Science & Sports (2016) 31, e107—e113 Disponible en ligne sur ScienceDirect www.sciencedirect.com ORIGINAL ARTICLE Effects of a 16-week strength-training program on soccer players Effets d’un programme de formation de la force de 16 semaines sur les joueurs de football R.M. Ruivo a,* , A.I. Carita b , P. Pezarat-Correia a a CIPER, Laboratório de Comportamento Motor, Faculdade de Motricidade Humana, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal b CIPER, Secc ¸ão Autónoma de Métodos Matemáticos, Faculdade de Motricidade Humana, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal Received 15 February 2015; accepted 20 February 2016 Available online 21 April 2016 KEYWORDS Football; Resistance training; Repetition maximum; Strength Summary Aim. — The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a 16-week strength-training program applied to Chinese soccer players 15—19 years old. Methods. — Twenty-eight Chinese adolescent male soccer players (16.2 years ± 1.1) from Wsports Seven Team took part in this study. During 16 weeks after one-hour football train- ing, the players took part in a supervised strength-training program. This strength-training protocol was administered three times a week, lasted 40 min approximately and in each session they split the muscles trained. On Tuesdays, they would train chest and biceps, legs and shoul- der on Wednesday and back and triceps on Friday. In the beginning and after the 16-week intervention, we evaluated body composition, resting heart rate and blood pressure, maximal oxygen uptake, upper body resistance and one maximum repetition in the bench press and lat machine. Results. — Significant differences were observed in upper body endurance and strength from pre- test to post-test with an increase in push-up repetitions (43.7 ± 13.8 vs 54.1 ± 12.7) and one maximum repetition in the bench press (57.2 ± 14.5 vs 74.8 ± 15.1). In what concerns maximal oxygen uptake, a significant improvement during the intervention period was also observed (53.3 ± 2.4 vs 54.7 ± 3.3). ∗ Corresponding author. Avenida Fernando Pessoa, lote 3.20.01, Bloco B, 4 A, 1990-102 Lisbon, Portugal. E-mail address: rodrigo.ruivo@netcabo.pt (R.M. Ruivo). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scispo.2016.02.008 0765-1597/© 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.