Comparison Study of the Effects of Six-week Resistance Training with Pyramid, Reverse Pyramid and Double Pyramid Loading Patterns on Some Physiological Indexes of Female Volleyball Players

The importance of resistance training in all sports has been proved by pervious researches. The purpose of current study was to examine and compare the effects of pyramid, reverse pyramid, and double pyramid resistant training on  maximum strength hypertrophy and anthropometric factors of female volleyball players.  To reach this aim, 22 players from Ardabil under 16 years old team, were selected non-randomly and then assigned into four groups: control group (15.28±1.17years old, 59.08±14.83 kg), a resistance training with pyramid loading pattern (15.13±0.67 years old, 56.01±5.16 kg), a reverse pyramid (15.1±1.85 years old, 54.95±8.7 Kg), and a double pyramid (15.44±0.96 years old, 56/72±5/25 Kg). Subjects of experimental groups took part in resistance training programs for 6 weeks. Maximum strength (1RM), percentage of subcutaneous fat, muscle cross-sectional area, and BMI were measured prior and after the experiment. The findings indicated significance increase in 1RM of all three experimental groups after six weeks (p≤ o. o5). According to post-hoc test, the variation was significance and the most variation belonged to double pyramid, reverse pyramid and pyramid group respectively (p≤ 0.05). Finally, there weren’t any significant change in average variation of arms muscular cross-sectional area and the percentage of subcutaneous fat between groups. The results showed that pyramid loading pattern is more effective in improving maximum strength in comparison with pyramid pattern. It seems that the increase in 1RM has to do with neural mechanisms, because no change was observed in anthropometric factors and muscle cross-sectional area.