bench press

Meta-Student is a collaborative research platform, coordinated by the Sports Science Replication Centre, that pools independently collected undergraduate research datasets into statistically powerful individual-participant-data (IPD) meta-analyses. Students at multiple institutions each run a small, standardised study under local ethical approval and supervision and upload anonymised participant-level data; the platform combines these contributions in a single pre-specified statistical model and grows the pooled sample sequentially until the evidence reaches a pre-specified stopping criteria. Every contributor whose data pass quality validation is a named co-author, and each completed study yields an openly-archived dataset and a reproducible completion report. We convert otherwise-unpublished, individually underpowered/imprecise student projects into cumulative, adequately powered/precise evidence. One avenue of study design is replication, in line with our vision at the Sports Science Replication Centre (www.ssreplicationcentre.com). Candidate studies for replication are selected systematically rather than by nomination, using a Replication Research Identification System (RRIS). RRIS scans applied sport-and-exercise-science research across 18 quartile-1 journals and ranks experimental and quasi-experimental studies by a modified Replication Value index - a time-adjusted form of Isager et al.'s (2023) framework that combines a study's uncertainty (small sample size, 1/N) with its impact, where impact is operationalised as relative citations (citations per year) rather than total citations, so that recently-published findings are not disadvantaged for having had less time to accrue citations. Studies with a high Replication Value (influential claims resting on small, uncertain samples) are the most efficient use of scarce replication resources and are prioritised as potential Meta-Student targets, subject to feasibility screening for the platform's supported designs, and then expertise. The study preregistered here was selected through this process. The justification for this study was as follows: - The original study was likely under-powered with a sample size of n = 11 in a single laboratory. - The study is achievable for students with limited access to equipment. This study requires only a barbell. No metabolic cart, isokinetic dynamometer or motion capture systems are needed. - Pooling participant-level data across student laboratories yields the power to estimate the acute-nitrate effect precisely and to test it against a smallest-effect-size-of-interest rather than merely against zero; turns heterogeneity (placebo type, training status, sex, load execution) into moderator information; and provides a pre-registered, falsifiable test of the underlying NO-ergogenic model. Dietary inorganic nitrate (NO₃⁻), delivered as beetroot juice (BRJ), is reduced in vivo to nitrite and then to nitric oxide (NO), a signaling molecule linked to vasodilation, muscle blood flow, calcium handling and contractile efficiency. Most ergogenic evidence concerns endurance exercise and is itself equivocal; the resistance-exercise evidence is thinner still and had, before this study, used multi-day loading protocols. Williams et al. (2020) is the pivotal report that a single acute dose of BRJ improves free-weight resistance performance. In n = 11 resistance-trained men (double-blind, counterbalanced crossover; 70 mL BRJ ≈ 400 mg nitrate vs black-currant placebo, 2 h pre-exercise, 72 h washout), bench-press mean velocity (+ES 0.54, p = 0.011), mean power (+ES 0.51, p = 0.015) and total repetitions to failure at 70% 1RM (+2.6 reps, ≈ 9.4%, ES 0.46, p = 0.002) were all higher with BRJ than placebo.

matched text: “bench press”

Maximising strength and power during pre-season is essential for performance success and injury mitigation in rugby league athletes. The typical pre-season strength and power adaptations in elite national level female rugby league athletes are currently unknown. An observational cohort study was used to determine changes in strength, power, and anthropometry across a seven-week pre-season in an elite female rugby league team (n = 28; age: 24.0 ± 4.2 years; height: 168.4 ± 6.3 cm; weight: 78.3 ± 11.8 kg). Testing was completed at the start and end of the 2024 National Rugby League Women's pre-season. A linear mixed model was utilised to compare differences between positions and over time. As a group, fat mass ( b = 1988.88, p = 0.035) and body fat percentage ( b = −2.32, p = 0.003) decreased, whilst lean mass and fat-free mass increased between the start and end of pre-season (p ≤ 0.05). Positional differences were observed across all anthropometric measures, relative 3RM bench press ( b = −0.21, p = 0.005), countermovement jump peak power ( b = 97.02, p = 0.015), drop jump height ( b = −7.91, p = 0.012), squat jump peak power ( b = 106.96, p = 0.012), and hop jump RSI flight contact time ( b = −0.77, p = 0.021). An interaction effect was observed for 3RM bench pull ( b = 3.53, p = 0.043) and relative 3RM back squat ( b = 0.12, p = 0.032), with forwards demonstrating greater strength increases than backs. The lack of change in strength and power metrics indicates the pre-season design may have been insufficient to induce meaningful change in this cohort. Future research should examine other training capacities and larger cross-team cohorts longitudinally, to assist practitioners in development and application of safe and effective training programs.

matched text: “bench press”