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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.

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?

Specifically during the winter time, hard working athlete and manic gymrats can be particularly susceptible to all sorts of infections. To help you having to work out with a handkerchief in your hand all winter long, I have compiled a non-comprehensive list of supplements that may help you to maintain and even improve your immune defenses and thus to survive the cold and dark winter times without catching a cold or even the flu.

In their recent review in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition Vinicius Fernandes Cruzat, Maurício Krause and Philip Newsholme reviewed the extensive literature on nutritional supplements that act as immuno-nutrients, may to reduce immunosuppression and excessive inflammation in hard-training athletes and gymrats like yourself (or yourself in 2015 ;-)
In said paper, the researchers from the CHIRI Biosciences Research Precinct at the Curtin University in Perth and the Laboratory of Cellular Physiology at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre focus what they call the "key immuno-nutrients" L-glutamine, L-arginine, branched chain amino acids (BCAA) and whey protein. Now this would not be the SuppVersity if I didnt go beyond this list and added a few more or less promising extra supplements to the list. Before we get to any of those extras, lets briefly recap what Cruzat et al. (2014) found:

"Although a balanced diet with high quality and sufficient quantity of nutrients is essential, there is growing evidence that some non-synthetic supplements can assist optimal nutrition. In fact, the use of nutritional supplements especially the provision of amino acids, has grown year-on-year. [...]

The use of proteins and amino acids for supplementation deserves special attention, since these molecules are critical for anti-oxidant and fuel provision, participating in the whole-body energy homeostasis, growth, development, recovery and immune responses.

As Cruzat et al. point out, the key targets for immunonutrition may include provision of key metabolites for immune cells per se. In other words: Immuno-nutrients feed the immune system and dont suppress but optimize the multi-layered immunte response consisting of

• the inflammatory response and cytokine release, 
• the production of chaperone proteins such as the heat shock proteins (HSPs), 
• changes in the redox balance (including glutathione, GSH metabolism), and 
• the protection of skeletal muscle mass (see Figure 1). 

Thus your reasons to consume immuno-nutrients go well beyond warding off the common cold and encompass (a) performance improvements, (b) the general strengthening of the immune system and (c) the shortening of the exercise recovery period (Nieper. 2005).

Figure 1: Biphasic immuno-inflammatory response to severe exercise and the possible immunonutrition role. Immuno-inflammatory response induced by severe exercise or heavy periods of training and the proposed role of specific nutrients with immune benefits, also called immunonutrition (Cruzat. 2014).

In that, the most widely used supplements are vitamins and minerals. Reliable evidence for their immuno-protective effects, however is scarce and the results are ambigious:

• Vitamin C: South African ultramarathon runners did demonstrate that vitamin C (but not E or beta-carotene) supplementation (about 600 mg day7 1 for 3 weeks) was related to fewer reports of upper respiratory tract infections (URTI) symptoms (Peters 1983, 1990, 1993, 1996; Peters-Futre, 1997).
  
  

  Classic ROS-scavengers like vitamin C are not just ineffective, when it comes to countering the increased susceptibility to infection they have also been shown to hamper the adaptational response to exercise | read more.

  These beneficial effects have yet not been replicated by other research teams. Himmelstein, Robergs, Koehler, Lewis and Qualls (1998), for example, reported no alteration in URTI incidence among 44 marathon runners and 48 sedentary individuals randomly assigned to a 2 month regimen of 1000 mg /day of vitamin C or placebo. And in view of the fact that most randomized, placebo-controlled studies have been unable to demonstrate that vitamin C supplements modulate immune responses following heavy exertion (Nieman et al., 1997b, 2002b; Nieman, Peters, Henson, Nevines, & Thompson, 2000b), it should be clear that vitamin C must not be counted among the highly effective immune nutrients. 

• Vitamin E: As Niemann et al. point out in their review of the efficacy of various immuno-nutrients, vitamin E functions primarily as a non-specific, chain-breaking antioxidant that prevents the propagation of lipid peroxidation. The vitamin is a peroxyl radical scavenger and protects polyunsaturated fatty acids within membrane phospholipids and in plasma lipoproteins.
  
