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ABSTRACT
GOTO, K., N. ISHII, T. KIZUKA, and K. TAKAMATSU. The Impact of Metabolic Stress on Hormonal Responses and Muscular
Adaptations. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., Vol. 37, No. 6, pp. 955963, 2005. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the impact
of exercise-induced metabolic stress on hormonal responses and chronic muscular adaptations. Methods: We compared the acute and
long-term effects of an NR regimen (no-rest regimen) and those of a WR regimen (regimen with rest period within a set).
Twenty-six male subjects were assigned to either the NR (N 9), WR (N 9), or control (CON, N 8) groups. The NR regimen
consisted of 35 sets of 10 repetitions at 10-repetition maximum (RM) with an interset rest period of 1 min (lat pulldown, shoulder
press, and bilateral knee extension). In the WR regimen, subjects completed the same protocol as the NR regimen, but took a 30-s rest
period at the midpoint of each set of exercises in order to reduce exercise-induced metabolic stress. Acute hormonal responses to both
regimens were measured followed by a 12-wk period of resistance training. Results: Measurements of blood lactate and serum hormone
concentrations after the NR and WR regimens showed that the NR regimen induced strong lactate, growth hormone (GH), epinephrine
(E), and norepinephrine (NE) responses, whereas the WR regimen did not. Both regimens failed to cause significant changes in
testosterone. After 12 wk of resistance training, the NR regimen caused greater increases in 1RM (P 0.01), maximal isometric
strength (P 0.05), and muscular endurance (P 0.05) with knee extension than the WR regimen. The NR group showed a marked
increase (P 0.01) in muscle cross-sectional area, whereas the WR and CON groups did not. Conclusion: These results suggest that
exercise-induced metabolic stress is associated with acute GH, E, and NE responses and chronic muscular adaptations following
resistance training. Key Words: MUSCULAR STRENGTH, MUSCULAR HYPERTROPHY, REST PERIOD, LACTATE
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METHODS
General Procedure
Twenty-six healthy male subjects (age, 22.7 0.5 yr;
height, 172.0 1.1 cm; body mass, 65.9 1.5 kg) participated in this study. They were undergraduate or graduate
students at the University of Tsukuba, and all had experience with recreational resistance training. However, none of
the subjects were involved in any regular training program
at the beginning of the study. No medication (e.g., anabolic
steroids, creatine, sympathoadrenal drugs) was taken by the
subjects, which would have been expected to affect physical
performance. They were informed about the experimental
procedure as well as the purpose of the present study, and
their written informed consent was obtained in advance. The
study was approved by the ethics committee for human
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NR group
(N 9)
WR group
(N 9)
CON group
(N 8)
23.1 0.9
21.9 0.7
23.3 0.9
171.7 2.3
170.3 1.7
174.3 1.2
65.2 3.0
66.4 2.8**
66.4 2.4
66.9 2.3
66.3 2.2
66.8 2.4
20.3 1.2
18.8 1.3*
20.9 1.4
20.2 1.4
19.6 1.2
20.1 1.3
Values are means SE. Pre and post indicate the values obtained before and after the
training period, respectively. * Significant difference from pretraining value (P 0.05);
** significant difference from pretraining value (P 0.01).
was separated by more than 5 d. The subjects were instructed to lift and lower the load at a constant velocity,
taking about 2 s for each concentric and eccentric action. All
exercise sessions were preceded by stretching of the major
muscle groups and a single set of warm-up exercises at 50%
of 1RM.
Blood sampling and analyses. Following an overnight fast, the subjects came to the laboratory at 9:30 am and
rested for 30 min before the first blood collection. Venous
blood samples were obtained from an indwelling cannula in
the antecubital vein before, and at 0 (immediately after the
exercise), 15, and 30 min after exercise. Serum samples for
hormone analyses were stored frozen at 85C until analysis. Serum GH concentration was measured by radioimmunoassay (RIA) using kits from Daiichi Radioisotope Lab,
Japan. The sensitivity of the GH assay was 0.05 ngmL1,
and the inter- and intraassay coefficients of variation (CV)
were 3.6 and 3.4%, respectively. Serum testosterone (TES)
concentration was measured by RIA using kits from DPC
Corporation, Japan. The sensitivity of the TES assay was 5.0
ngdL1, and the inter- and intraassay CV were 8.4 and
5.9%, respectively. Plasma concentrations of epinephrine
(E) and norepinephrine (NE) were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) using kits from
Tosoh Corporation, Japan. The sensitivity of these assays,
and inter- and intraassay CVs were 6.0 pgmL1, 2.7, and
2.0% for E; and 6.0 pgmL1, 2.4, and 1.3% for NE. Blood
samples were also obtained from the fingertip to measure
lactate concentration (LA) using an automatic lactate analyzer (YSI1500 Sport, Yellow Springs Instruments, U.S.).
Long-Term Effects of Resistance Training
Subjects and exercise protocol. Twenty-six male
subjects were assigned to the CON, NR, and WR groups.
The NR and WR groups performed the same exercise regimens as those used in the experiments on acute hormone
responses (see above). The physical characteristics of the
subjects are shown in Table 1. Resistance training using lat
pulldown, shoulder press and bilateral knee extension was
performed for 12 wk (23 sessions in total). Exercise training
was performed only once in the first week, and thereafter
twice per week until the 12th week. The training sessions
involved one-on-one supervision by the same assistant
ROLE OF METABOLITES IN RESISTANCE TRAINING
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RESULTS
Acute hormonal and lactate responses. Figures 1
and 2 show acute changes in blood LA, serum GH, and TES
(Fig. 1), and plasma E and NE (Fig. 2) before the period of
training. No significant difference was seen in resting LA
and hormone concentrations between the exercise regimens.
