ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness 2000 December;40(4):312-8

Copyright © 2001 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

Differences in muscle cross-sectional area and strength between elite senior and college Olympic weight lifters

Funato K., Kanehisa H., Fukunaga T.

Department of Life Sciences (Sports Sciences), University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

Background. The pur­pose of ­this ­study was to inves­ti­gate the pro­files of mus­cle ­cross-sec­tion­al ­area (CSA) and ­strength capa­bil­ity in rela­tion to lift­ing abil­ity in Olympic ­weight lift­ers.
Methods. The sub­jects ­were 8 ­elite sen­ior lift­ers (ESL, age=25.2±1.3 ­years, ­height=1.64±0.03 m, ­mass=68.6±4.2 kg, mean±SEM) and 9 col­lege lift­ers (CL, 20.8±0.3 ­years, 1.67±0.03 m, 70.53.4 kg) ­whose pre­de­ter­mined ­weight class­es ­were with­in the ­same ­range. The CSAs of ­elbow or ­knee exten­sor and ­elbow or ­knee flex­or mus­cles ­were meas­ured ­using a B-­mode ultra­sound appa­ra­tus. Concentric and eccen­tric max­i­mal vol­un­tary forc­es ­were deter­mined ­with an iso­ki­net­ic dyna­mom­e­ter at a con­stant veloc­ity of 1.05 rad/sec.
Results. The ­best ­score of the ­total ­mass lift­ed in the ­snatch and the ­clean and ­jerk ­lifts was sig­nif­i­cant­ly high­er in ESL ­than in CL ­even in ­terms of per ­unit of fat-­free ­mass. There ­were no sig­nif­i­cant dif­fer­enc­es ­between the two ­groups in fat-­free ­mass, mus­cle CSA and ­force val­ues ­with the excep­tion ­that ESL com­pared to CL ­showed sig­nif­i­cant­ly great­er ­force in con­cen­tric ­knee flex­ion. However, the ­ratios of ­force to mus­cle CSA (F/CSAs) in con­cen­tric and eccen­tric ­elbow exten­sions, eccen­tric ­knee exten­sion and con­cen­tric ­knee flex­ion ­were sig­nif­i­cant­ly high­er in ESL ­than in CL.
Conclusions. The ­present ­results indi­cat­ed ­that the mag­ni­tude of mus­cu­lar devel­op­ment in ­limbs was sim­i­lar in ­elite sen­ior and col­lege lift­ers ­whose pre­de­ter­mined ­weight class­es ­were with­in the ­same ­range. As com­pared to col­lege lift­ers, how­ev­er, ­elite sen­ior lift­ers had a high­er F/CSA in spe­cif­ic mus­cle ­action ­modes, ­which ­might ­relate to the opti­mal exe­cu­tion of the Olympic ­lifts.