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.

Read about rather exercise-related studies at the SuppVersity

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Study Indicates Cut the Volume Make the Gains!

• 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.

The Latest on Combined Training: 15% Increase in Muscle Size in 24 Weeks in Healthy Moderately Active Young Men Regardless of "Cardio First" or "Weights First" Training

If you think even non-significant differences in "lean gains" are significant, "weights first" is for you.

If you are about to embark on a combined strength + endurance training regimen in 2015, it does not matter if you do "cardio first" or "strength first"... well, almost. If you stick to the traditional exercise order, you may gain a non-significant 2% extra on your vastus lateralis (some people would wrongly say "quads") size.

You've read evidence for both, the superiority of "cardio first" and "strength first" on the SuppVersity before and it may in fact be a matter of personal preference, whether you do your cardio or strength training first.

You can learn more about the optimal exercise order at the SuppVersity

Before, After or In-Between?

Exercise Order & Leptin

Cardio First for Anabolism?

Large Muscle Groups First?

How to Combine Cardio & Strength?

Exercise Order Reloaded

The latest study from the University of Jyväskylä and the Edith Cowan University actually appears to confirm just that. In their 24-week study Schumann et al. had 34 physically active and healthy young men performed a combined strength and endurance exercise program with 16 subjects performing the endurance and 18 subjects performing the resistance training exercise first, 2-3 times a week for 24 weeks. Or, more precisely, ...

"[d]uring the first 12 wk, the subjects performed according to their corresponding training group two times 1E+1S or two times 1S+1E per week. The frequency was then increased during the second 12 wk so that two combined training sessions were performed in every first and fourth week and three combined training sessions in every second and third week (i.e., two times 1E+1S or two times 1S+1E or three times 1E+1S or three times 1S+1E, respectively)" (Schumann. 2014)

To reflect tapering before testing, both week 12 and week 24 were conducted by maintaining the training frequency but reducing training volume and intensity by reducing the number of sets, lowering the loads during the strength loading, and reducing both the total duration and time spent at high intensity (i.e., above the anaerobic threshold) during endurance cycling.

Dietary control: To control nutritional intake, food diaries were collected for 3 days including one weekend day at weeks 0, 12, and 24. Subjects received both verbal and written nutritional recommendations and were instructed on how to report nutritional intake in the diaries. The food diaries were analyzed by a nutrient analysis software (Nutri-Flow; Flow-team Oy, Oulu, Finland). Subjects were asked to maintain constant dietary intake throughout the study period. In preparation for all testing, subjects were instructed to consume a light meal 2–3 h before the start of each test and were asked to maintain similar nutritional intake before the measurements at weeks 0, 12, and 24. During each training session, a standardized low dose of glucose was provided at the midpoint of each combined exercise session (after E or S, respectively) whereas water was allowed whenever the subjects felt thirsty.

The intensity of the endurance training was controlled by HR (Polar S410; Polar Electro Oy, Kempele, Finland) associated with subject’s individual aerobic and anaerobic threshold determined during measurements at weeks 0 and 12, respectively. Subjects were instructed to maintain a constant pedaling frequency of approximately 70 rpm during each training session while the magnetic resistance of the ergometer was adjusted to achieve the required exercise intensity.

Concomitant Training: Cardio Before or After Weights? Cardio First Triggers 916% Increase in Growth Hormone. Plus: 7x Higher Testosterone & 3x Higher IGFBP-3 Peaks | read more.

"During weeks 1–7, steady-state cycling of low-to-moderate intensity (below and above the aerobic threshold) was performed, and during the remaining weeks, additional high intensity interval sessions (below and above the anaerobic threshold) were incorporated into the training program. The duration of endurance cycling progressively increased throughout the 12 wk of training from 30 to 50 min. During the second 12-wk period, the major endurance program structure was maintained whereas both training volume and intensity were further increased. The aerobic threshold represented intensities (% HRmax) of 65% T 5% and 67% T 6% in E+S and 68% T 8% and 67% T 6% in S+E at weeks 0 and 12, respectively. The anaerobic threshold represented intensities of 85% T 5% and 86% T 5% in E+S and 82% T 8% and 86% T 5% in S + E at weeks 0 and 12, respectively. The loads used during the strength training were determined by the number of repetitions and execution velocity and progressively increased throughout the two 12-wk periods" (Schumann. 2014)

Exercises for the lower body were bilateral dynamic leg press and bilateral (weeks 1–7 and 13–18) and unilateral (weeks 8–12 and 19–24) dynamic knee extension and flexion. Additional exercises for the upper body included dynamic seated vertical press, lat pulldown, and exercises commonly used to improve trunk stability (crunches, torso rotation, and lower back extension).

