NAC Lowers DOMS, Initially, but on Day 5-6 it Makes Things Worse | Plus: Putative Performance Benefit is Negligible

In the long run, choking the exercise-induced fire too much is going to negate all the cherishable benefits of working out.

As a SuppVersity reader, you know what hormesis is and are aware that the proinflammatory assault of exercise, is an essential stimulant to musculoskeletal adaptation - a number of human and dozens of animal experiments show: if you quell the production of pro-inflammatory reactive oxygen species with high doses of vitamin C and E the growth and health response to exercise will be impaired. And vitamin C + E are not the only radical scavengers with this side effect.

In 2013, I wrote about a study that clearly demonstrated how N-acetyl-l-cysteine aka NAC "Reduces Inflammation, Muscle Injury & Cytokine Expression, but Impairs Anabolic Signaling, Satellite Cell Activity and Recovery" (re-read it) - keep that in mind before getting overly excited.

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Hence, NAC supplements shouldn't be used chronically. To control the inflammatory response to a workout and be able to return to the grind earlier, however, many people still rely on its noticeable ability to reduce early onset of DOMS (deep onset muscle soreness - learn more).

Is taking NAC ever a good idea for athletes?

Well, the good news for NAC lovers is: When used during a short competition, sportsmen and -women can actually benefit from the anti-DOMS effects, a recent study from the University of Auckland (Rhodes 2018) confirmed when it investigated...

"whether NAC supplementation decreases muscle soreness and enhances performance in a semi-elite sport setting [as well as] adverse effects and the tolerability of oral NAC supplementation" (Rhodes 2018).

The bad news is that using NAC for that very purpose won't just impair long-term gains, it would also backfire in terms of the what one could call a delayed DOMS response (if DOMS wasn't already delayed onset muscle soreness, obviously) on day 5-6 of the recovery period.

Figure 1: Schematic overview of the experimental design. Preliminary YYIRT-L1 performance measures were taken during preseason training, and post-supplementation performance measures were performed on days 5 and 6 of supplementation (NAC or placebo). Side effects and subjective muscle soreness were monitored through a daily TXT message during the supplementation period. NAC = N-acetylcysteine (Rhodes 2018).

That's at least what Rhodes' et al's observation that the initial "likely protective effect" (−19% ± 27%) on subjective muscle soreness of the 28 semi-professional, semi-elite male rugby players (age = 20.4 ± 0.9 yrs, height = 182.3 ± 7.4 cm, weight = 103 ± 12 kg, Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test Level 1 [YIRT-L1] = 17.14 ± 1.73 level) who participated in the study, turned out to be reversed after 5-6 days of supplementation with 1g of NAC to when the authors observed a "very likely harmful effect" (71% ± 59%).

Figure 2: Running times (lower = better) and subjectively measured muscle soreness before during and at the end of the 6-day intervention with 1g of NAC in 28 semi-professional, semi-elite male rugby players (Rhodes 2018).

The effects on the actual exercise performance during the shuttle-run, on the other hand, were negligible - yes, this means you can safely ignore them. Everbody can tell that by looking at the running times in Figure 2, ... and yes, I don't care that the results of the “sportsci” parallel group trial spreadsheet (Hopkins 2015) suggest a "likely beneficial performance effect on maximum shuttle sprint time (2.4%; 90% confidence limit ± 4.8%)".

Whether more helps more is not clear! What is clear, though, is that 2 and more grams of NAC are more prone produce side effects in form of diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and headache. You should furthermore remember that hormesis is all about managing the exercise stress - not annihilating. If you're using NAC, using the lowest effective dose should thus always be your goal.

To be fair, I should point out that the authors refrain from claiming to have a found a practically relevant performance benefit, when they write that..."this study was unable to demonstrate a clear effect of 1 g NAC on total time to complete a broken bronco exercise protocol" - that this was due to the low dosage of NAC, which is what they claim right after the cited passage, though, sounds a bit biased; and that despite the quoted results from a 2011 study by Cobley et al. (Cobley 2011), who gave their participants a higher dose of 50 mg/kg/day and observed an increase in YYIRT-L1 performance over time, with the greatest performance enhancement seen on the last testing session (three sessions in total).

