Remote‐Based Brain Endurance Training Enhances Bench Press, Preacher Curl, and Jump Squat Performance in Recreational Athletes

Supervised laboratory-based brain endurance training (BET), a form of combined cognitive and exercise training, benefits exercise performance. Given that athletes often train unsupervised, we compared effects of unsupervised remote-based BET and standard exercise training (ET) on muscular endurance exercise performance. In a pre-test/training/post-test design, 22 adults completed 2 laboratory testing and 12 remote-based gym training sessions. In each laboratory testing session, they performed bench press, preacher curl, and squat jump repetitions to failure. Ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) were obtained after performing 10 bench press and preacher curl repetitions. Participants were randomly assigned to BET (n = 10) or ET (n = 12) groups. In each remote training session, they performed upper body and core exercises. The BET group completed cognitive tasks whereas the ET group relaxed before/after exercise. From pre-test to post-test, the BET group increased repetitions to failure for total (+50%), bench press (+33%), preacher curl (+93%), and squat jump (+28%) repetitions whereas the ET group only increased repetitions for the total (+13%) but did not increase bench press (+13%), preacher curl (+30%), or squat jump (+12%) repetitions. These training-related improvements in total and squat jump repetitions were greater for the BET group than the exercise group. Moreover, from pre-test to post-test, the BET group reported lower RPE for bench press (-22%) and preacher curl (-12%) while the ET group did not change RPE for bench press (-9%) or preacher curl (-3%). In conclusion, remote-based BET improved muscular endurance performance and reduced perceived effort more than standard training in experienced recreational athletes.