• During the first 2 wk, training was performed as a circuit using 2–4 sets of 15–20 repetitions at an intensity of 40%–60% of 1RM. 
• Thereafter, protocols aiming for muscle hypertrophy (2–5 sets of 8–10 repetitions at 80%–85% of 1RM, 1.5- to 2-min interset rest) and maximal strength (2–5 sets of 3–5 repetitions at 85%–95% of 1RM, 3- to 4-min interset rest) and, during the last 2 wk, protocols targeting explosive strength (two sets of 8–10 repetitions at 40% of 1RM with maximal velocity, 3- to 4-min interset rest) were performed. 
• During the second 12-wk period, the major strength program structure was maintained whereas both training volume and frequency were slightly increased to maximize fitness and health outcomes and to avoid a training plateau. 

The overall duration of the strength protocol within each combined training session was 30–50 min, resulting in a total duration of approximately 60–100 min for each combined training session (i.e., E+S and S+E, respectively)

Figure 1: Changes in leg press strength (left), time to exhaustion and aerobic power (right | Schumann. 2014).

Similar to the muscle size, the strength (Figure 1 | left) endurance performance (Figure 1 | right) increased non-significantly more in the "weights first" (S+E) group. In that, it is interesting to observe that the discrepancy between the "endurance first" (E+S) and "weigths first" (S+E) group increase over time. A fact that may suggest that after another four weeks the already measurable difference would have become significant.

Figure 2: Changes in vastus lateralis muscle cross sectional area (CSA, left) and lean mass (right | Schumann. 2014).

This is yet as speculative as the corresponding assumption that the inter-group difference in increase in lean muscle mass and vastus lateralis cross sectional area (CSA) would have achieved statistical significance if the study duration had been longer. On the other hand, that would probably imply that the "strength first group" would have ended up with significantly larger increases in upper body muscle mass.

You know what? Who cares! If there is a bottom line to this article it is the same, I used for previous articles discussing the question whether you "should" do your cardio training before or after your weight training: Do whatever works for you!

Beware of the "training frency" - Chronic Resistance Training Reduces the Anabolic Signaling in Response to Exercise - 12 Days of Detraining Restore It | read more.

And in the unfortunate case that neither "weights first" nor "cardio first" works for you, you can still do cardio and weights on separate occasions. Either on a single day with AM and PM sessions, or on separate days, which is what I would suggest to all of you who are aiming for maximal effects on their physique: Three resistance training workouts and two cardio sessions of which at least one should be a high intensity interval workout on five days of the week. If you stick to a whole-food based higher protein diet (30g of high quality = high EAA protein with every meal), that's going make a difference in the mirror... promise! Comment on Facebook!

References:

• Schumann, Moritz, et al. "Fitness and lean mass increases during combined training independent of loading order." Medicine and science in sports and exercise (2014).

Upper & Lower Body HIIT for Fitness, Performance, Fat Loss & Lean Gains? Adding Arm-Cranking to Your High Intensity Interval Routine May be Less Beneficial Than You Think

No, this is not the arm-cranking ergometer that was used in the study at hand, but for those of you who like to do their HIIT exercise on the road this would be an alternative.

What happens if you have 14 healthy, normal-weight, but not exactly "uberfit" men 20-50 year-old men work out twice a week for only 16- to 24-minutes for 16 weeks (total 32 sessions)? Not much, right? Well, if you make them do regular steady state cardio training on a cycling ergometer that would certainly be right. If you have them work out on a leg-cycling (LC) and an arm-cranking (AC) ergometer, though, things obviously look different... that's at least what a recent study from the Gaduate School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tokyo, the Sports Medicine Research Center, the Institute for Integrated Sports Medicine, the Department of Internal Medicine and the Department of Radiology at the Keio University would suggest (Osawa. 2014).

You can learn more about HIIT at the SuppVersity

Add 2lsb of Lean Mass in 3 Weeks

Tabata = 14.2kcal /min ≠ Fat Loss

30s Intervals + 2:1 Work/Rec.

Making HIIT a Hit Part I/II

Making HIIT a Hit Part II/II

HIIT Ain't For Everyone

As Osawa et al. point out, there is a vast number of studies that have investigated the effects of short term HIIT and/or combined exercise on skeletal muscles. Studies that investigate the effects of an HIIT program using a leg cycling (LC) and an arm-cranking (AC) ergometer, on the other hand, are non-existent.

Thus, the exercise protocol the Japanese researchers used conducted is unique, as it uses a HIIT program that consisted of

• 16- to 24-minute exercise sessions that were separated by at least 2 days
• each bout of HIIT consisted of 8-12 sets during the fist 4 weeks - after 4 weeks the number of the repetitions was adjusted depending on the participants’ physical condition and was a minimum of eight sets, while the workload was progressively increased

The actual HIIT workout became after a 10-minute warm-up involving body weight exercises (eg, knee-ups and hand–knee exercises). The HIIT training itself was then performed on

• either an electronically braked LC ergometer (Power Max VIII; Konami Sports & Life Co, Ltd, Tokyo, Japan) or
• a similar, electronically braked AC ergometer (Exite Top; Technogym, Tokyo, Japan)

The participants in the LC-HIIT (only) group cycled for 60 seconds at a workload of .90% VO2 peak at a fixed pedaling rate of 60 rpm. After each of 60-seconds bouts, the participants pedaled at a rate equivalent to 30 W for 60 seconds.