  The effect of vitamin E supplementation on the inflammatory and immune response to intensive and prolonged exercise is largely unstudied and equivocal. Cannon et al. (1991) found that vitamin E supplementation of 800 IU/day for 48 days attenuated endotoxin-induced IL-6 secretion from mononuclear cells for 12 days after running downhill on an inclined treadmill. Singh et al. (1999) showed no effect of vitamin E supplementation (4 days, 800 IU/day) on the increase in plasma IL-6 following a 98 min treadmill run at 65 – 70% V_ O2max to exhaustion. Petersen et al. (2002) reported no influence of vitamin E and C supplementation (500 mg and 400 mg, respectively, for 14 days before and 7 days after) on the plasma cytokine response to a 5% downhill 90 min treadmill run at 75% VO2max.
  
  

  Figure 2: Chronic supplementation with 800 IU of vitamin E (as alpha-tocopherol) has significant negative effects on markers of lipid oxidation and inflammation in triathletes (Nieman. 2004).

  A 2004 study in the course of which triathletes competing in the Kona Triathlon World Championship race event received 800 IU/day of a-tocopherol for two months does even indicate that vitamin E can increase the degree of exercise induced lipid peroxidation and the amount of several cytokines in the blood following a triathlon.Against that background and in view of the previously cited ambiguous results, Niemann et al. (2006) rightly conclude that "vitamin E supplementation to counter immune suppression and oxidative stress in endurance athletes cannot be recommended" (Niemann. 2006).
• Vitamin D: For vitamin D a slightly different image emerges. It appears to be indisputable that athletes with low vitamin D levels are at higher risk of upper-respiratory tract infections - specifically during winter times (He. 2013).
  
  The results of clinical trials investigating the benefits of vitamin D supplementation, however, are less unambiguous. In non-athletes, the monthly administration of 100 000 IU of vitamin D did not reduce the incidence or severity of URTIs; and that despite the fact that the supplement brought the 25OHD levels of the healthy subjects up, significantly (Murdoch. 2012). A meta analysis by Bergman et al. (2013), however indicates that "vitamin D has a protective effect against RTI, and dosing once-daily seems most effective".
  
  

  Figure 3: Length of time to viral infection related to initial serum concentration of 25-hydroxyvitamin D. Shown are the results of the pharmacodynamic model relating 25-hydroxyvitamin D to length of time before a viral respiratory tract infection (Bergman. 2013)

  Bergamn et al. do yet also point out that "[d]ue to heterogeneity of included studies and possible publication bias in the field, these results should be interpreted with caution" (Bergman. 2013). Against that background it may be a good idea to at least make sure that you are in the "normal range" for vitamin D - irrespective of the fact that low levels may rather be a marker than a trigger of an increased susceptibility to infections that results from uncontrolled inflammation (vitamin D as a negative acute phase reactant | cf. Waldron. 2013).

Next to vitamins, many studies have described the use of proteins, such as whey for supplements or isolated amino acids like glutamine (Kreider. 2008; Cury-Boaventura. 2008).

Figure 4: Mechanisms involving whey proteins as a source of different immunonutrients. (Cruzat. 2014).

In their previously cited review, Cruzat et al. included a nice graphical overview (Figure 4) of the mechanisms by which complete proteins and peptides and their individual amino acids effect the immune system of hard training athletes.

As you can see in Figure 4, Cruzat et al. put a particular emphasis on whey protein - for good reasons.

Firstly, whey contains all the "good" amino acids of which previous studies indicate that they may have direct beneficial effects on the immune system:

• Glutamine: As Cruzat et al. point out, "L-glutamine is probably the most widely recognized immuno-nutrient since it can be used as an oxidizable fuel, a substrate for nucleotide synthesis, a modulator of intermediary metabolism of amino acids, HSP expression and a component of GSH-mediated antioxidant defense" (see Figure 5 | Cruzat. 2014).
  
  Put simply glutamine is the food your immune cells thrive on. Accordingly scientists, athletes and coaches have speculated ever since the early 1990s that supplemental glutamine should be able to prevent the exercise induced immune impairments.
  
  

  Figure 6: 5g of glutamine per day led to significant reductions in the occurrance of infections in marathon, ultra-marathon, mid distance runners and rowers (Castell. 1996a).

