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Study leaves no doubt: For the biceps femoris, Romanian deadlifts rule.

I am not quite sure if some of the guys at my gym even know what the hamstrings, are... I guess if I told them that theyre also started biceps femoris, they were more likely to train it, instead of telling me that they play soccer and thus wouldnt have to train legs (I have honestly never heard something that stupid - I mean, its like, I dont train jumping, because I am a high jumper ;-).

Now, if we assume for the moment that my arguments are convincing enough to include a single hamstring exercise on their every-day-international-chest-and-biceps-day, what should it be, then?
If you look back at the SuppVersity EMG Series, it would be the lying leg curl with tighs raised from the pad or hamstring exercises on the hip pendulum. If, on the other hand, you take a look at the data Matt J. McAllister & colleagues are about to publish in the next issue of the venerable Journal of Strength and Conditioning Researchers, one of the few places, where editors actually care about the interests of muscle-headz like us, the answer would be different.

Figure 1: EMG activity of biceps femoris and semitendinosus durinc ecccentric (light) and concentric (dark) phase of the romanian deadlift, the prone leg curl, good mornings and glute-ham raises in 12 subjects w/ 9y+ training exp. (McAllister)

What? You want to know where this difference comes from? Well, the reason should be obvious, Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies who conducted the study the EMG Series is based on did not test the weighed Romanian deadlift w/ maximum weight for "security reasons".

The leg curl, on the other hand, was significantly less effective when it was done with the tighs lying on the pad (as it was done in the study at hand) - exercise selection and execution did thus both contribute to the surprisingly different study outcomes, which do yet have one thing in common: The insight that activities of similar kinematics, dont necessarily produce similar muscle activation. As McAllister et al. poin out, this revelation may...

"[...] also indicate that the kinematics are not as similar as they appear to be, especially when you consider possible variance of internal and external rotation. For instance, the ST [semitendinosus] and SM  [semimembranosus] insert at the upper medial surface of the tibia, and the BF inserts at the head of the fibula. The greater amount of activity from ST may be related to the fact that ST contributes to the internal rotation of the knee, whereas BF contributes to the external rotation of the knee. Although the potential impact is unclear, the absence of control for hip rotation (internal or external) may have obviated the identification of specific patterns of muscle recruitment. Foot position was not standardized in this study because the investigators felt that the subjects’ experience would allow foot position to be habitual and consistent. This delimitation must be considered when interpreting our results." (McAllister. 2014)

In contrast to the semitendinosus & semimembranosus, the EMG activity for the biceps femoris (BF) was similar for the concentric prone leg curl and concentric romanian deadlift. As McAllister et al. point out, "[t]hese results are consistent with a previous investigation that reported no significant difference in activity from the concentric actions of the BF between the leg curl and stiff-leg deadlift." The authors of the corresponidn study did also find that the biceps femoris was significantly more active during the eccentric portion of the leg curl in comparison with the stiff-leg deadlift - the exact opposite of the findings McAllister et al. present in the study at hand, which showed significantly greater activity from the BF during the eccentric RDL as compared with the eccentric prone leg curl.

Following the footsteps of the Google Nexus 7, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Nexus S got their own treatment of Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean. The 15.1MB update is currently seeding to GSM/HSPA versions of both smartphones over the air.

The update is a minor improvement over its predecessor. It includes the usual performance and stability fixes. Landscape mode however, will remain reserved for the Google Nexus 7.

Marathon de Sable ? Tomato juice

Its about time for another quickie, a news quickie about exercise & supplementation, about vitamin D and tomato juice... actually its rather about tomato juice, a special carbohydrate + protein bar and the notorious "Gatorate(R)-ish" carbohydrate supplement every endurance athlete believes he must be taking. But lets be honest, who cares about tomato juice, carbohydrate, protein bars, pseudo Gatorade and their individual and joint effects on the health and performance of constantly (over-)taxed ultra-marathoners, if the other new item in todays article deals with the potential beneficial effect of vitamin D on IGF-1 and its anabolic consequences?
You care? Ok, in that case, you may be inclined to hear that the bar contained 30.20 g (19.7 g sugars) carbohydrates, 5.2g fiber, a surprisingly high amount of fat (15.6g) and. of course, protein 30.8g to be precise (14.3 g whey protein). If we add the energy content of carbs, fats and protein up, we get an energy content of ~400kcal for the bar and thus approx 24x more than in 100ml of the tomato juice, which is - as you can see in Table 1 more or less devoid of "nutrients", but packed with antioxidants.

