ReviewEuropean journal of applied physiology2021
Chronic resistance training: is it time to rethink the time course of neural contributions to strength gain?
Review in European journal of applied physiology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 89 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effectiveness of Whole-Body Vibration Therapy on Handgrip Strength: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Musculoskeletal care · 2026Pooled it
- Comparative effectiveness of exercise interventions for primary dysmenorrhea: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.BMC women's health · 2024Pooled it
- The effects of exercise on neuromuscular function in people with chronic neck pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2024Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Effects of strength training on functional ambulation following knee replacement: a systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression.Scientific reports · 2023Pooled it
- The Effect of Resistance Training on Motor Unit Firing Properties: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in physiology · 2022Pooled it
- Concurrent training effects on H reflex, V wave and contractile properties of the plantar flexors: insights into different resistance training types.European journal of applied physiology · 2025Trial
- Quercetin ingestion alters motor unit behavior and enhances improvement in muscle strength following resistance training in older adults: a randomized, double-blind, controlled trial.European journal of nutrition · 2025Trial
- Pain Neuroscience Education and Resistance Training in Women With Fibromyalgia: A Randomized Control Pilot Study.Pain research & management · 2025Trial
- Variability in resistance training trajectories of breast cancer patients undergoing therapy.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2024Trial
- Effects of Different Isometric Training Programs on Muscle Size and Function in the Elbow Flexors.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Trial
- Differential motor unit firing rate and hypertrophic adaptations of the vastus lateralis despite similar strength increases following high-load versus combined high- and low-load resistance training interventions.Experimental brain research · 2026Article
- Strength gains and absence of hypertrophy and cross-education in knee extensors following short-term low-volume eccentric training in untrained young men.European journal of applied physiology · 2026Article
- Biceps femoris long-head motor unit discharge rates and recruitment thresholds vary across 9 weeks of eccentric training.Journal of sport and health science · 2026Article
- Ageing does not impair motor neuron adaptations: comparable motor unit responses to strength training in young and older adults.The Journal of physiology · 2026Article
- Adaptations in biceps femoris long-head muscle-tendon mechanics during the Nordic hamstring exercise in response to 9 weeks of training.Journal of sport and health science · 2026Article
- Post-exercise home-based hot-bathing with/without light exercise: effects on physiological adaptations to short-term high-intensity resistance training in healthy young men.European journal of applied physiology · 2026Article
- The modulation of human motoneuron discharge patterns with contraction force in resistance- and endurance-trained individuals.Journal of applied physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985) · 2026Article
- Article
- Muscle activation and intermuscular coordination adaptations to early strength training during maximal force production.PloS one · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Resistance training enhances muscular force due to a combination of neural plasticity and muscle hypertrophy. It has been well documented that the increase in strength over the first few weeks of resistance training (i.e. acute) has a strong underlying neural component and further enhancement in strength with long-term (i.e. chronic) resistance training is due to muscle hypertrophy. For obvious reasons, collecting long-term data on how chronic-resistance training affects the nervous system not feasible. As a result, the effect of chronic-resistance training on neural plasticity is less understood and has not received systematic exploration. Thus, the aim of this review is to provide rationale for investigating neural plasticity beyond acute-resistance training. We use cross-sectional work to highlight neural plasticity that occurs with chronic-resistance training at sites from the brain to spinal cord. Specifically, intra-cortical circuitry and the spinal motoneuron seem to be key sites for this plasticity. We then urge the need to further investigate the differential effects of acute versus chronic-resistance training on neural plasticity, and the role of this plasticity in increased strength. Such investigations may help in providing a clearer definition of the continuum of acute and chronic-resistance training, how the nervous system is altered during this continuum and the causative role of neural plasticity in changes in strength over the continuum of resistance training.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.