When it comes to choosing whether and at which dose to use NAC (or vitamin C and vitamin E) you must consider hormetic dose-response relationship between stress exposure (X-axis) and adaptational response (Y-axis). Stimulatory effects occur in the low-dose region at the left of the no-observed-effects-level (NOAEL), whereas adverse effects occur in the high-dose region at the right of the NOAEL - The higher your baseline stress the more likely you'll benefit from antioxidants by reducing the background noise and enhancing the signal:noise ratio (Agathokleous 2018)

Overall, we need more research before we can - with some confidence - advice athletes to consume (high dose) NAC supplements during phases of intense competition; and that is particularly true for the purported recovery- and performance-enhancing effects semi-elite athletes are supposed to experience during exercise sessions with a high turnaround rate.

Learn more about hormesis

Taking NAC right before or during a meet or competition may still make sense -- I wouldn't totally exclude that there is a dosage effect, though, accordingly higher dosages (5g vs. 1g) should be recommended to those who want to (ab-)use NAC strategically during what Rhodes et al. aptly describe as "periods of anticipated high energy turnover with limited recovery time, such as during tournaments, competitions, or back-to-back hard training sessions" (Rhodes 2018).

During the training/off-season, however, it would be madness to interfere with ROS formation and IL-6 release as they have been found to be the real drivers of the adaptive response you're training for... ah, and by the way: To write "I take my NAC away from my workout" in the comments, will only expose your lack of knowledge about the way(s) your body functions. It's not going to help you soothe your conscience and make you feel good about a habit (=taking your high-dose NAC supplements religiously) that's almost certainly going to impair your gains - if you actually know what you're doing, however, and want to use NAC strategically before/during a meet or a short tournament, go for it but mind the side effects (test your individual tolerance before ending up in bed with a headache or on the toilette with diarrhea during the competition) | Comment!

References:

• Agathokleous, Evgenios, Mitsutoshi Kitao, and Edward J. Calabrese. "Environmental hormesis and its fundamental biological basis: Rewriting the history of toxicology." Environmental research 165 (2018): 274-278.
• Cobley, James N., et al. "N-Acetylcysteine’s attenuation of fatigue after repeated bouts of intermittent exercise: practical implications for tournament situations." International journal of sport nutrition and exercise metabolism 21.6 (2011): 451-461.
• Rhodes, etal. "Acute Effect of Oral N-Acetylcysteine on Muscle Soreness and Exercise Performance in Semi-Elite Rugby Players". Journal of Dietary Supplements (2018).

More Evidence in Favor of the Post!-Workout Coffee: 250mg Caffeine 2x à Day Soothe Muscle Soreness (DOMS), Sign.

Delicious, ergogenic and good for sore, damaged muscles: coffee!

You will remember that caffeine can improve skeletal muscle glycogen resynthesis after workouts. The corresponding study by Pedersen et al. is yet no longer the only study which makes the post-, not pre-workout coffee attractive for athletes and gymrats alike.

In their latest paper in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, Aron R. Caldwell and colleagues report the results of an interesting experiment, an experiment with a hypothesis that was based, mainly, on the well-known, but short-lived (2-4 hours) analgesic (=pain relieving) effects of the world's favorite drug: caffeine.

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To test, whether those would help athletes to recover faster, Caldwell et al. simply postponed the usual caffeine ingestion schedule that would have the subjects ingest caffeine pills or caffeinated beverages ~1 hour before exercise, to maximize blood caffeine concentrations for ergogenic effects during exercise or testing, to the post-workout window. And since the authors also speculated that "the primary mode of action of caffeine during recovery", if there was any, was "analgesic in nature, such that any reduction in pain sis directly related to blood levels of caffeine" (Caldwell. 2017). They had their subjects ingest caffeine several occasions throughout the day - here twice a day - so that any measurable decreases in skeletal muscle soreness would be maintained. Accordingly, subjects rated muscle soreness once in the morning, before caffeine ingestion (i.e., when blood caffeine levels were low), and once midday (i.e., when blood caffeine levels were high).

The exercise stimulus the subjects, adult men (n = 25; 53 ± 10 years) and women (n = 5; 46 ± 11
years) were subjected to was nothing less than the 2015 Hotter’N Hell Hundred in Wichita Falls, TX, a 164-km bicycle ride that takes place, above all, in August. All subjects had previously completed at least one 164-km cycle ride and were not naive to caffeine consumption (habitual intake = 230 mg of caffeine per day).

