PREDICTIVE ABILITY OF BODY MASS PARAMETER TO ESTIMATE 4-6 REPETITION MAXIMUM OF UPPER AND LOWER LIMB MUSCLES IN SOCCER PLAYERS

This study aimed to assess the predictive ability of body mass to estimate 4-6 repetitions maximum of pectoral machine, leg extension, and leg press exercises to optimize the one repetition maximum assessment. For this purpose, fourteen male soccer players (age 24.14 +/- 4.66 years; body mass 76.52 +/- 6.35 kg; height 1.83 +/- 0.06 m; training experience 17.71 +/- 5.15 years) participated to determine 4-6 repetition maximum according to Brzycki protocol for each exercise in randomized counterbalanced order. A moderate significant correlation was showed between the 4-6 repetition maximum and the body mass (r = 0.440, 0.393 and 0.305) for pectoral machine, leg extension, and leg press exercises, respectively). The analyses showed that body mass weakly explained the three criterion variables (r2: 9-19%). The prediction equations suggested can be used to optimize the one repetition maximum test, but other factors must be considered in further studies to have more accurate 4-6 repetition maximum values.