Upper Body Workout Doesn't Impair 48h Leg-Day Recovery, Lactobacillus for Immunity & Alcohol Impairs Your Gains

PWO alcohol is not for male athletes. But before you rejoice, ladies. The ill health effects of a given amount of alcohol are more severe for the fairer sex.

It's Christmas! And you can almost smell the new year with its smell of alcohol approach... and that's bad news for your gains, as a recent study in the latest issue of the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research shows. With a study on the possible interference of upper body training on your leg-day recovery (Abaïdia. 2017), and the purported benefits of lactic acid bacteria for athletes' immunity (Michalickova. 2017), Duplanty's study, which shows that alcohol will impair the adaptation to resistance training in previously resistance trained men, but not female trainees w/ RT experience (Duplanty. 2017), constitutes what's probably going to be the last SuppVersity Science Update for 2016.

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• Doing an upper body workout after muscle damaging "leg day" won't impair your recovery, study shows (Abaïdia. 2017) -- The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of an upper-limb strength training session the day after an exercise inducing muscle damage on recovery of performance.
  
  

  

  Figure 1: Creatine kinase (CK) and muscle force recovery ofter the 48h period w/ and w/out upper body exercise on the day after the leg workout (Abaïdia. 2017).

  In a randomized crossover design, subjects performed the day after the exercise, on 2 separate occasions (passive vs. active recovery conditions) a single-leg exercise (dominant in one condition and nondominant in the other condition) consisting of 5 sets of 15 eccentric contractions of the knee flexors. Active recovery consisted of performing an upper-body strength training session the day after the exercise. Creatine kinase, hamstring strength, and muscle soreness were assessed immediately and 20, 24, and 48 hours after exercise-induced muscle damage.
  
  The upper-body strength session, after muscle-damaging exercise accelerated the recovery of slow concentric force (effect size = 0.65; 90% confidence interval = −0.06 to 1.32), but did not affect the recovery kinetics for the other outcomes. The addition of an upper-body strength training session the day after muscle-damaging activity does not negatively affect the recovery kinetics.
  
  "Upper-body strength training may be programmed the day after a competition," the authors conclude and rightly so, after all their efforts to measure Creatine kinase, hamstring strength, and muscle soreness does indeed provide reliable information about the subjects' recovery.
• Lactobacillus helveticus Lafti L10 as an immune booster for elite athletes (Michalickova. 2017) -- To test the influence of probiotic supplementation on humoral immune response, a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was conducted. Thirty athletes (24 males and 6 females, females: V_O2max 38.2 ± 4.9 ml·kg−1·min−1, age 23.2 ± 1.4 years; males: V_O2max 57.5 ± 9.2 ml·kg−1·min−1, age 24.0 ± 2.4 years, mean ± SD) were randomized either to the probiotic group (Lactobacillus helveticus Lafti L10, 2 × 1010 colony-forming units) or to the placebo group. Serum and saliva samples were collected at the baseline and after 14 weeks. Total and specific antibacterial antibody levels of IgM, IgG, and IgA classes were determined for different bacteria in the serum, and in saliva, total and specific antibacterial IgA levels were examined.
  
  

  

  Teddy bears are like vitamin C and zinc. They can help you when you are already sick, but what are supplements athletes and gymrats take in advance to survive the flu season without getting sick at all?

  The scientists' analyses showed: Total IgM was elevated in both probiotic (18%, 15–20%; mean, 90% confidence interval; p = 0.02) and placebo group (35%, 22–47%; p = 0.02), without observed differences in changes between the groups. No significant changes in IgM levels specific for tested bacteria were found. Total IgG level was constant in both groups. A significant (16%, −2.8 to 35%, p = 0.04) reduction of anti–Enterococcus faecalis IgG was noted in the placebo group, in comparison with the probiotic group.
  
  There was a substantial decrease in total IgA level in the placebo group, when measured either in serum (15%, 12–18%, p = 0.04) or in saliva (35%, −1.4 to 53%, p = 0.03).
  
  Significantly reduced levels of serum anti–lactic acid bacteria IgA antibodies in the placebo group compared with the probiotic group were detected for Lactobacillus rhamnosus LA68 (24%, 5.8–42%, p = 0.02) and for L. rhamnosus LB64 (15%, 2.7–27%, p = 0.02).
  