The post-workout, every-day-all-day caffeine approach could also help you get into and stay in ketosis | more

"To examine the effects of caffeine ingestion on soreness and functionality, subjects who completed a 164-km recreational cycle ride were matched for body mass, age, and sex, and were randomly assigned to ingest caffeine or identical looking placebo pills after completion of the ride. To examine the effects of caffeine or placebo ingestion on DOMS and functionality during recovery, subjects continued ingesting caffeine or placebo twice a day, once in the early morning on waking and once at noon, for the next 3 days. 

Measures of perceived function ality and soreness were obtained before and after the ride, and in the morning and in the afternoon of the 3 subsequent days before ingesting pills. Morning and afternoon measures of functionality and soreness were separated to evaluate if the caffeine dosing schedule effected subjects perception of these 2 variables" (Caldwell. 2017).

As hinted at previously, the subjects ingested the caffeine pills (3mg/kg, i.e. 252 mg on average, per serving) in the mornings 1–4 days post-ride (700 or 800 hours) and in the afternoons on 1–3 days post-ride (1200 hours) after being prompted by e-mail and text message. And yes, it would be interesting to see how they'd done if they'd got this caffeine from coffee - probably better! After all, "Coffee Beats Caffeine in the Gym!" (read more).

Figure 1: Mean (±SD) overall ratings of perceived muscle soreness (RPMSOVERALL) when assessed in the (A) morning and (B) afternoon, and RPMS specifically in the legs (RPMSLEGS) in the (C) morning and (D) afternoon. *Significant difference p < 0.05 between conditions, #Trend toward significance p = 0.10 between conditions (Caldwell. 2017).

The scientists' analysis of their subjects ratings of perceived muscle soreness (RPMS) and perceived lower extremity functionality (LEF) revealed that...

• the caffeine group tended to have lower overall RPMS in the afternoon versus placebo (i.e., main effect of group; 1.1 ± 0.2 vs. 0.5 ± 0.2; p = 0.09). 
• the caffeine group had significantly lower afternoon RPMS for the legs (main effect of caffeine; 1.3 ± 0.2 vs. 0.5 ± 0.3; p = 0.05), and
• there was no measurable difference in terms of perceived lower extremity functionality

Overall, these results provide additional evidence that caffeine does not have to be consumed exclusively pre-workout to have a measurable benefit in athletes and gymrats. What remains to be seen, though, is whether the perceived reduction in muscle soreness goes hand in hand with objectively measurable increases in exercise performance and/or markers of recovery in the days after an intense sporting event like the 2015 Hotter’N Hell Hundred.

Here it is: Scientific evidence caffeine is the among the healthiest addictions known to man: "The Coffee³ Advantage Equation: 3 x 250mL Coffee / Day + 2x4 Weeks ➫ -1kg Body Fat, Satiety ⇈ (Ghrelin ↘ + 5HT ↗) + Cancer Protective 16% Reduction in DNA Breaks = Health³" |  more

Preliminary, but intriguing: With this being only the second study that provides decently convincing evidence that your caffeine addiction could significantly promote crucial aspects of your exercise recovery (reduced muscle soreness in this and increased glycogen resynthesis in the previously cited study by Pedersen et al.), it would be premature for trainers to prescribe a daily dose of two large bowls of coffee to all their athletes (from a mere health perspective this may yet make sense as you've learned in dozens of articles about coffee's health effects here at the SuppVersity). A guilty conscience, on the other hand, should be a thing of the past for all of you who cannot stay away from their beloved coffee after workouts... just make sure that you don't reach a daily caffeine intake that stresses at which the stimulating effects backfire (for many that's > 800mg) | Comment on Facebook!

References:

• Caldwell, Aaron R., et al. "Effect of Caffeine on Perceived Soreness and Functionality following an Endurance Cycling Event." The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research (2017).
• Pedersen, David J., et al. "High rates of muscle glycogen resynthesis after exhaustive exercise when carbohydrate is coingested with caffeine." Journal of Applied Physiology 105.1 (2008): 7-13.

Raw Milk + Honey Accelerates DOMS Recovery of Trained Athletes Compared to Chocolate Milk, But There's a Catch...

While many US officials still believe that raw milk was a threat to public health. The internet is full of (often hilarious) health claims related to raw milk and the ill effects of pasturization. Could the study at hand provide evidence this is not complete bogus?