  Why? Well, exercise depletes the amount of circulating glutamine and will thus "steal" the fodder your immune cells need to survive and function (Wernerman. 2008).
  
  And in fact, there are studies that support the logical conclusion that the repletion of the glutamine that has been burned as alternative fuel during a workout with 0.1 g/kg body weight ameliorates the exercise induced reduction of lymphocytes, and could thus eventually reduce the risk of URTI’s (Castell. 1997).
  
  In that, I deliberately used the conditional, because subsequent studies with fixed (20–30 g/day) or variable (0.3 - 0.5 g/kg body wt) doses of glutamine did not report similar outcomes (Castell. 1996b; Krzywkowski. 2001; Hiscock. 2002). Accordingly, Castell et al. write in their contribution to the BMJ A-Z Supplement review (ed. Newsholme. 2011):
  

  "Overall, there is no consensus or unifying concept to explain the efficacy of exogenous provision of glutamine alone on performance in athletes, although in combination with carbohydrate or other amino acids, significant improvements have been reported." (Newsholme. 2011)

  In other words: Benefits cant be guaranteed, but specifically when glutamine is ingested in amounts of at least 20g/day in addition to carbohydrates and protein supplements it appears as if it could be a useful dietary supplement for hard-training athletes.

• Arginine: No, this is not a mistake. L-arginine is in fact the #2 on the list of supplemental immune modulators for hard-training athletes. Needless to say that its not arginine itself, but rather Nitric Oxide (NO) which acts as a mediator of inflammation and immune system activation in the human body (Krause. 2011 & 2012).
  
  As a SuppVersity reader, you know that arginine has little ergogenic effect. It has beneficial effects in diabetics and may offer benefits for people who want to control their blood pressure. As a immuno-modulator, however it is similarly ineffective as it is as an ergogenic. Benefits can only be expected if the blood levels of arginine are depleted and that is - even with heavy exercise - usually not the case.

Whey protein, however, is more than the sum of its amino acid parts. Yes, whey can contain up to 26% of BCAA, plus L-arginine, L-lysine, L-glutamine.

Figure 7: Effect of maltodextrin (filled square) and maltodextrin plus hydrolyzed whey protein enriched with glutamine dipeptide (filled triangle) supplementation on exercise-induced loss of membrane integrity and depolarized mitochondria in lymphocytes and neutrophils, which are essential for the response against viral infections, such as upper respiratory tract infections (URTI), in athletes after intense training (Cury-Boaventura. 2008).

Whey does yet also contain a range of powerful proteins / peptides, namely betalactoglobulin, alpha-lactalbumin, bovine serum albumin, lactoferrin, immunoglobulins (e.g. IgA), lactoperoxidase enzymes, glycomacropeptides, as well as vitamins such as vitamin D, and minerals such as Ca2+, of these...

• lactoferrin and lactoferricin, demonstrate direct anti-microbial activity and may thus protect you from infections,
• lysosome, lactoperoxidase and diverse globulins and peptides in whey provide a synergistic protective “cocktail” activity against viral and bacterial organisms (Ha. 2003), and
• sulphur-containing amino acids, such cysteine and taurine attenuate the reduction of intracellular GSH concentration induced by intensive exercise (Lands. 1999). 

For all three of them, it is yet not fully established to which extend they contribute to the proven immune-modulating effects of whey (note: the levels of these agents will be higher in concentrates compared to isolates, due to the increased number of processing steps). It is in fact likely that Cruzat et al. (2014) are right, when they say that its the cocktail of amino acids, proteins, peptides and other micro- and macronutrients, vitamins and minerals in whey protein that acts via direct and indirect pathways (e.g. via optimizing the redox status / GSH) on the immune function of athletes.
References:

