The Effects of a Four-Week Muscle Strengthening Program on Maximum Acceptable Lifting Load

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of a traditional strengthening program on subjects' maximum acceptable lifting load. Nineteen (nine males, ten females) university students volunteered for the present study. They were randomly divided into a training group (five males, seven females) and a control group (four males, three females). The training group participated in 12 sessions of alternate day traditional dead weight strengthening programs for a period of 4 weeks. The measurements of the training effects included assessment of the maximum acceptable lifting load by psychophysical approach and isokinetic peak torque of the back extensors, knee extensors, shoulder abductors, and elbow flexors. Multivariate ANOVA was used to test for the training effect. Results revealed significant improvement in the maximum acceptable lifting load (p < 0.001) and back extensors peak torque (p = 0.039) after 4 weeks of training. It is concluded that a 4-week free weight muscle training program is effective in improving an individual's maximum acceptable lifting load. This type of physical training program may be useful to people engaged in manual material handling tasks.