Maybe you remember that I have been talking with my friend Carl Lanore about raw milk, pasteurization and (even worse) homogenization several times when I still had the time to do the weekly SuppVersity Science Round-Ups on SuperHumanRadio. Until now, the evidence for the often proclaimed benefits of raw milk are skinny. With the publication of a recent study by Andrew Hatchett and colleagues from the Franklin Pierce University this evidence the number of relevant studies has therefore increased significantly.

What makes the study so relevant? Well, it was a randomized human trial in twenty healthy male collegiate sprint football (mean age 20y; height ~175cm, weight ~80kg; 1RM back squat of ~125kg; 80% RM back squat of ~100kg), not any old rodent study.

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There's one thing that reduces the relevance of the data, though. Instead of objective markers of recovery, such as post-recovery strength tests or at least CK and LDH levels, the scientists gave their subjects a questionnaires, prior to completing a lower extremity DOMS protocol, to determine the level of discomfort and functional limitations at baseline.

Upon a second visit to the lab, the subjects were then randomly assigned to consume 240 mL of raw milk (RMS sweetened with honey to make up for the sugar in the chocolate milk) or a chocolate milk "placebo" (CMS) before completing the same set of exercise and filling the same set of questionnaires immediately post, 24-, 48- and 72-h post DOMS protocol. Additionally, the scientists contacted the subjects 10 days after the test to learn if any negative effects were experienced as a result of ingesting either solution.

Figure 1: Changes in reported visual acuity scale (VAS) score regarding lower extremity muscle soreness pre-exercise induced muscle soreness (EIMS) protocol, directly post EIMS, 24 h, 48 h and 72 h post-EIMS for both the Raw Milk Solution (RMS) group and the Chocolate Milk Solution (CMS | Hatchett. 2016).

As you can see in Figure 1, both groups reported an increase in lower extremity discomfort at each data collection interval post-DOMS protocol (post, 24-, 48- and 72-h). In that, the participants who received the raw milk saw an initially higher increase in DOMS which then dropped to a slightly lower levels than in the chocolate milk group after 72h.

Milk and diabetes? Scientists get to the bottom of anti-diabetic effects of milk: It's the mix that makes all the difference: While individual components may not be present in sufficient concentration to produce a physiological effect such an effect may be obtained by several components acting in concert.  PPAR-α, -β and -γ agonists as well milk fat bioactive compounds that induce uncoupling protein-1 expression in brown adipose tissue may explain the suppression of diet-induced obesity and improvement in insulin sensitivity, review concludes (Parodi. 2016).

The scientists' statistical analysis of the difference, revealed that the relevance of the differences at baseline and 24h post is unclear, while the advantage of the raw milk at 48h and 72h was likely relevant. The 10-day follow-up did, as you probably already expected, not reveal any negative side effects. Overall, the results were thus in line with previous studies suggesting that the consumption of a milk-based solution with an elevated carbohydrate level reduces the DOMS (Cockburn. 2012).

As the scientists point out, though, it "has not been reported prior to this study is the difference between a raw milk solution and a commercially available milk solution with elevated carbohydrate levels" (Hatchett. 2016). So, does raw milk actually work the magic that its advocates say is lost due to the pasteurization process which is supposed to denature the macronutrients and many of the micronutrients present in the milk? Maybe...

Yogurts, Cheeses & Beyond - A Comprehensive Review of the Potential Health Benefits of Fermented Dairy Products | more!

Maybe? Yes, maybe! Firstly, the difference between the groups is small and only "likely" relevant. Secondly, the measures are subjective and (at least for a physicist like myself) not really reliable. And thirdly and most importantly, the honey the scientists added to the milk could have made all the difference. After all, honey contains a number of antioxidants from a variety of sources, including polyphenolics; and polyphenols, albeit from other sources, have previously been shown to reduce lipid peroxidation by inhibiting peroxyl radical activation and stabilize cell membranes ... and yes, these are putative mechanisms for reducing DOMS by the means of polyphenol supplements (Radak. 2012) | Comment on Facebook!.

