Purpose: Handball (Team Handball) is an intermittent and strenuous contact sport, the successful performance of which depends on frequent body contacts, and the ability to make repeated explosive muscular contractions required for jumping, acceleration, sprinting, turning, changing pace, and throwing a ball. Many studies have investigated the effect of resistance training (RT) in handball players, however with conflicting results. Therefore, our objective was to investigate the impact of RT on maximal strength (isometric and isokinetic strength), the power of both lower and upper limbs, and throwing velocity, in handball players.
Methods: A comprehensive literature search yielded a pool of 18 studies, which were retained in the systematic review and meta-analysis.
Results: A total of 275 handball players were included. The overall effect size (ES) of RT was 0.996 ([95%CI 0.827-1.165], p = 0.0000). At the multivariate meta-regression, the effect of publication year was significant, as well as the effects of country, gender, and level. The impact of RT on isokinetic strength was not significant (ES 0.079 [95%CI -0.060-0.219], p = 0.265), whereas the impact of RT on throwing (ES 1.360 [95%CI 0.992-1.728], p = 0.000) was significant, as well as the effects of RT on isometric strength (ES 0.398 [95%CI 0.096-0.700], p = 0.010), on maximal strength (ES 1.824 [95%CI 1.305-2.343], p = 0.000), and on power (ES 0.892 [95%CI 0.656-1.128], p = 0.000).
Conclusions: RT has a significant impact in handball players. Handball coaches could design conditioning protocols and programs based on our results. However, due to a number of shortcomings, including the high, statistically significant heterogeneity among studies and the evidence of publication bias, further high-quality investigations are needed.
Keywords: meta-analysis; peak power; strength training; systematic review; team handball.