Reliability of the 1 RM bench press and squat in young women

Although bench press and squat are two of the most frequently performed strength training exercises today, and are used for physical performance assessment in many sports test batteries as well as in physical therapy, studies presenting inter-rater reliability for these tests in young women appear to be lacking in the literature. The aim of this study was to evaluate inter-rater reliability regarding the One Repetition Maximum (1 RM) in bench press and squats in young healthy women. Forty-one women, aged 21–30 years, participated in the present study. The subjects performed 1 RM bench press (n = 21) or 1 RM squat (n = 20) on two different occasions with an interval of 5–9 days using an inter-rater test-retest design. High reliability was noted for both the 1 RM bench press test (ICC2,1 = 0.98) and the 1 RM squat test (ICC2,1 = 0.85), with an SEM of 4% and 11%, respectively. The paired analysis revealed statistically significant difference in 1 RM squat performance between the two test sessions (p = 0.005). No statistically significant difference was found in 1 RM bench press performance between the two testing sessions. While the 1RM bench press showed excellent inter-rater reliability and could be strongly suggested as a measurement of muscle strength, the squat using free weights, as in the present study, could be questioned.