Influence of very short rest period lengths on repeated one maximun repetition bench press performance

Objective: The purpose of this investigation was to compare different rest period lengths between consecutive one maximum repetition bench press attempts on performance and ratings of perceived exertion. Method: Eighteen trained men (27.95 ± 4.25 years; 81.00 ± 9.21 kg; 174.62 ± 3.34 cm; bench press relative strength 1.33 ± 0.11 kg/kg of body mass) participated in three randomly ordered sessions that required two consecutive one maximum repetition bench press attempts with 20, 40, or 60-s rest between attempts. Results: The Cochran Q analysis showed no significant differences in the ability to successfully perform a second one maximum repetition attempt with 20, 40, or 60-s rest between attempts (p = 0.882). Specifically, no significant differences were found in the successful completion of the first and second attempts for the 20-s (p = 0.317), 40-s (p = 0.083), and 60-s (p = 0.157) trials, respectively. Briefly, for both 20 and 60-s rest conditions Δ% = 88.88% of subjects successfully performed the second attempt and, for the 40-s protocol, only Δ% = 83.33% completed. For the pre and post-set ratings of perceived exertion, the shorter rest period (20-s) promoted significantly higher values compared to the longer rest periods (pre-set ratings of perceived exertion, p = 0.04; post-set ratings of perceived exertion, p = 0.023). Conclusions: The results of this study can be applied to recreationally trained individuals with the intent of generating a time-efficient process for conducting a valid and reliable one maximum repetition bench press assessment.