Figure 1: Overview of the two HIIT groups. In the LC group the participants trained exclusively on a cycling ergometer. In the LC-AC group the subjects worked out on a cycling and arm-cranking ergometer (Osawa. 2014)

This procedure was repeated for eight to 12 sets in the LC group and four to six sets by the subjects who had been randomized to the LC–AC group, in which they performed half of their HIIT bouts on the arm-cranking (AC) ergometer at 90% of their individual, predetermined peak workload and rotated the crank at 40 W during the active recovery phases.

So we are comparing "regular" HIIT (LC) to combined HIIT (LC-AC)

We do thus have a "regular" HIIT study on the cycling ergometer (you've read about several of these on the SuppVersity, already) and an "innovative" upper + lower body HIIT regimen consisting of leg cycling and arm-cranking. Now, you tell me: Which one do you think hat greater beneficial effects on the fitness and exercise performance of the subjects?

Figure 2: Rel. pre- vs. post-changes physical fitness & performance (Osawa. 2014)

You're right! The combined leg-cycling and arm-cranking protocol was superior to the classic "leg cycling only" program. If you take a closer look at the data in Figure 2 it is yet also obvious that the actual improvements were exercise specific with the improvements in peak power (W) being significantly more pronounced in the subjects who actually did / focused on the respective exercise, i.e. leg cycling or arm-cranking.

Beware of the different exercise intensities in the arm-cranking tests: If we are brutally honest, though, the comparison of the heart rate during arm-cranking is not really fair. I mean, if you work out at an intensity of 120W (LC-AC group), this will necessarily bring your heart rate up higher than arm-cranking at "only" 94W (AC group in the arm-cranking post-test). Since similar differences were not observed on the cycle ergometer, we can still maintain that the combined exercise protocol had more favorable effects on the heart rate response of the study participants.

Against that background and in view of the fact that full-body workouts will usually produce greater changes in body composition than leg-only workouts, you will probably expect a significant advantage for the LC-AC group, when it comes to changes in lean body mass.

Figure 3: Changes in total and lean body mass over the course of the 16-week study (Osawa. 2014)

Unfortunately, this was the case that's not the case for any of the DXA-determined parameters in Figure 3 - not even for the upper body lean body mass, where the high standard deviations in both groups make the existing differences non-significant. In view of the fact that the overall increase in lean body mass was virtually identical in both groups, while the total body mass (including fat mass) decrease in the LC and increased in the LC-AC group, we will even have to assume that the total body fat mass in the LC-AC group, which was 25.5% and thus 3.3% higher than it was in the LC group, changed less favorable that the total body fat mass in the LC group... and don't ask me why the scientists didn't publish the exact values despite doing a DXA scan.

Power Up Your Body Composition! 6 Week Power-Based Complex Training Cuts up to 8% Body Fat Without Restrictive Dieting | more!

Bottom line: If there is a practically relevant bottom line to this study it will be - allegedly to my own surprise - that you'd better refrain from arm-cranking as an adjunct to your HIIT training. Why? Well, by combining classic resistance training and HIIT training on the cycle erogmeter you are probably going to make greater upper body power gains, certainly greater lower body power gains and almost certainly faster progress towards the physique of your dream of which I assume that it is both muscular and lean and does not include skinny legs as they may be the outcome of the LC-AC training in the study at hand (see Figure 3 → lower body lean mass decreased by 0.8%). Things may be different for trained athletes, but since there is a limit to the total volume of exercise even a trained athlete can sustain, I still wouldn't recommend hitting your upper body even more. You don't you agree? Comment on Facebook!

References:

• Osawa, Yusuke, et al. "Effects of 16-week high-intensity interval training using upper and lower body ergometers on aerobic fitness and morphological changes in healthy men: a preliminary study." Open access journal of sports medicine 5 (2014): 257.

Baking Soda & Beta Alanine Synergistically Promote Upper Body Power Output by 14%. Body Part, Dosage or Subject Specificity? What's Behind the Newly Found Synergism?

Finally, beta alanine passes the baton to sodium bicarbonate ;-)

The hypothesis that the combination of an "internal" (as in inside of the cell) and an external H+ buffer would be a perfect match is unquestionably straight forward. What was yet about as straight forward were the results of a study by Ducker et al. you've read about, here at the SuppVersity on March 28, 2013: While the combination looks perfect on paper, the real-world results were more than just disappointing. The additional beta alanine did not only fail to promote the ergogenic effects of baking soda (NaHCO3), it did in fact thwart them (learn more).