References:

• Cockburn, Emma, et al. "Effect of volume of milk consumed on the attenuation of exercise-induced muscle damage." European journal of applied physiology 112.9 (2012): 3187-3194.
• Hatchett, Andrew, et al. "A Comparison between Chocolate Milk and a Raw Milk Honey Solution’s Influence on Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness." Sports 4.1 (2016): 18.
• Parodi PW. "Cooperative action of bioactive components in milk fat with PPARs may explain its anti-diabetogenic properties." Med Hypotheses 89 (2016):1-7.
• Radak, Zsolt, et al. "Nitric oxide: Is it the cause of muscle soreness?." Nitric Oxide 26.2 (2012): 89-94.

Barbell Squats & Deadlifts for 0.5kg of Female Leg Mass in 4 Weeks, HIIT as HDL Booster, Accuracy of Calorie Counters on Ellipticals, Swedish Massage vs. DOMS & More

Does the kcal-counter on your elliptical lie to you? Does HIIT boost HDL? Find the answers to these and other questions in this installment of the short news.

It's March 2, 2015 and about time to review a bunch of recent exercise research papers. Papers dealing with rapid leg muscle gains in female trainees, the HDL-boosting effects of high intensity training, the "accuracy" of the calorie counters on your elliptical, the ability of massage therapy to ameliorate deep onset muscle soreness and more.

All of the studies were conducted as part of masters thesis and/or PhD thesis and none of them has yet been published as full-text. Practically speaking, this means that I can't give you all the intricate details, because I have to rely on the summary of the results in the corresponding abstracts.

Read more short news at the SuppVersity

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• Leg Lean Mass Adaptations Following Short-Term Barbell Training in Women - Since the adaptations associated with classic, barbell-based resistance training in women are not as well understood as those for men, Mota et al. (2015) examined the effects of a four week resistance training intervention on changes in leg lean mass in untrained, college-aged women.
  
  Thirty-five women (mean ± SD age = 21 ± 3 years; body mass = 61.9 ± 10.4 kg) with no previous lower body strength training experience were randomly assigned to high volume training (n = 11), low volume training (n = 10), and control (n = 14) groups. The training groups performed the barbell back squat and deadlift twice per week for four weeks. The low volume training group performed five repetitions of two sets per exercise; the high volume group performed an additional two sets per exercise.
  

  

  Figure 1: Summary of the main results of the study (Mota. 2015).

  The external loads were increased progressively during each training session. The mean ± SD external loads used in this study increased from 27.9 ± 8.2 to 51.4 ± 14.0 kg for the barbell back squat and from 34.2 ± 7.7 to 60.2 ± 10.1 kg for the deadlift. Body composition analyses were performed during pre- and post-testing with dual X-ray absorptiometry.
  
  The results indicated that there was a statistically significant difference among the adjusted post-test means. Specifically, when the pre-test scores served as the covariate, the mean leg lean mass for the high volume training group was 0.503 kg greater than that for the control group (p = 0.031, 95% CI for adjusted mean difference = 0.038 to 0.968 kg). The pre-test – post test effect sizes for the high volume training and low volume training groups were 0.31 and 0.29, respectively.
• High-Density Lipoprotein Antioxidant Responses to High-Intensity Interval and Steady-State Moderate-Intensity Exercise - High-intensity interval exercise (HIIE | also HIIT) may impart health benefits beyond what is acquired through moderate-intensity steady state exercise (SSE).
  
  From previous studies we know that Paraoxonase 1 (PON1), an antioxidant associated with high density lipoprotein (HDL), may be altered with exercise; however, it is unclear whether HIIE provides a greater stimulus for increasing PON1 antioxidant activity than a comparable or greater amount of SSE. The purpose of the latest study by Papadakis et al. was thus to

  "determine the influence of HIIE on PON1 concentration and activity relative to a comparable amount of moderate-intensity SSE and a dose that is half that of SSE" (Papadakis. 2015).

  To this ends 17 male participants (age 27.8 + 6.4 yr; weight 80.6 + 9.0 kg; BMI 25.1 + 2.4 kg/m2; %fat = 19 + 5; VO2max 52.1 + 7.5 ml/kg/min) underwent HIIE by treadmill running (90% and 40% of VO2reserve in 3:2 min ratio) to expend 500 kcals (H500); HIIE to expend 250 kcals (H250), and; SSE at 70% VO2reserve to expend 500 kcals (M500) in a randomized crossover design.
  
