COMPARISON OF THE EFFECT OF INTERSET DYNAMIC AND STATIC STRETCHING ON THE UPPER AND LOWER BODY PERFORMANCE OF MALE BODYBUILDERS

Abstract. The objective of this study is to determine the acute effects of interset dynamic and static stretching on the number of repetitions of four consecutive sets of the bench press and leg press in male bodybuilders. The participants in the study were 18 male bodybuilders.The exercise protocol lasted for 14 sessions, consisting of four consecutive bench and leg press exercises in which the participants rested between sets using dynamic stretching, static stretching and non-stretching that was done on counterbalance. For this purpose, two rest intervals of 3 and 5 minutes were included between sets. The results of this study indicated that, in the 3-minute rest, although the average number of repetitions in dynamic and static stretching was greater than in the non-stretching method, the difference was not statistically significant (p< 0.05). Also, in all these three resting methods the average number of repetitions from the first to the fourth was significantly reduced. On the other hand, during the 5-minute rest interval, the difference between the mean number of repetitions of 4 sets for all three resting methods of the bench press and leg press was not significant either. Also, there was no significant difference between the mean numbers of repetitions over consecutive sets. From the findings of this study it can be concluded that, in trained male bodybuilders, stretching between sets does not have a significant effect on the performance of the next sets. In these cases the rest interval is more important than the type of rest. Key words: Bodybuilders, stretching between sets, number of repetitions, muscle performance