male flies sexy
TB patients globally often incur "catastrophic costs" of up to $11,329 USD, despite many countries offering free treatment, with predominant drivers of cost being hospitalization and loss of income
Study links teen girls’ screen time to sleep disruptions and depression
Scientists unveil starfish-inspired wearable tech for heart monitoring
Footprints reveal prehistoric Scottish lagoons were stomping grounds for giant Jurassic dinosaurs
AI effectively predicts dementia risk in American Indian/Alaska Native elders
First guideline on newborn screening for cystic fibrosis calls for changes in practice to improve outcomes
Existing international law can help secure peace and security in outer space, study shows
Pinning down the process of West Nile virus transmission
UTA-backed research tackles health challenges across ages
In pancreatic cancer, a race against time
Targeting FGFR2 may prevent or delay some KRAS-mutated pancreatic cancers
[Press-News.org] Through 4 years' training, college football players gain strength and sizeBut little change in speed or power, says study in Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research