2.7. Resistance Training Program
muscle failure
Participants from both training groups (MJ-SJ and SJ-MJ) performed the same 12-week RT program with eight exercises. All participants were personally supervised by physical education professionals with substantial RT experience to help ensure consistent and safe exercise performance, carried out differing only in the exercise order. The RT sessions were performed three times per week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays during the morning hours. Participants of the MJ-SJ group performed exercises in the following order: chest press, seated row, triceps pushdown, preacher curl, horizontal leg press, leg extension, leg curl, and seated calf raise. On the other hand, participants of the SJ-MJ group performed exercises in the following order: preacher curl, triceps pushdown, seated row, chest press, seated calf raise, leg curl, leg extension, and horizontal leg press. The RT sessions consisted of 3 sets of 10–15 repetitions per exercise; if the participant reached momentary muscle failure—i.e., attempted to perform another repetition with proper technique but was unsuccessful—before the upper limit of repetitions, the load was kept the same for the next session. On the other hand, when 15 repetitions were completed in the three sets for a determined exercise, the load was adjusted by 2–10% [