  The intensities of all exercise conditions averaged 70% VO2reserve. Blood measures of total antioxidant capacity (TAC) in copper reducing equivalents, HDL ( g/mL), apolipoprotein A-1 (ApoA1: g/L), PON1 concentration (PON1c: g/mL) and arylesterase activity (PON1a: kU/L) were obtained just before, immediately after, 2 hr and 24 hr after exercise.
  

  

  Figure 2: Overview of the most significant results (Papadakis. 2015).

  Pre-exercise HDL concentration was lower in H250 and increased most in H250 versus other exercise conditions (p < 0.001, ES = 0.83).  Other antioxidant responses were similar across exercise conditions. ApoA1 (+ 8.0%) and PON1a (+ 9.3%) increased immediately after exercise and remained elevated 24 hr after exercise (p < 0.0001 for each; ApoA1 ES = 0.85, PON1a ES = 0.57). PON1c was increased 2.4% above baseline at 2 hr post-exercise (p = 0.0296, ES = 0.18) and TAC was elevated 8.6% above baseline at 24 hr post-exercise (p = 0.0227, ES = 0.48).
  
  Thus, the study clearly proves that HDL and HDL antioxidant properties are transiently potentiated by HIIE - and that with as little as 250 kcals of energy expenditure. Moreover, HDL antioxidant activity and total antioxidant capacity are elevated with HIIE and SSE of moderate intensity in a similar manner and are observed for up to 24 hr after exercise.

• 

  Swedish massage uses five styles of strokes. Swedish massage has shown to be helpful in reducing pain, joint stiffness, and improving function in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee over a period of eight weeks. The term "Swedish" massage is actually only recognized in English and Dutch speaking countries, and in Hungary. Elsewhere (including Sweden) the style is referred to as "classic massage".

  Swedish massage therapy lowers post-exercise DOMS - The art of massage therapy has been around for centuries and investigation of its effects on the human body continues. Accordingly, Holuba and smith determine if Swedish massage therapy reduces DOMS at 24- and 48-hours after a single bout of resistance exercise to fatigue.
  
  Twenty one volunteers completed a bout of body squats to exhaustion holding a 3.63 kg (8 lb.) weight for men and a 2.27 kg (5 lb.) for women, and after a one-minute rest did the same again but without the weight. This was immediately followed by a 20-minute Swedish massage on either the right or left leg (randomized), specifically the hamstrings, quadriceps, and gluteal muscles.
  
  After the massage was performed participants were then asked to report the soreness of treated leg after 24- and 48-hrs using a standard 0-10 pain scale. The results showed:
  • A 2 (leg) X 2 (time) factorial ANOVA with repeated measures on the second factor indicated perceived soreness in the treated leg was significantly reduced compared to the untreated leg at 24 hrs (p = .003) and 48 hrs (p = .017).
  • While soreness was significantly higher after 48 hrs compared to 24 hrs in the untreated leg (p = .012), soreness in the treated leg was also significantly higher between the same time points (p = .007), but to a lower magnitude.
  It is thus obvious that a single massage treatment immediately after exhaustive resistance exercise reduces the initial effect of DOMS, the difference in perceived pain from 24- to 48-hrs, however, is not changed.
• Do Elliptical Trainers Accurately Estimate Energy Expenditure? According to a recent study by Vallecillos et al. (2015), the answer to this question depends on the brand you are using. The researchers tested the accuracy of Life Fitness (95X) and Precor (EFX 556i) elliptical exercise trainers which are very popular in fitness centers.
  
  Three men and three women performed exercise sessions on each elliptical trainer on 3 separate occasions (2 bouts per day). The order of the machines used for each exercise session was randomized. Each exercise bout lasted 12 minutes (2-min warmup at a resistance of 3, rpm of 70; 10-min measure period at a resistance of 10, rpm of 70). During the test VO2 was measured using a Medical Graphics Ultima metabolic cart; heart rate was measured using a Polar heart rate monitor and energy expenditure calculated by the metabolic cart. HR, VO2, and energy expenditure data were recorded each minute of the 10 minute exercise session.
  

  

  Figure 3: Comparison of the kcal calculations of the elliptical and the calculations the scientists made based on combined heart rate & metabolic data (Vallecillos. 2015)

  The results (see Figure 3) indicate that the "Life Fitness EFX 556i slightly underestimates, while the Precor model EFX 556i overestimates exercise energy expenditure" (Vallecillos. 2015). Only with the former model you can thus rely on the numbers in the display... well, at least to a certain extent.

