Incorporating a visuomotor skill task with resistance training does not increase strength gains in healthy young adults

Abstract

Resistance training causes well-documented adaptations in the nervous system and increases maximal voluntary force of healthy human skeletal muscle in the trained and also of the same muscle in untrained limb. It is also well known that practice of a visuomotor skill without a load causes neural adaptations. These findings led to the hypothesis that a combination of resistance and visuomotor training would produce accelerated and larger gains in maximal voluntary force than each method alone. The purpose of the study was to compare strength gains produced by a loaded visuomotor and a traditional resistance training program. Subjects were randomly assigned to a visuomotor or resistance training group and completed 4 sets of 6 repetitions of elbow flexion at 70-85% of maximum intensity in each of 12 sessions over 4 weeks. The visuomotor vs. the resistance group performed significantly better in the visuomotor skill task. Maximal voluntary torque increased in the trained arm similarly in the two groups but, unexpectedly, not in the untrained arm. Although there is a strong conceptual and experimental basis for the hypothesis, under the present experimental conditions a combination of a visuomotor skill with loads compared with conventional resistance training did not produce superior strength gains.