  Nice? Well, there's one word in the scientists' conlusion I want you to pay specific attention to the small word "could" in "Probiotic administration could have beneficial effects on systemic humoral and mucosal immune responses" (Michalickova. 2017).
• Alcohol post-workout = impaired gains, at least in men (Duplanty. 2017) -- If this is not surprising to you, you must be unaware of the mixed evidence from previous studies on the impact of alcohol on post-workout protein synthesis.
  
  

  

  Figure 2: Bar graphs represent the quantification of western blot images for proteins (phosphorylated proteins relative to total proteins and normalized to a-tubulin | Duplanty. 2017).

  The purpose of the latest study on this subject was to further elucidate the effects postexercise alcohol ingestion.
  
  In that, the study had many novel aspects including using a resistance exercise (RE) only exercise design and the inclusion of women. Ten resistance-trained males and 9 resistance-trained females completed 2 identical acute heavy RE trials (6 sets of Smith machine squats) followed by ingestion of either alcohol or placebo.
  
  All participants completed both conditions. Before exercise (PRE) and 3 (+3 hours) and 5 (+5 hours) hours postexercise, muscle tissue samples were obtained from the vastus lateralis by biopsies. Muscle samples were analyzed for phosphorylated mTOR, S6K1, and 4E-BP1.
  
  For men, there was a significant interaction effect for mTOR and S6K1 phosphorylation. At +3 hours, mTOR and S6K1 phosphorylation (unlike mTOR S6K1 is usually a reliable marker of protein synthesis) was higher for placebo than for alcohol.
  
  For women, there was a significant main effect for time. mTOR phosphorylation was higher at +3 hours than at PRE and at +5 hours.  There were no significant effects found for 4E-BP1 phosphorylation in men or women.

  "The major findings of this study was that although RE elicited similar mTORC1 signaling both in men and in women, alcohol ingestion seemed to only attenuate RE-induced phosphorylation of the mTORC1 signaling pathway in men" (Duplanty. 2017)

  Yes, guys, that's right: alcohol should not be ingested after RE as this ingestion could potentially hamper the desired muscular adaptations to RE by reducing anabolic signaling. The one thing that's still necessary, now, is a study investigating the dose-response effect and whether it takes vodka (40% vol/vol alcohol; Smirnoff Co., Norwalk, CT, USA) diluted in water at a concentration of 15% vol/vol absolute alcohol and thus a dose of 1.09 g of alcohol per kg of fat-free body mass to do the ergolytic trick.

Health food for sick people - Much better than cholesterol supplements ;-) -- Cholesterol Boosts Your Immune Defenses: Infections Can Lower Cholesterol, Extra-Chol. Will Help You Battle Them | Learn more

So, here's what you should remember: (1) You can do upper body workouts the day after hitting your legs without compromising your muscular recovery, but you must not forget that your central nervous system needs time to recover, too. Accordingly, the long-term performance effects of doing this regularly may differ significantly with the CNS beating taking it's toll after a certain number of back to back workouts. (2) Your immunity could benefit from lactobacillus supplements, but don't dare paying for these supps before you don't get at least enough cholesterol to fuel your immune function. (3) As a man, you want to pay particular attention not to go overboard on alcohol, as it appears to have sign. more pronounced effects on you compared to your significant other | Comment! 

References:

• Abaïdia, A-E, Delecroix, B, Leduc, C, Lamblin, J, McCall, A, Baquet, G, and Dupont, G. Effects of a strength training session after an exercise inducing muscle damage on recovery kinetics. J Strength Cond Res 31(1): 115–125, 2017.
• Duplanty, AA, Budnar, RG, Luk, HY, Levitt, DE, Hill, DW, McFarlin, BK, Huggett, DB, and Vingren, JL. Effect of acute alcohol ingestion on resistance exercise–induced mTORC1 signaling in human muscle. J Strength Cond Res 31(1): 54–61, 2017
• Michalickova, DM, Kostic-Vucicevic, MM, Vukasinovic-Vesic, MD, Stojmenovic, TB, Dikic, NV, Andjelkovic, MS, Djordjevic, BI, Tanaskovic, BP, and Minic, RD. Lactobacillus helveticus Lafti L10 supplementation modulates mucosal and humoral immunity in elite athletes: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. J Strength Cond Res 31(1): 62–70, 2017.