SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

In the study at hand, the cuffs were applied before, not during the exercise.  This is not the first and it's certainly not going to be the last SuppVersity   article about blood flow restriction (BFR). In contrast to previous articles, today's blog post does yet not focus on the effects of acute blood flow restriction on performance or gains. Rather than that, it discusses a recent study from the University Hospital of Düsseldorf (Germany) , the  Göthe University in Frankfurt, and the German Sport University  in Cologne which investigated the effects of so-called "ischemic preconditioning" (which could be described as pre-workout BFR) on muscle damage and pain in response to eccentric biceps curls. You can learn more about BFR and Hypoxia Training at the SuppVersity BFR, Cortisol & GH Responses BFR - Where are we now? BFR as Add-On to Classic Lifts BFR for Injured Athletes Strength ⇧ | Size ⇩ w/ BFR BFR + Cardio = GainZ? As Franz, ...

I have to admit, I cannot answer the question about the effects of muscle damage on glycemia once and for all, but for the average workout, it's probably irrelevant and the overall effect beneficial. While I have to admit that I do not know in which of the roughly 2300 published articles I have referred to the studies by Asp et al. (1995), I do  know that a new study from the  Tatung Institute of Technology and the  Department of Sports Sciences at the University of Taipei  (Ho 2016) shows that the experimentally verified reduction in GLUT-4 expression in isolated human skeletal muscle cells probably  lacks practical relevance. The reason that I write "probably", is that we do now have one study that suggests beneficial (Ho 2016) and one that found detrimental effects (Asp 1995) - and a couple of reasons why neither of the studies is fully convincing. One important determinant of your 24h insulin levels is your meal frequency : Grazin' Bad For the Ob...

With only 65mg of caffeine, an espresso provides only ~12.5% of the amount of caffeine used in the study at hand. If you've kept an eye on the latest caffeine research you may have noticed that there's an increasing number of studies that fails to find significant performance enhancing effects of caffeine during resistance training sessions (Trevino. 2015). Does this mean that caffeine, a substance that is by the way on the World Anti-Doping Agency's list of prohibited substances useless for gymrats? Certainly not. One thing most of these studies have in common is that they tested the subjects' strength or power production during short workouts. Studies that investigate the effects of caffeine in higher volume contexts, on the other hand (e.g. Lang. 2015; Thomas. 2015), confirm that caffeine is rightly the most (ab-)used ergogenic among fitness enthusiasts. You can learn more about coffee and caffeine at the SuppVersity For Caffeine, Timing Matters! 45 M...

Hershey's 100% Cacao, soon also available at your local GNC? If you look at the results of the study at hand, it does appear likely that a regular "food item" can compete with sign. more expensive sport supplements. From previous SuppVersity  articles you know that several studies have demonstrated the protective effects of cocoa consumption, due to its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. From the news and my critical evaluations of the study results, you do yet also know that (a) regular chocolate lacks most of these beneficial effects and that the effects have (b) often been hilariously exaggerated in the laypress. Furthermore, studies that probe the efficacy of cacao or high cacao chocolate on exercise performance are, unlike studies on its anti-oxidant effects (e.g. Berry. 2010; Davison. 2012), something in-between "rare" and "quasi non-existent". In spite of its relatively small size (fifteen 15-18 year old soccer players), a rece...

To actually confirm the marketed "more complete recovery", I'd like to see more relevant study outcomes (who does CMJs?) to be tested, EAS ;-) If you've read my comments on previous HMB studies you will know that I am skeptical if the promising results that have been observed in studies using 2-3 grams of calcium bound or free acid HMB would persist if the subjects did what most of you will do: Consume 20-30g of whey protein after every workout. I guess Kraemer et al. (2015) may have had similar doubts, when they designed their latest study. A study in which they compare recovery from highly demanding resistance exercise with whey protein (WP group) alone or a supplement containing whey, HMB, and a slow-release carbohydrate (isomaltulose | RP group). Learn more about HMB at the SuppVersity : HMB For Fat Loss? Hica & HMB in Yogurt More on HMB Free Acid Breakthrough HMB Science HMB for Muscle Quality HMB Hampers Fat Loss? Now, I have to ...