New study, new participants, new protocol, new results

Now, I am pretty sure Gabriel Tobias and his colleagues from the University of Sao Paulo (Brazil) and the Nottingham Trent University in the UK, had not heard about the results Ducker et al. reported a couple of weeks ago, when they set out to test the effects of beta alanine (BA;  CarnoSyn(TM) 6.4 g/day for 28 days), sodium bicarbonate (SB aka baking soda, aka NaHCO3; 500 mg kg/day for 7 days) and the combination of both supplements on high-intensity performance, using an intermittent upper-body exercise as the performance assessment model in well-trained athletes.

The study at hand is yet by no means a duplicate of the Ducker study, and I guess I don't have to point out, that the subject characteristics 

Figure 1: Experimental design of the randomized placebo controlled study. 

• 40 non-vegetarian, non-smoking, well-trained, experienced judo (n=19) and jiu-jitsu (n=21) male competitors (age 26, body weight 77-80kg; training volume 340-410min per week) vs. team-sport athletes in the Ducker study

and, at least to a certain degree, the exercise protocol

• 4 bouts of a 30-s upper-body Wingate Test vs.lower body repeated sprint tests in the Ducker study

make it pretty attractive for the average muscle head whose sets usually don't last much longer than those 30s and who does (unfortunately) often neglect / 'undertrain' his legs in favor of his bis, chest and the rest of his upper body.

"And it does work!"

As you can see in the graphical outline of the experimental design in figure 1 the participants were randomly assigned to the individual study arms. While this eliminates cross-over effects of BA / SB residues, the sample size (N=10 per group) is pretty low and intra-personal comparisons are not possible.

Increase in total work (kj/100) compared to pre-supplementation levels, rate of perceived exertion and magnitude-based inferences for total work done in three of the four experimental groups (Tobias. 2013)

The effect size was yet still large enough to say with 100% certainty that the combination of BA + SB yields ergogenic benefits in terms of statistically, as well as practically relevant increases in total work-load during the upper body Wingate Test (BA and SB alone increased the total work done by +7 and 8 %, respectivel, together they achived an increase of +14%). The decrement in rate of perceived exertion was almost identical in all three groups treated with SB and/or BA (-11%), but reached statistical significance only in the BA + SB group.

Now the question remains. What makes the difference?

And what I mean by difference, here, is the difference between the Tobias and the Ducker study, of which Tobias, Benatti, Painelli and the others obviously weren't aware, when they wrote:

Figure 2: The effects of beta alanine (top) and baking soda (middle) "preloading" on mean power during exercise bout 1-4 add up (Tobias. 2013)

"To date, only two studies have examined the additive ergogenic effects of BA and SB. While neither the Sale et al. (2011) nor Bellinger et al. (2012) studies were able to detect a clear additive effect of the combined supplemen-tation (although Sale et al. 2010, 2011 did report 70 % probability of a meaningful effect), our data show that co-supplementation of BA and SB were more effective at increasing the total work done over the four bouts of exercise than these supplements taken individually. The main methodological difference between the present study
and those by Sale et al. (2011) and Bellinger et al. (2012) relate to the exercise protocol used to assess performance (i.e. upper-body high-intensity intermittent exercise in the current study vs. continuous single-bout high-intensity leg-exercises in previous studies (Sale et al.2011; Bellinger et al.2012), which may have accounted for the discrepant results. " (Tobias. 2013)  

Referring to studies by Hermansen (1972) and Belfry (2012), Tobias et al. further point out that there is in fact evidence that multiple bouts of supra-maximal exercise results in higher muscle acidosis than continuous supra-maximal exercises. And while this would apply to the Ducker stud, which did likewise use supra-maximal bouts, as well, previous studies by Robertson have clearly shown that

"arm exercises are more sensitive to performance improvements induced by increased buffering capacity (via sodium bicarbonate ingestion) than leg exercises, possibly because the former leads to greater blood H+ concentration" (Tobias. 2013)

Other confounding factors are training status and the familiarity with the type of exercise that's used during the testing procedure. Already super-compensated carnosine stores in highly trained athletes (this was suggested by Bellinger et al. in  2012, but would not be compatible with the results of the study at hand, where 8/9 athletes did respond to beta alanine),  and obviously different supplementation regimen.

---

Sodium bicarbonate can also supercharge creatine (learn more)

Bottom line: The body part specificity, as well the higher average dosage of beta alanine and finally the chronic vs. acute NaHCO3 supplementation of the study at hand could well explain the initially mentioned differences between the Tobias and the Ducker study. Overall, the results Tobias et al. present in their most recent paper speak in favor of the initial hypothesis that the combination of BA + SB would constitute an ideal ergogenic that could help basically every athlete competing in a sport where H+ buildup can limit maximal exercise performance.

