In elite judo athletes, performing resistance training with different loads or to muscle failure does not change their ability to generate power, as measured by specific force and velocity metrics.

Pro

Against

Mechanism

Synthesis from 1 study

How it works

Elite judo athletes already use their muscles as powerfully and quickly as their nervous system allows; adding more weight or training to exhaustion doesn’t make them faster or stronger in explosive moves because their nerves can’t push their muscles any harder than they already are — this is why...

Most probable mechanism

In Simple Terms

Elite judo athletes already have highly trained nervous systems that recruit muscles as fast and forcefully as possible; adding more resistance training doesn’t make them generate power any faster or stronger because their muscles and nerves are already working at their maximum capacity — even when they train to exhaustion, their power output doesn’t improve, as shown in 10.1371/journal.pone.0307841.

Causal chain

Elite judo athletes exhibit maximal or near-maximal motor unit recruitment and firing rates during explosive movements, limiting further gains in force-velocity parameters despite resistance training.

Supported by evidence

which leads to

Muscle hypertrophy and strength increases from resistance training do not translate to improved power-generation capacity because the nervous system cannot drive the newly added muscle fibers to contract faster or more synchronously.

Supported by evidence

Evidence from Studies

Supporting (1)

Community contributions welcome

Resistance training leading to repetition failure increases muscle strength and size, but not power-generation capacity in judo athletes

Randomized Controlled Trial

Human

2024

Contradicting (0)

Community contributions welcome

No contradicting evidence found

Gold Standard Evidence Needed

According to GRADE and EBM methodology, here is what ideal scientific evidence would look like to definitively prove or disprove this specific claim, ordered from strongest to weakest evidence.

Source Study

Resistance training leading to repetition failure increases muscle strength and size, but not power-generation capacity in judo athletes

Score: 60

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0307841

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