Muscular Endurance Repetitions to Predict Bench Press and Squat Strength in College Football Players

The purpose of this study was to determine the accuracy of using relative muscular endurance performance to estimate 1-RM bench press and squat strength in college football players. NCAA Div. II players (N = 45) were tested after 12 weeks of resistance training in a winter conditioning program. Each subject selected a weight he anticipated to be 70% of l-RM for each lift and performed as many repetitions as possible. Results indicated that players selected weights averaging 71.3 and 68.0% of 1-RM bench press and squat, respectively, and averaged 13.9 and 17.4 repetitions-to-failure. The Mayhew et al. equation significantly underestimated 1-RM bench press while the Epley, Lander, and Brzycki equations significantly overestimated it. In the squat, all equations significantly overestimated 1-RM values. It appears that an exponential relative muscular endurance equation can be used to estimate 1-RM bench press strength in college football players, but none of the equations evaluated were accurate for predicting l-RM squat.