Table 1: Average nutritional value per 100 g of tomato juice and protein bar used in the present study (canned, salt added) and the carbohydrate supplementation beverage, as provided by the manufacturer (Samaras. 2014)

As you can see in Figure 1, enough antioxidants to elicit significant increases in flow-mediated dilatation, which was used as an estimate of endothelial function, by the researchers from the  General Hospital of Giannitsa in Greece.

Figure 1: Changes (% pre) in response to tomato juice & protein bar supplementation (Samaras. 2014)

Interestingly, the thiobarbituric-acid reactive substances, and protein carbonyls were significantly decreased in both supplementation groups - a good indicator that these changes were not mediated by the red night-shade elixir, but rather by the protein + carbohydrate bar, which lead to a "whey-typical" increase in reduced glutathione.

Is the vitamin D you produce at the beach youre visiting only rarely the secret to perfect glucose control? Learn more in the "Beyond Carbohydrate Series"

If the marathoners had now had low vitamin D levels, they may even had gained some muscle, if they had followed a similar protocol as the subjects in another recently published study from the St. John Fisher College Rochester NY.

And the results of this study dont even seem completely nonsensical. As a SuppVersity reader you do after all know about the existing evidence of the negative effects low vitamin D levels will have on the function and strength of skeletal muscle ("low" in this context means less than 30ng 25-OHD on the lab report). Against that background, it does after all appear to be logical that refilling the levels would in one way or another help maintain or even build skeletal muscle.

The actual news here is yet not that vitamin D could potentially prevent muscle atrophy and increase hypertrophy. Its rather that these effects could be brought about by the significant increases in total IGF-1, as well as the IGF-1 binding proteins 1 + 3 researchers from the College of Rochester observed, when they added 4,000 IU of vitamin D to the diets of 6 vitamin D insufficient and deficient men (39.0±8.6yo with 25OH D 20.0±7.7ng/mL) who participated in a one-hour exercise program consisting of stretching (ST), aerobic (AB), and resistive (RT) exercises (Darr. 2014)

Suggested Read: "Underestimated Vitamin D Sources: Especially Eggs, But Also Chicken, Pork, Fish & Dairy Contain an Overlooked, Physiologically Relevant Amount of Ready-Made 25OHD" | more

The aerobic training was a intensity treadmill walk, which was rotated with a moderate strength (50% 1-RM, 15, 10 repetitions) full body workout consisting of squats, bench presses, leg presses, and lat pull downs. As previously said, the scientists found that the vitamin D binding protein 3 levels (BP3) were increased after the resistance training in the vitamin D (n=6) vs. placebo (n=7) group (30%). And while the total IGF-1 levels decrease in the placebeo group, the increase in various binding proteins buffered this effect in the vitamin D group. Similar, yet less pronounced effects were observed in response to the aerobic training.

Whether the scientists assumption that the increases in BP3 and BP1 levels and the maintenance of the total IGF-1 levels "potentially alter [...] the IGF system for enhanced muscle health" is accurate, let alone practically relevant is something this study cannot actually confirm.

And lets be honest, is it even likely? For someone without a pre-existing vitamin D deficiency? No. For someone with similarly low vitamin D levels as the deficient and insufficient subjects in a 2011 study by Stockton et al. (2011)? Probably, yes - but are you actually D-ficient?
References:

• Ceglia, Lisa, et al. "Effects of alkali supplementation and vitamin D insufficiency on rat skeletal muscle." Endocrine 44.2 (2013): 454-464.
• Darr, Rachel, et al. "Vitamin D supplementation effects on the IGF system in men after acute exercise (828.15)." The FASEB Journal 28.1 Supplement (2014): 828-15.
• Samaras, Antonios, et al. "Effect of a special carbohydrate-protein bar and tomato juice supplementation on oxidative stress markers and vascular endothelial dynamics in ultra-marathon runners." Food and Chemical Toxicology (2014).
• Stockton, K. A., et al. "Effect of vitamin D supplementation on muscle strength: a systematic review and meta-analysis." Osteoporosis international 22.3 (2011): 859-871.