The range of athletes (cyclists, sprinters, team sports athletes competing in sports, where intermediate sprints matter, fitness junkies, body builders, etc.) who can benefit from supplementing with both 500mg/kg sodium bicarbonate and 6g time released beta alanine per day is actually high enough to combining them may be well worth a try for most of you - just don't expect instant gratification as with caffeine & co.

References:

• Belfry GR, Raymer GH, Marsh GD, Paterson DH, Thompson RT, Thomas SG. Muscle metabolic status and acid-base balance during 10-s work:5-s recovery intermittent and continuous exercise. J Appl Physiol. 2012; 113:410–417. 
• Bellinger PM, Howe ST, Shing CM, Fell JW The effect of combined b-alanine and NaHCO3 supplementation on cycling performance. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2012; 44:1545–1551 
• Ducker KJ, Dawson B, Wallman KE. Effect of beta-alanine and sodium bicarbonate supplementation on repeated-sprint performance. J Strength Cond Res. 2013 Mar 21.
• Sale C, Saunders B, Harris RC. Effect of beta-alanine supplementation on muscle carnosine concentrations and exer-cise performance. Amino Acids. 2010; 39:321–333.
• Sale C, Saunders B, Hudson S, Wise JA, Harris RC, Sunderland CD. Effect of b-alanine plus sodium bicarbonate on high-intensity cycling capacity. Med Sci Sports Exerc.  2011; 43:1972–1978.
• Tobias G, Benatti FB, de Salles Painelli V, Roschel H, Gualano B, Sale C, Harris RC, Lancha AH Jr, Artioli GG. Additive effects of beta-alanine and sodium bicarbonate on upper-body intermittent performance. Amino Acids. 2013 Apr 18. [Epub ahead of print]

"Just One More Set" (2/2): Three Sets of Three Exercises Three Times Per Week - High Volume Can Work. With Appropriate Rest Also to Build Strength & Power

High , not insane (!) volume training can be productive.

I hope that you have already being waiting for this post, so I'll try to cut myself short and get right to the facts. In yesterday's first part of "Just One More Rep" it turned out that a higher training volume sucks, when it comes to what is often thought would be its prerogative, i.e. using strength training to induce excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) and lean out.

In view of these results you could argue that it would be totally logical that a higher training volume cannot be ideal for muscle gains either. After all those require energy and if the RMR does not go up, this would suggest that there was little to repair and supercompensate. A recent study (Naclerio. 2012) does yet refute this already intrinsically non-stringent considerations.

High volume can work! As long as it's high, and not simply insane.

The study was conducted by researchers from the University of Greenwich, the College of New Jersey, the European University of Madrid and the Appalachian State University and it has one caveat I don't want to hold back to the discussion of the results at the end of this post (although it will reappear and be addressed there): Though we are dealing with college athletes (20 male soccer and 12 female volleyball college players)  none of them had previous strength training experience. This may not be exactly representative of a dumb- & barbell god like you are *rofl*, but is at least better than taking totally untrained participants, where you never know if the the higher volume was too demanding for their musculature or their overall conditioning.

Moreover, the separate analysis of upper and lower body strength gains could shed some more light on whether or not legs do in fact need some more hammering to adapt than the smaller musculature of the upper body (cf. "Three is more than one").

Who and at which intensity for how many sets and reps?

The 32 athletes (age = 23.1± 1.57 yrs, injury free) with at least 3 years of experience as regular team sports practitioner were randomly assigned to one of four groups (all performed 8 reps at 75% of their 1-RM max per set!):

• low volume(LV), 1 set per exercise and 3 sets per muscle group per session;
• moderate volume (MV), 2 sets per exercise and 6 sets per muscle group per session;   
• high volume (HV), 3 sets per exercise and 9 sets per muscle group; 

and of course, the obligatory non-exercise control group (this leaves us with only 8 subjects per group, so don't expect all too meaningful p-values). Before and after the 6 week each subject underwent a progressive resistance test aimed to determine the 1RM and the maximal average power produced from light to heavy weights on two upper body exercises (bench press (BP) and upright row (UR)) and one lower body exercise (parallel squat (SQ)). The individual tests, were structured as follows:

"After a standardized warm up, each subject started the PRT  which consisted of 8 sets of 2 repetitions performed with maximal acceleration, alternating with rest periods between 2 min for the light load, 3 to 4 min for the moderate load and 5 minutes for the higher load. The 1st and 2nd sets were performed with a light weight (~25 to 45% of estimated 1RM), the 3rd and 4th sets with a medium weight (~50% to 65% of estimated 1RM), the 5th and 6th sets with a medium to heavy weight (~ 70% to 80% of estimated 1RM), and the 7th and 8th sets with a maximum or near maximum weight (~85% to 100% of estimated 1RM)." (Naclerio. 2012)

For the subsequent analysis the scientists picked those sets and reps, on which the subjects had lifted with the greatest average power (no sure whether this was the best idea, but alas).