Even if you can rely on the kcal numbers of your elliptical, don't work out to burn calorie | here's why!

You want more? Well, there is going to be more, but this will have to wait until there are interesting studies to cover. I mean, you don't want me to start to make the data up, do you?

That being said, there were to additional master thesis / dissertations on tascm.org. The effects of shoe design on lower limb running kinematics (Bentley. 2015) and the learned effect of repeated wingate anaerobic tests (Thompson. 2015) simply didn't make the cut, though.

While the studies itself were interesting, the results were non-significant and/or further research was required to turn them into practical recommendations. If you want to read them anyway, google and the references at the bottom are your best friends | Comment on Facebook!

References:

• Bentley, Carol A., et al. "The Effects of Shoe Design on Lower Limb Running Kinematics." International Journal of Exercise Science: Conference Proceedings. Vol. 2. No. 7. 2015.
• Mota, Jacob A., et al. "Leg Lean Mass Adaptations Following Short-Term Barbell Training in Women." International Journal of Exercise Science: Conference Proceedings. Vol. 2. No. 7. 2015.
• Papadakis, Zacharias, et al. "High-Density Lipoprotein Antioxidant Responses to High-Intensity Interval and Steady-State Moderate-Intensity Exercise." International Journal of Exercise Science: Conference Proceedings. Vol. 2. No. 7. 2015.
• Smtih, John D. "DOMS After Acute Strenuous Exercise and Massage." International Journal of Exercise Science: Conference Proceedings. Vol. 2. No. 7. 2015.
• Thompson, Erin F., et al. "Establishing the Learned Effect of Repeated Wingate Anaerobic Tests." International Journal of Exercise Science: Conference Proceedings. Vol. 2. No. 7. 2015.
• Vallecillos, Kevin, et al. "Do Elliptical Trainers Accurately Estimate Energy Expenditure?." International Journal of Exercise Science: Conference Proceedings. Vol. 2. No. 7. 2015.

Taurine + BCAAs - Scientists Identify Unkown Synergy of Branch-Chained and Sulfur-Amino Acids: Redutions in DOMS, Faster Recovery and Reduced DNA Damage

If this is true and sore is the new sexy, the combination of taurine + BCAA's may turn you into an ugly worm.

You know them and I would bet that >75% of you have already taken them: Branch-Chained Amino Acids (BCAAs) and the sulfur-amino acid taurine. Maybe you have taken the former for their beneficial effects on skeletal muscle protein synthesis and the latter for its anti-oxidant effects and the cascade of beneficial downstream effects I have written about quite extensively, here at the SuppVersity.

If I am asking you whether you have taken both in conjunction as a means to reduce post-workout delayed-onset muscle soreness and the expression of purported markers of muscle damage, on the other hand, I'd expect only few people to raise their hands... right?

Sometimes it's worth taking another look

The currently available literature on the beneficial effects of BCAAs on DOMS is pretty inconclusive. If you restrict your review of the literature to studies using resistance training as a trigger for muscular damage (Jackman et al. (2010), Howatson et al. 2012; etc.), it does yet appear warranted to say that the chronic ingestion of a high dose of BCAAs can ameliorate the peak in delayed muscle soreness after 24-48h.

You can learn more about taurine & BCAAs at the SuppVersity

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In the previously referenced 2012 study by Howatson et al. we are talking about a ~50% reduction after 24h and a 25% reduction after 48h. Both statistically and physiologically relevant, but if the decrease in maximal voluntary contraction had not been blunted, as well, it'd been another instance of much ado about nothing. Similar beneficial effects have been observed with taurine, as well:

• 

  Taurine & caffeine make another super-stack; but only at the right ratios | learn more

  Zhang et al. report that taurine can "attenuate exercise-induced DNA damage and enhance the capacity of exercise due to its cellular protective properties" in the musculature of healthy young men (Zhang. 2004)
• Silva et al. observed in a rodent model of skeletal muscle damage in response to eccentric exercise that taurine decreases the oxidative stress, in association with decreased superoxide radical production (Silva. 2011)
• learn more in previous SuppVersity articles about taurine

Against that background it was to be expected that the previously sedentary subjects of a very recent study from the University of Tsukuba in Japan was attenuated, irrespective of whether they were taking 3x3.5g of BCAAs or 3x2.0g of Taurine for 2 weeks before they performed a standardized eccentric exercise test:

