Resistance Training As A Stimulus For Skeletal Muscle Hypertrophy In Novice Urban University Students: An Experimental Investigation

The purpose of this investigation was to find out how moderate intensity resistance training influences muscles growth in newbie college students living in urban areas. Forty men under graduate students were randomly selected as subjects and their aged ranged from 17 to 21 years. The selected subjects were randomly assigned into two equal groups namely experimental (n = 20) group (EG) which underwent moderate intensity resistance training for 8 weeks with 3 sessions per week and control (n = 20) group (CG) which did not undergo any special training. The thigh girth, calf girth and upper arm girth were selected as criterion variables for this study. The subjects were measured their thigh girth, calf girth and upper arm girth by a flexible tape. The obtained data were statistically assessed for any significant difference using analysis of co variance (ANCOVA). The result showed that there were significant improvement on thigh girth (56.86 ± 3.73 vs 53.02 ± 3.41, p≤ 0.05) and upper arm girth (33.86 ± 2.25 vs 29.85 ± 2.19, p ≤ 0.05) between the experimental group and control group. However there was no significant improvement in calf girth (36.17 ± 2.45 vs 34.93 ± 2.32, p ≥ 0.05) between the experimental group and control group. Eight weeks’ time is very short to increase the size of the muscles size in significant level, especially for beginners, but here it was increased significantly the thigh muscle size and upper arm muscles of the experimental groups when compare to control group. If the training duration and the intensity were increased, it would have increased the size of calf muscle as well.