The workouts - chest, shoulders, biceps + legs, back, triceps

It stands to reason that the exercises that were part of the testing procedure, i.e. bench presses (BP) and upright rows (UR), which were performed using Olympic bars and plates, as well as the classic back squat (till thighs were parallel to the floor, SQ), which was performed on a Smith machine, "in order to standardize exercise", were also the core exercises of the  actual workouts, the participants performed during the 6-week training phase.

Day 1 (chest, shoulders, biceps)	Day 2 (legs, back, triceps)
Bench press Incline Bench press Dumbbell Fly Upright Row Lateral Raise Posterior Lateral Raise Barbell Biceps Curl Dumbbell Biceps Curl Machine Biceps Curl	Smith Machine Parallel Squat Leg Press Knee Extension Lat Pull down Seated Row 1 Arm Dumbbell Row Machine Triceps Extension Standing Triceps Pushdown 1 Arm Triceps Extension
Table 1: Workout schedule, for set and rep scheme see text above .

Overall each subject took part in 18 training session, i.e. 3 per week. The training sessions were scheduled on non-consecutive days in a day 1 v.s day 2 fashion, with day 1 being 'chest + shoulder + biceps day ' and day 2 being 'legs + back  + triceps day'. Given the aforementioned volume prescriptions you see that the actual routines were actually more or less representative of what you will see the relatively sane part of the trainees actually do at the gym.

Figure 1: Relative change (in % of baseline) in 1RM and maximal average power during the 6-week intervention period (Naclerio. 2012)

If you take into account that these were the first real lifting sessions for most of the study participants, the same can be said of the strength gains I plotted relative to the respective baseline levels in figure 1. In fact, the multivariate analysis the scientists conducted showed that all training protocols yielded statistically significant increases in strength.

When gains are the goal: Volume (or stimulus?) does count!

In contrast to the EPOC values, of which we have learned yesterday that they do by no means benefit from increases in total workout volume, Naclerio et al. did actually observe a clear trend toward greater improvement in strength and power with the high vs. the low and even the medium volume protocol (at a similar overall volume, though with different exercises in a classic split routine). Thte most evident downsides to the lower volume programs, were

• no significant increases in the 1-RM squat in both the low and medium volume group, and
• no significant increases in the average power during the bench press,

where both, the medium (MV) and high volume (HV) protocols achieved significant before vs. after differences of 10% and 16%, respectively.

If you look at the overall pattern in figure 1 once more, there is still no clearcut picture emerging. While it does in fact appear as if the high volume routine appears to be in front in the majority of 1-to-1 comparisons, this is mainly based on an analysis of the improvements in maximum strength. With respect to the average power measurements, on the other hand, the authors are (partly) right to point out that you could argue in favor of both the low and medium volume protocols as being "better strategies for enhancing lower body or upper body average power performance." (Naclerio. 2012)

So is high volume the way to go - or no?

For the subjects who participated in this study (and maybe some of you), the last mentioned equivalence, if not superiority of the low(er) volume routines (1-2 sets per exercise) the low and medium volume training do in fact appear to be superior to support their regular sports specific training program. After all, mere strength is not so much of an issue in either soccer or volleyball; and given the fact that at least for soccer the lower limb power is what really counts, a low volume strength training approach would, aside from obviously being highly economic, also yield the most pronounced sport specific performance increases.

It stands to reason: If neither brute strength nor tons of muscle are your goal and strength training is just an adjunct to your sports-specific training, high volume sucks!

Whether the surprising superiority of the low volume routine as a 'average strength builder'  for soccer and volleyball players does mean that legs need less, rather than more work than the chest, which appears to like the constant hammering, is however highly questionable. In fact, this is where the bias of previous training comes into play. For both volleyball and soccer players, the latter does obviously include a hell lot of 'leg work' and while you do push-ups in soccer (and I guess volleyball as well), there is no training component that would correspond to the sprinting and HIIT exercises that involve the legs only. Now, of the latter you know that they can in fact have 'anabolic' effects on skeletal muscle. These may not be so immediate as they would be for someone doing a BB-like hypertrophy training, but they accumulate over time; and with three years of more or less 'professional' training in their respective sports, we may savely assume that all participants had their share of muscular hypertrophy in the quads, glutes and hams.

Moroever, skeletal muscle hypertrophy and strength gains require a certain degree of overload. Allegedly, when the training induced or the overall stress becomes too much, your training won't yield the desired results either. For someone whose main goals are skeletal muscle hypertrophy and strength gains, and who does not compete in any other sports that requires separate training,  the data from the study at hand would yet still support Arnold's way of doing "just one more set " - as long, as this is done in conjunction with adequate rest not just in-between sets, but in-between workouts, as well!