• Cury-Boaventura, Maria Fernanda, et al. "Effects of exercise on leukocyte death: prevention by hydrolyzed whey protein enriched with glutamine dipeptide." European journal of applied physiology 103.3 (2008): 289-294.
• Bergman, Peter, et al. "Vitamin D and respiratory tract infections: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials." PloS one 8.6 (2013): e65835. 
• Castell, L. M., E. A. Newsholme, and J. R. Poortmans. "Does glutamine have a role in reducing infections in athletes?." European journal of applied physiology and occupational physiology 73.5 (1996a): 488-490.
• Castell, L. M., et al. "Some aspects of the acute phase response after a marathon race, and the effects of glutamine supplementation." European journal of applied physiology and occupational physiology 75.1 (1996b): 47-53.
• Castell, Linda M., and Eric A. Newsholme. "The effects of oral glutamine supplementation on athletes after prolonged, exhaustive exercise." Nutrition 13.7 (1997): 738-742. 
• Cruzat, Vinicius F., et al. "Amino acid supplementation and impact on immune function in the context of exercise." Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition 201.4 (2014): 11:61.
• Cury-Boaventura, Maria Fernanda, et al. "Effects of exercise on leukocyte death: prevention by hydrolyzed whey protein enriched with glutamine dipeptide." European journal of applied physiology 103.3 (2008): 289-294.
• Ha, Ewan, and Michael B. Zemel. "Functional properties of whey, whey components, and essential amino acids: mechanisms underlying health benefits for active people (review)." The Journal of nutritional biochemistry 14.5 (2003): 251-258.
• He, Cheng-Shiun, et al. "Influence of vitamin D status on respiratory infection incidence and immune function during 4 months of winter training in endurance sport athletes." Exerc Immunol Rev 19 (2013): 86-101. 
• Hiscock, Natalie, and Bente Klarlund Pedersen. "Exercise-induced immunodepression–plasma glutamine is not the link." Journal of Applied Physiology 93.3 (2002): 813-822. 
• Lands, L. C., V. L. Grey, and A. A. Smountas. "Effect of supplementation with a cysteine donor on muscular performance." Journal of Applied Physiology 87.4 (1999): 1381-1385.
• Krause, Mauricio S., et al. "L-arginine is essential for pancreatic ?-cell functional integrity, metabolism and defense from inflammatory challenge." Journal of endocrinology 211.1 (2011): 87-97.
• Krause, Mauricio, et al. "Differential nitric oxide levels in the blood and skeletal muscle of type 2 diabetic subjects may be consequence of adiposity: a preliminary study." Metabolism 61.11 (2012): 1528-1537.
• Kreider, Richard B., et al. "Effects of ingesting protein with various forms of carbohydrate following resistance-exercise on substrate availability and markers of anabolism, catabolism, and immunity." Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition 4.1 (2007): 1-11.
• Maggini, S., S. Beveridge, and M. Suter. "A combination of high-dose vitamin C plus zinc for the common cold." Journal of International Medical Research 40.1 (2012): 28-42.
• Murdoch, David R., et al. "Effect of Vitamin D3 Supplementation on Upper Respiratory Tract Infections in Healthy AdultsThe VIDARIS Randomized Controlled TrialVitamin D3 and Upper Respiratory Tract Infections." Jama 308.13 (2012): 1333-1339.
• Newsholme, Philip, et al. "BJSM reviews: A to Z of nutritional supplements: dietary supplements, sports nutrition foods and ergogenic aids for health and performance—Part 18." British journal of sports medicine 45.3 (2011): 230-232.
• Nieman, David C., et al. "Vitamin E and immunity after the Kona triathlon world championship." Medicine and science in sports and exercise 36 (2004): 1328-1335.
• Nieman, David C., and Nicolette C. Bishop. "Nutritional strategies to counter stress to the immune system in athletes, with special reference to football." Journal of sports sciences 24.07 (2006): 763-772.
• Nieper, A. "Nutritional supplement practices in UK junior national track and field athletes." British journal of sports medicine 39.9 (2005): 645-649. 
• Pendergast, David R. "Effect of dietary intake on immune function in athletes." Sports medicine 32.5 (2002): 323-337.
• Schwarz, Eveline, et al. "Oral administration of freshly expressed juice of Echinacea purpurea herbs fail to stimulate the nonspecific immune response in healthy young men: results of a double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study." Journal of Immunotherapy 25.5 (2002): 413-420.
• Waldron, Jenna Louise, et al. "Vitamin D: a negative acute phase reactant." Journal of clinical pathology (2013): jclinpath-2012. 
• Wernerman, Jan. "Clinical use of glutamine supplementation." The Journal of nutrition 138.10 (2008): 2040S-2044S.