In the NR regimen, LA and hormone concentrations (except
for that of TES) showed significant elevations after exercise,
whereas those of the WR regimen showed no significant
changes except for LA and NE. Between the NR and WR
regimens, significant differences were observed in the postexercise concentrations of LA, GH, and NE, among which
GH showed the largest difference. When the GH response was
assessed by the area under the time-concentration relationship (GHauc), the value after the NR regimen (559.6
200.9 ngmL1) was approximately threefold higher than that
after the WR regimen (185.0 86.7 ngmL1; P 0.05).
However, no significant difference was seen in TES concentrations between the two regimens, although the postexercise
value (30 min) in the NR regimen was lower than its preexercise value (P 0.05).
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FIGURE 2Acute changes in epinephrine and norepinephrine concentrations after exercises with the NR and WR regimens before the
period of training. Values are means SE (N 9). * Significant
difference from preexercise value (P < 0.05); # significant difference
between the regimens (P < 0.05).
significantly increased, and the percentage of fat significantly decreased after a 12-wk training period, indicating an
increase in lean body mass (LBM).
Figure 3 shows the percent changes in muscle CSA of QF
after the 12-wk training period. To reduce errors in the
measurement associated with a slight mismatch between the
sectional portions obtained before and after the training
period and incidental deformations of muscles during the
MRI processes, two sections around the mid portion of the
thigh were selected, and the mean tissue CSA was obtained
from these sections. No significant difference was observed
in the pretraining values of CSA between the groups. The
CSA in both the NR (12.9 1.3%) and WR (4.0 1.2%)
groups significantly increased after the training period, and
the change in CSA was significantly larger in the NR group
than in the WR group (P 0.01). No significant change in
CSA was seen in the CON group after the training period
(0.3 1.3%, NS).
The percent change in CSA after the 12-wk training
period did not show clear correlations with acute exerciseROLE OF METABOLITES IN RESISTANCE TRAINING
NR group
WR group
CON group
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DISCUSSION
This study showed that a NR regimen caused larger
elevations of blood LA, GH, and NE concentrations than a
WR regimen. In addition, training with NR regimen caused
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TABLE 3. Changes in exercise volume during shoulder press and knee extension
exercises at 70% of 1RM after the training period.
Variable
Shoulder press (J)
Pre
Post
Knee extension (J)
Pre
Post
NR group
WR group
CON group
609.8 58.7
681.1 41.0
546.9 36.3
624.3 17.3
454.3 49.0
453.6 43.1
884.8 44.2
931.8 45.1
897.7 75.1
955.6 92.6*
878.6 71.3
1219.5 86.5**#
Values are means SE. Pre and post indicate the values obtained before and after the
training period, respectively. Exercise volume was calculated as load number of
repetitions. * Significant difference from pretraining value (P 0.05); ** significant
difference from pretraining value (P 0.01); # significant difference from WR group (P
0.05); significant difference from CON group (P 0.01).
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contractions are considerably greater than with a training regimen using shorter, intermittent contractions. The current and
previous results clearly indicate that continuous repetition
without pause is an important factor for strength gains following resistance training.
The present NR regimen caused an increase of approximately 13% in muscle CSA, whereas the WR regimen had
no such effect (Fig. 3). Recent studies have suggested that
enhanced metabolic stress within the muscles may strongly
stimulate protein synthesis and concomitant muscle hypertrophy (21,26,27). For example, Schott et al. (21) have
shown that an isometric training regimen with a greater
decrease in intramuscular pH could induce a larger degree of
muscle hypertrophy than that with a smaller pH change.
Takarada et al. (26) have also shown that resistance exercise
with moderate vascular occlusion provokes a marked increase in muscle CSA, and that this effect is related in part
to the increase in muscle fiber recruitment by acidic intramuscular environment. During exercise with marked metabolic changes, additional motor unit recruitment would be
induced to keep a given level of force, as shown by the
elevated electrical activity of the muscles 17). In the present
study, although electrical activity was not measured, we
speculate that greater metabolic stress in the NR regimen
would have affected muscle fiber recruitment. This might be
responsible for the larger muscular hypertrophy in the NR
regimen.
As shown in Figure 1, significant elevations of postexercise GH concentration were seen only in the NR regimen.
Although the actual roles of circulating anabolic hormones
in muscle growth are still unclear, combinations of GH and
mechanical loading would activate anabolic processes in
skeletal muscle (15). The acute elevation of GH has been
suggested to play a more significant role in increasing
insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) mRNA in the muscle
than do its chronic changes (9). In addition, lines of evidence have indicated that GH and IGF-1 play crucial roles
in the growth, development, and maintenance of skeletal
muscle. In the present study, the magnitude of the acute GH
responses showed a positive correlation with relative increases in muscle CSA (P 0.04 0.05), implying that GH
might contribute to exercise-induced muscular hypertrophy.
However, actions of GH for muscular hypertrophy are not
direct, and might be mediated by locally produced growth
factors (5). More research should be conducted to determine
whether GH plays a substantial role in resistance training
induced muscular hypertrophy.
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