I can however guarantee you that doing 27 sets today and another 27 tomorrow, just to follow that up by some HIIT on day 3, in order to have a "day off" without a guilty conscience and to be "recovered" to do chest shoulders and biceps, your day 1 on day 4 again (thus starting another "cycle"), will yield neither muscle, nor strength gains. It will simply burn you out and pave your way right into the Athletes' Triad.

References:

• Naclerio F, Faigenbaum AD, Larumbe-Zabala E, Perez-Bibao T, Kang J, Ratamess NA, Triplett NT. Effects of different resistance training volumes on strength and power in team sport athletes: a pilot study. J Strength Cond Res. 2012 Oct 5.

Three is More Than One: Higher Volume Increases Strength Gains in Legs, and Satellite Cell Recruitment and Fiber Size in Legs & Traps. Plus: Data on Myostatin, IGF1, MGF & Co.

Image 1: The green dots that are crowding left and right from the blue myonucleus are the satellite cells (Hanssen. 2012)

In case you are not really sure what a "satellite cell" is and why you should care abouts it's "recruitment", you have probably missed the Intermittent Thoughts on Building Muscle series and should get into detention. Otherwise, here is the news: In a study that has been published in the latest issue of the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine in Sports Science T.S. Hanssen et al. published a paper with the auspicious title "The effect of strength training volume on satellite cells, myogenic regulatory factors, and growth factors" (Hanssen. 2012). Exactly that kind of study that would have the potential to take the mostly common or bro-sensical reasoning behind the current recommendations on training volume to the next, a scientific level, if it the scientists would finally realize that strength training noobs are hardly a better model for advanced trainees than rodents :o(

Full body training 3x /week: How many sets are optimal?

For their study, Hanssen et al. recruited twenty two healthy untrained men (age 26.5y; height: 181.8cm; weight: 81kg) and assigned them to one out of two full-body workouts, with identical exercises (leg press, leg extension, leg curl, seated chest press, seated rowing, latissimus pull-down, biceps curl, and shoulder press), but different amounts of sets for a given body part:

• 3x Legs & 1x Upper Body: Trainees in this group performed 3 sets for each of the leg exercises and 1 set for the upper body exercises
   
• 1x Legs & 3x Upper Body: Trainees in this group performed 1 set for each of the leg exercises and 3 sets for each of the upper body exercises

All subjects started out with 10 reps per set in the first two week. In weeks 3-6, the intensity was increased to 8RM and in the last 5 weeks (7-11) all participants trained at their "7-rep max":

Participants were encouraged to continuously increase their RM loads during the intervention and they were allowed assistance on the last repetition.

In addition to the three strength training sessions per week, the participants were allowed to perform one (not more!) additional steady-state cardio session. And while this may help with standardization, my mathematical skills tell me that the 3L-1UB group performed only 14 sets per workout, while the 1L-3UB group performed 18 sets, simply because the number of lower and upper body exercises was not identical. Now, everyone who does not claim that he or she does not need to train legs (for whatever stupid reason) will know leg training is much more draining than upper body workouts, so "intensity-wise" the workouts were probably still identical.

Single vs. multiple-set training? Nothing new or exciting if it was not for the specific data

We have seen similar studies before - most of them with the same, very unfortunate limitation of being performed on strength training novices, by the way - and the results of this study would hardly be exciting, if it were not for the sheer amount of data Hansson et al. recorded:

Image 2: If those acronyms don't ring a bell, click here to learn more.

• muscle strength and muscle fiber size,
  
  
• the number of satellite cells and number of satellite cells positive for myogenin and MyoD,
   
• the number of myonuclei, myogenin and MyoD content of muscle samples, and
  
  
• myostatin and a whole host of growth factors, namely IGF-1, MGF, HGF, FGF2 and VEGF

This is what I call a "comprehensive" analysis ;-) And one which brought about some pretty interesting results, of which the increases in muscle strength and fiber size are unquestionably the most straight-forward and least surprising ones (cf. figure 1):

Figure 1: Changes in 1RM strength and fiber area after 11 weeks on the training regimen with different set schemes (data calculated based on Hanssen. 2012)

As you can see in figure 1 strength-wise, only the leg (m. vastus lateralis), yet not the back (trapezius) muscle benefited from the increased training volume. When you do take a look at the fiber size, however, it becomes obvious that as long as we compare 1 vs. 3 sets more is actually more +24%, to be precise (the 4% difference for the fiber size in the legs is statistically non-significant).

Figure 2: Relative changes in myonuclei number per muscle fiber and the number of satellite cells after 2 and 11 (post) weeks of the training intervention (data calculated based on Hanssen. 2012)

If you also take into account that the data in figure 2 clearly shows that an increase in training volume leads to increased satellite cell recruitment (indicated by the increases in the number of myonuclei per muscle fiber) and number, it becomes obvious that you are missing out on the growth promoting effects of strength training. The decrease in myonuclei per muscle fiber in the latter 9 weeks of the training intervention in the low volume upper body group (dark red bars in figure 2) would also suggest that this is particularly true for the experience strength trainee in whom the initial 2-week growth spurt of which Hansson et al. state that it was one of their two "main observations":

The novel finding in our study was the early increase in the proportion of activated satellite cells, the early increase in total number of satellite cells and the dependence on training volume in the leg muscle. The number of activated satellite cells, indicated by myoD and myogenin expression, increased from ~2% before training to 6–10% 2 weeks into the intervention.

