conditioning scenario: opinions please

[kiddbjj]

Hi folks

so in my continuing quest to better understand conditioning specificity for combat sports I want to put a scenario forward and ask you guys to provide an opinion on the what the outcome might be.

Scenario:

Let's say you have 2 people, and for the sake of the experiment lets assume they have exactly the same physical potential, height, weight etc.

Both are tasked with a challenge: in 3 months time they will compete to see who can military press (ie. overhead press) 40kg/88lbs for the most reps without stopping until they are physically unable to complete another rep.

At the beginning of the training cycle both participants are able to press the 40kg/88lbs weight for 5 reps.

Each person will use a different training method to prepare for the contest. For the sake of simplicity and to focus specifically on training method rather than nutrition, rest etc lets ignore everything other than the military press training they select.

Person A decides to continue using the 40kg weight and trains x number of times per week. In each session he/she tries to perform more reps than they acheived last session. Their focus is on building muscular endurance and increasing their ability to push through lactic acid build up to knock out more reps. At the end of the 3 months (a few days before the contest) Person A manages to be able to perform 12 reps with 40kg/88lbs.

Person B decides to take another approach. Each session Person B decides to add slightly more weight to the bar and to lift for no more than 5 reps per set. Their focus is on building muscular strength. The rationale here is that if he/she can become much stronger then lifting the 40kg/88lbs will be much easier and they should be able to push out more reps than they acheived before the training phase began. At the end of the 3 months (a few days before the contest) Person B is able to press 55kg/121lbs for 5 reps.

So as I said, ignoring rest, nutrition etc and assuming that both people have equal potential for improvement who do you think will be able to press the 40kg/88lbs for the most number of reps in a row? The person who trained for muscular endurance (Person A) or the one who trained for muscular strength (Person B)?????????

I don't know the answer, and I don't know if any research out there addresses this type of scenario given the difficulty of finding equally matched people but I'd love to here your thoughts/opinions on who would win and why?

[kiddbjj]

c'mon people. Someone must have an opinion round here

[Tim Mousel]

Person A would win.

The contest is that of muscular endurance, not strength and therefore the training needs to reflect that. The Principle of Specificity comes into play here.

[Britt]

I agree. The guy training for endurance in an activity is going to do better in a contest that tests that endurance. It's kind of like a marathon between a guy who can squat 900 lbs. and a guy who runs marathons.

[Tom Yum]

While I agree with Tim and Britt that the principle of specificity holds water, I'm going to have to say the only way to find out is through experimentation.

Specificity builds your foundation, but cross training can catalyze your plateaus.

If both lifters were at their peak, then I think lifter B would win. If both are relative beginners or not in top condition, lifter A would win.