| The purpose of this study is to examine changes in muscular strength and power in participants over the course of an ultra-endurance event, the Ultimate Suck. The Ultimate Suck is a very challenging and grueling event where participants enroll in either a 12 or 36 hour event. Twenty participants volunteered for this study but only seventeen of them (14 males, 3 females) actually completed the event. Each participant was tested in this order; (a) RPE level (0-10 scale), (b) difficulty level (0-10 scale), (c) height (cm), (d) weight (kg), (e) back strength (kg), (f) grip strength both non-dominant and dominant (kg), and lower-body power (W). Data was collected on every participant before the start of the event and at every six hours. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measures on the six trails (pre-test, 6th, 12th, 18th, 24th, and 36th hour) were conducted on the six dependent variables (RPE level, difficulty level, back strength, dominant grip, non-dominant grip, and lower-body power) to determine significant differences. Alpha level was set a .05. The 12 hour event found significant differences across the testing sessions in RPE level, F(2,16) = 195.80, p < .01), difficulty level, F(2,16) = 100.30, p < .01, non-dominant grip strength, F(2,16) = 4.60, p = .05, and lower-body power F(2,16) = 5.02, p = .04. The 36 hour event found significant differences across the testing sessions in RPE level, F(5,35) = 22.54, p < .01, difficulty level, F(5,35) = 33.82, p < .01, back strength, F(5,35) = 3.20, p = .05, dominant grip strength, F(5,35) = 13.38, p < .01, non-dominant grip strength, F(5,35) = 8.69, p < .01, and lower-body power, F(5,35) = 3.33, p = .05. In conclusion, non-dominant grip strength and power showed significant differences across sessions in the 12 hour event, while the 36 hour found significant differences for back strength, grip strength, and power. |