"For the ECC protocol, subjects were seated on a bench with their arm positioned in front of their body and resting on a padded support, such that their shoulder was secured at a flexion angle of 0.79 rad (45°) and their forearm was maintained in the supinated position throughout the exercise. Subjects were repeatedly weight-loaded upon
dumbbell lowering to achieve a 90% MVC (34.3 ± 1.3 Nm). Subjects performed six sets of five repetitions of elbow extension from the flexed position at 90° to the fully extended position slowly over 5 s, while maintaining a constant speed of movement by following a verbal metronome provided by the investigator." (Ra. 2013)

What we could not necessarily be sure of is whether these effects would also add up in those 12 untrained male subjects (22.5 ± 3.8 years) who were assigned to the taurine + BCAA group.

Figure 1: Post workout muscle soreness, left; post workout arm circumference in response to cell swelling, right (area under the curve for the 96h after the eccentric exercise test; based on Ra. 2013)

Now that you've taken a glimpse at the data in Figure 1, it's probably pointless to ask you to make an educated guess. It's too obvious that the individual DOMS reducing effects of taurine and BCAAs add up. What's yet even more obvious is that only the combination of both leads to a rapid reduction in muscle swelling, the effect size of which goes far beyond what additive effects could achieve - this indirect marker of muscle damage would thus suggest that there is a special synergy between taurine and BCAAs, a synergy due to which a reduction of 35mm/96h + 45mm/96h (the individual changes for BCAAs and taurine) does not translate into a -80mm/96h, but into a 465mm/96h reduction of this commonly used indirect measure of skeletal muscle damage.

"Synergy" is the name of the game

If you take a parting look at the data in Figure 2, you should actually be able to understand why the combination of branch-chained amino acids and the sulfur amino acid taurine works so well: One excels where the other has only minor effects.

Figure 2: CK, left, and 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), right (area under the curve for the 96h after the eccentric exercise test; based on Ra. 2013)

While the branch-chained amino acids have a more pronounced effect on the expression of CK and LDH (not shown in Figure 2), they do very little to protect the muscle from oxidative damage (as indicated by the quasi non-existent effect on the levels of 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), a marker of DNA damage.

Suggested read: "Rats 'On' Taurine Can't Ever Get Enough... Exercise of Course! What Were You Thinking About? Mice Cover 50% More Distance W/ HED of 3-4G of Taurine Post Workout " | more

Bottom line: Actually there is very little I have to add to the researchers conclusion that "his study confirmed that a combination of 3.2 g BCAA and 2.0 g taurine, three times a day, two weeks prior to
and three days after exercise attenuates some subjective and objective markers of DOMS and muscle damage induced by high-intensity ECC, which could not have been influenced by BCAA or taurine supplementation alone." (Ra. 2013)

I am not 100% sure if they are also correct in their assessment that this supplement is particularly useful for beginners who would be more motivate to continue an exercise program, if it doesn't hurt so much, though. That it could help competitive athletes to train at higher intensities on the other hand, is something I would fully subscribe - whether that's necessarily going to be more productive, on the other hand, is question I would not want to answer without a follow up study ;-)

References:

• Jackman, S. R., Witard, O. C., Jeukendrup, A. E., & Tipton, K. D. (2010). Branched-chain amino acid ingestion can ameliorate soreness from eccentric exercise. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 42(5), 962-970.
• Ra, S. G., Miyazaki, T., Ishikura, K., Nagayama, H., Komine, S., Nakata, Y., ... & Ohmori, H. (2013). Combined effect of branched-chain amino acids and taurine supplementation on delayed onset muscle soreness and muscle damage in high-intensity eccentric exercise. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 10(1), 51.
• Silva, L. A., Silveira, P. C., Ronsani, M. M., Souza, P. S., Scheffer, D., Vieira, L. C., ... & Pinho, R. A. (2011). Taurine supplementation decreases oxidative stress in skeletal muscle after eccentric exercise. Cell biochemistry and function, 29(1), 43-49.
• Zhang, M., Izumi, I., Kagamimori, S., Sokejima, S., Yamagami, T., Liu, Z., & Qi, B. (2004). Role of taurine supplementation to prevent exercise-induced oxidative stress in healthy young men. Amino acids, 26(2), 203-207.