Relationship among selected performance measures on the Omnitron Total Power Unit

The present study assessed the interrelationships among selected performance parameters on the Omnitron Total Power Unit. Forty-eight males (18 to 31 yrs) repeated on 2 days the chest press, shoulder press, lat row, and lat pull-down exercises at low, medium, and high levels of resistance. Test-retest reliability for peak force, average linear velocity, and average power output ranged form r = 0.71 to r = 0.97 (p less than 0.05) (29 of 36 correlations greater than or equal to 0.9), and demonstrate that the different testing protocols provide reliable individual differences for assessing muscular performance. The average linear velocity and average power output data provide little new information about muscular performance besides that attained from peak force analysis. The percentage common variance among the levels of resistance and output modes ranged from 90 to 98%. Thus, assessing peak force at a single level of resistance on the Omnitron is sufficient to obtain an overall assessment of muscular performance.