Protocol
The current study consisted of six weeks of resistance training with each of two participating high school football teams performing the same resistance-training program during their summer workouts
Exercise sequence was the only variable between the two teams that was not the same throughout the two programs (one school doing traditional and the other doing circuit).
After receiving institutional human subjects review board approval, all subjects signed an assent form after having parent or guardian sign an informed consent.
The exercise sequences were as follows: the TRAD group performed the prescribed exercises in a traditional otherwise known as blocked manner (by completing every set of an exercise before
moving to the next) and the CIRC group performed the prescribed exercises in a circuit or alternating manner (by completing the first set of each prescribed exercise then going to the second set of each exercise).
The only exception in the circuit sequences is that they were instructed to complete all sets of hang cleans, in a traditional manner, before they started lifting in the desired circuit manner.
The reason for completing hang clean in a traditional manner first is due to the information provided by the American College of Sports Medicine (2002) and Fleck and Kraemer (2004),
which revealed benefits for power and explosive exercises being implemented at the beginning of a workout due to the neuromuscular system being in a non-fatigued state and is capable of higher rates of force production and contractile velocities.
This also reduces risk of injury due to the explosive nature of hang cleans (7).