So as "novel" as this finding may be, it is still somewhat unsatisfying for experienced strength trainees, who will have to rely on the hypothesis that their response will be an ameliorated version of the "late" growth response in the study at hand, which would support my personal observation that 3x3 i.e. three exercises à three sets per body part is at the lower end of the "optimal" volume continuum for advanced trainees. A volume continuum, by the way, that is capped at 12-15 sets for the largest body parst, i.e. legs and back and does by no means extent into the "insanity realm", where people perform 20 sets for biceps and 20 working  sets for triceps on a 5-day body-part split.

Surprise: No statistical significant differences in growth factors

What I found quite surprising though, is that this advantage of 3- vs. 1-set training was not reflected by greater increases in myostatin and/or MGF (want to know more about MGF, click here for the pertinent installment of the Intermittent Thoughts). MGF was even higher in the vastus of the 1 set group and the smaller incline in myostatin levels in the 3-set group (1.1x vs. 1.8x) did not reach statistical significance.

Figure 3: Changes in mRNA levels of myostatin, IGF-1, MGF, HGF, FGF2, and VEGF in the 10 subjects with the largest satellite cell response (seven from 3L-1UB and three from 1L-3UB; data adapted from Hanssen. 2012)

If we do yet take a look at the changes in mRNA levels of myostatin, IGF-1, MGF, HGF (hepatocyte growth factor; growth factor for satellite cells, cf. Sheehan. 2000), FGF2 (fibroblast growth factor; promotes cell adhesion and proliferation, as well as the build up of callege, cf. Yun. 2012) and VEGF (cf. figure 3) in the 10 subjects with the largest satellite cell response (seven from 3L-1UB and three from 1L-3UB), we do see that all but myostatin and VEGF were statistically significantly elevated above baseline. These results stand in line with the main message of the Intermittent Thoughts which was that it is the interaction of a whole host of "hormones" (and peptides) that "builds muscle" - and not as the producers of a certain category of 100% useless "all-natural" supplements want to make you believe, testosterone (or any other growth factor) alone.

And while it was to be expected that the expression of those growth factors would decline over the course of the 11-week intervention period, I am honestly wondering, whether the decrease in reps from 10 (initial two weeks) to 8 and subsequently 7 reps per set had anything to do with it... but I guess, this is an issue for the next study, about which, you will read nowhere else than right here, at the SuppVersity, the place where bro- and pro-science unite in the spirit of true wisdom - but I guess you know that by now, don't you? ;-)

Order of Exercises Does not Matter if you Train Upper Body & Lower Body in One Session - Testosterone & Cortisol Response Identical

You will probably remember my post on the effect of leg training on biceps size!? Well, although it is necessary that you train your legs, if you want to grow, a recent study by Jason D. Miller (Miller. 2011) indicates that hormonally it does not make a difference which part of your body you train first; or, in other words, you will get the same hormonal response (measured as testosterone (T) to cortisol (C) ratio) if you bench press (BP) first and do leg presses (LP) as your second exercise (both at 73.5% of 1RM for 4 sets), as you will get if you start with the leg press and finish your workout on the bench.

There does not appear to be an affect of resistance the exercise order of LP [leg press] and BP [bench press] on T [testosterone] and C [cortisol]. The exercise orders resulted in the same exercise volume and lactate responses which in turn resulted in no interaction in T and C between the UB-LB and LB-UB exercise orders.

Miller does yet speculate that a higher volume and or other/supplemental exercises may have changed the picture. But let's be honest: Do you really think it would be wise to do squats, leg presses and deadlifts, followed by bench presses, dips and flys? Probably not.

Still Waiting for Big Guns? Patience is the Way to Go!

click to enlarge
(Abe. 2000. Figure 2)

A study by Abe et.al. (Abe. 2000) analyzed the time-course of strength and muscular adaption to a 3-days-a-week training protocol over a timespan of 12 weeks. The results show that while muscle gains take their time, "time", in this case, is relative and depends both on the individual muscle (e.g. quadrizeps size increases before significant gains in hamstring size can be observed) and the gender of the trainee (e.g. the initial increment in upper body muscle size appears to be greater in women; propably due to the fact that most women did not do upper body exercises before).

Be patient, be consistent, train hard, rest well and eat smart. If you do all that + pay a short visit to the SuppVersity everyday you will see that after having red the next 100 newsitems you will already have gained a significant amount of strength and muscle.