689 Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2004, 18(4), 689–694  2004 National Strength & Conditioning Association EFFECTS OF SINGLE- VS.MULTIPLE-SET RESISTANCE TRAINING ON MAXIMUM STRENGTH AND BODY COMPOSITION IN TRAINED POSTMENOPAUSAL WOMEN WOLFGANG K. KEMMLER, 1 DIRK LAUBER, 2 KLAUS ENGELKE, 1 AND JUERGEN WEINECK 2 1 Institute of Medical Physics, University of Erlangen, Germany; 2 Institute of Sport Sciences, University of Erlangen, Germany. ABSTRACT. Kemmler, W.K., D. Lauber, K. Engelke, and J. Wei- neck. Effects of single- vs. multiple-set resistance training on maximum strength and body composition in trained postmeno- pausal women. J. Strength Cond. Res. 18(4):000–000. 2004.—The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a single- vs. a multiple-set resistance training protocol in well-trained early postmenopausal women. Subjects (N = 71) were randomly as- signed to begin either with 12 weeks of the single-set or 12 weeks of the multiple-set protocol. After another 5 weeks of re- generational resistance training, the subgroup performing the single-set protocol during the first 12 weeks crossed over to the 12-week multiple-set protocol and vice versa. Neither exercise type nor exercise intensity, degree of fatigue, rest periods, speed of movement, training sessions per week, compliance and atten- dance, or periodization strategy differed between exercise pro- tocols. Body mass, body composition, and 1 repetition maximum (1RM) values for leg press, bench press, rowing, and leg adduc- tion were measured at baseline and after each period. Multiple- set training resulted in significant increases (3.5–5.5%) for all 4 strength measurements, whereas single-set training resulted in significant decreases ( -1.1 to -2.0%). Body mass and body com- position did not change during the study. The results show that, in pretrained subjects, multiple-set protocols are superior to sin- gle-set protocols in increasing maximum strength. KEY WORDS. 1RM changes, training volume, pretrained women, prevention INTRODUCTION E strogen decline during menopause affects vari- ous organs and increases the risk of many dis- eases. Adequate physical training should si- multaneously increase strength, endurance, flexibility, and balance. Obviously, the consid- eration of all of these aspects could easily expand the nec- essary training time beyond the amount of time that nor- mal postmenopausal women are willing to invest. Thus, optimizing training efficacy is of high interest. With re- spect to the improvement of strength, many programs fo- cus on multiple-set resistance training. From the stand- point of time, single-set instead of multiple-set training schemes would free time for exercises targeting the other aspects mentioned above. The question of multiple- vs. single-set training has been extensively reviewed (4, 7, 8, 12, 20, 33, 35–37, 42, 45), but still there is no unequivocal vote. Results in the literature range from a nonsignificant finding of superi- ority of single-set training (44) to a significant finding of superiority of a multiple-set regimen (3, 25). Unfortu- nately, this question is difficult to resolve, because a large variety of causes may contribute to the discrepancy. Exercise studies comparing single- and multiple-set protocols differ not only with respect to training volume but also with respect to the equipment used for the mea- surements (9, 25, 31, 41), exercise intensity (6, 30, 31, 34), exercise mode (i.e., velocity [30, 39, 41]), periodization strategy (28, 30, 41), work until failure or not (22), and muscle groups (32, 38). Also, the training experiences of the subjects investigated in these studies were very het- erogeneous, ranging from untrained subjects to top-divi- sion footballers (25). Further, all studies were carried out with young or middle-aged men and women. Data for postmenopausal women do not exist, with the exception of the study of Ryan et al. (38), who interindividually as- sessed a multiple-set regime for the lower extremities vs. a single-set regime for the upper body. Finally, with some exceptions (3, 11, 28, 30, 44), all studies were shorter than 6 months in duration. Each of these factors may affect the strength devel- opment elicited by the exercise regime and must be there- fore controlled or deleted to avoid confounding influences (35). In this study, we stringently focus on comparable conditions in both (single-set vs. multiple-set) subgroups to clarify the issue which training strategy is more effec- tive in trained older subjects. METHODS Experimental Approach to the Problem The current study was conducted to compare the effect of a single-set vs. a multiple-set exercise training protocol (3) on the dependent variables of 1 repetition maximum (1RM) and anthropometry in well-trained postmenopaus- al women, using a crossover design in which each subject serves as its own control. Despite the crossover design and the stringent exclusion criteria of the Erlangen Fit- ness Osteoporosis Prevention Study (EFOPS) (17, 18), both exercise subgroups (beginning with either the single- set or the multiple-set protocol) were well matched with respect to age, menopausal status, muscle strength (ex- cept leg press), anthropometric variables, and nutritional intake at baseline. Also, with the exception of the number of sets per exercise, exercise and measurement conditions were identical for both groups. Subjects In this investigation, 71 subjects from the training arm of EFOPS participated. EFOPS is a controlled 5-year ex- ercise trial in early postmenopausal women (1–8 years after menopause) with osteopenia (-1  DXA T-Score  -2.5) at the lumbar spine or the total proximal femur. EFOPS exclusion criteria were intake of medication af-