ONLINE DRIVERS MEDIA

Intensity or exercises switching whats more effective to build muscle and strength - or is it best to do both?

Lets be honest: When was the last time youve switched up your exercise regimen? Kicked out the old boring bench presses and squats and did something totally different? You dont remember? Well, what if I tell you that the latest study from the University of São Paulo, the University of Tampa and Delboni Auriemo Diagnostic Imaging Sector shows that not switching up your exercises is whats keeping you from making the gains you deserve?

Shocker? Well in that case I highly suggest you read the rest of todays article, before you go back to the drawing board and revamp your training regimen.
The actual purpose of the study, the results of which are soon going to be published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research was...

"to investigate the effects of different combinations of training intensities and exercises selection, as well as the combination of both, on muscle strength and CSA." (Fonseca. 2014)

Base on the authors previous findings (Lamas. 2012; Laurentino. 2012; Wallerstein. 2012), Fonseca et al. hypothesized that muscle hypertrophy would not be affected by the different loading schemes and exercise variation; however, the differences in motor unit recruitment provided by the exercise variation would produce superior gains in muscle strength.

A secondary purpose of the present study was thus to identify if the loading scheme and exercises variation would produce differences in the hypertrophy response of the quadriceps muscle heads.

Figure 1:  Vastus lateralis (VL), vastus medialis (VM), vastus intermedius (VI), and rectus femoris (RF) cross sectional area (mm²) for the constant exercise-constant intensity (CICE), constant intensity-varied exercise (CIVE), varied intensity-constant exercise (VICE), and varied intensity-varied exercise (VIVE) groups, pre- and post-training (Fonseca. 2014)

Speaking of muscle heads, the two letter acronyms in Figure 1 represent vastus lateralis (VL), vastus medialis (VM), vastus intermedius (VI), and rectus femoris (RF) and as you can see the hypertrophy response was affected by the different loading schemes and exercise variation.

Chest	Biceps	Back	Core	Legs	Triceps	Shoulders
Navigate the SuppVersity EMG Series - Click on the desired body part to see the optimal exercises.

Based on the caption of Figure 1 you will already have gathered that the study protocol involved 4 different conditions (+ control; not shown in Figure 1).

Table 1: Overview of the Training protocols; CICE= constant intensity and constant exercise, CIVE= constant int. varying exercise, VICE= varying int. and constant ex. VIVE= varying int. and varying ex (Fonseca. 2014).

I would have to waste a thousand words to explain exactly how the exercise regimen differed.

Therefore I decided to simply give you the overview of the 12 training weeks from the original paper in which you can see that there were two parameters Fonseca et al. varied, i.e.

• intensity as in higher reps, lower weight vs. lower reps, higher weight and 
• exercise, i.e. did the subjects to the same stuff all the time or did they switch from one exercise to the next,

And eventually, both of them influenced the training outcome, with varying exercises producing a "more homogeneous muscle hypertrophy response" (Fonseca. 2014). 
References:

• Fonseca, RM, et al. "Changes in exercises are more effective than in loading schemes to improve muscle strength." Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (2014). Published Ahead of Print.
• Lamas, Leonardo, et al. "Effects of strength and power training on neuromuscular adaptations and jumping movement pattern and performance." The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research 26.12 (2012): 3335-3344.
• Laurentino, Gilberto Candido, et al. "Strength training with blood flow restriction diminishes myostatin gene expression." Med Sci Sports Exerc 44.3 (2012): 406-412.
• Wallerstein, Lilian França, et al. "Effects of strength and power training on neuromuscular variables in older adults." Journal of aging and physical activity 20.2 (2012): 171-85.

Do you really need a barbell or will hopping around in a group dance course or working out in the water aka hydrogymnastic suffice to build the 2015 cover model physique thats part of your new years resolution? A recent Portuguese + Brazilian study may hold the answer to this "important" question.

Its about time to think about a good new years resolution; and since any resolution thats aimed at losing weight and/or building a better physique, naturally involves exercise, the latest study from the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro comes right in time (Soares Costa de Mendonça. 2014).

The study that was conducted by Rosa Maria Soares Costa de Mendonça, Adenilson Targino de Araújo Júnior from the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro in Portugal, Maria do Socorro Cirilo de Sousa from the Federal Institute of Technology Education in Brazil and Helder Miguel Fernandes from the Research Centre for Sport in Portugal was designed to investigate the possible effects of 16 weeks of practicing different physical exercise programmes (strength training, dance or hydrogymnastics) on the body composition and anthropometric dimensions of adult women.
The sample was comprised of 89 adult women aged 25–55 (41.42 ± 9.23 years), who were used to train at least three times a week and had no history of health issues that may compromise their ability to participate in the study. . Of these, 60% were married, 27% single and 12% divorced, all residing in the northeastern part of Brazil. As the scientists point out, ...

"[t]hese women were selected using a non probabilistic manner in specific locations, such as fitness clubs, hydrogymnastic gyms and a public municipal institution.

The sample was randomly divided into four groups, of which one was designed as the control group consisting of individuals that were sedentary (CG) (n = 25) and three were characterised as experimental groups:

• strength training (SG) (n = 25), in which the ladies trained three times per week under the supervision of a qualified trainer and did 3 sets of 8–12 repetitions (weights were progressively increased) with a 2–3 min rest period on each of the 50–60 workouts in which all the major muscle groups of the upper and lower limbs were exercised with the use of either machines with weights, free weights or resistance equipment,
• dance (DG) (n = 18), which the women trained three times per week at a moderate to vigorous intensity, which was defined as 60 to 85% of the maximum heart rate as identified by the calculation 220 – age for 50 to 60 minutes workouts involving activities activating all the major muscle groups in a continuous manner using basic steps and a minimum of three rhythmic variations of popular dance styles and aerobics per session with songs of a rhythmic cadence of 100 to 160 beats per minute, and
• hydrogymnastics (HG) (n = 21), in which the women trained with a frequency of three days per week at moderate to vigorous intensity, defined as 60 to 85% of the maximum heart rate using exercises that involved the major muscle groups of the upper and lower limbs with a focus on cardiorespiratory exercises, followed by muscular endurance exercises using equipment such as shin pads designed for hydrogymnastics, dumbbells, bars, plates, floating devices and pool edges with each exercise taking from 2 to 3 min to complete and the whole session lasting 45 to 55 min.

All workouts were designed according to the exercise routines from the ACSM guidelines (Garber. 2011) and the adherence to the exercise prescription was monitored by trained personnel. The workout duration and frequency were more or less identical and even the intensity was similar.

Figure 1: Changes in anthropometric parameters after 16 weeks of training (Soares Costa de Mendonça. 2014).

As you can see all training regimen lead to measurable improvements in the anthropometric parameters. Of the three different exercise regimen the "exotic", i.e. the hydrogymnastics training, was yet on overall the most effective "belly fat reducer" among the three training protocols.

Figure 2: Changes in body composition (calculated based on caliper data) after 16 weeks of hydrogymnastics, weight training, dance or idleness (Soares Costa de Mendonça. 2014).

Things look a bit different, when we take the body composition data the scientists calculated based on the skinfold measures into account: Here the strength training has a slight, but not necessarily significant edge over the hydrogymnastics (keep in mind that the efficacy of hydrogymnasticsmay partly be due to a novelty effect, i.e. new exercise = greater response | see fat mass loss after 8 vs. 16 weeks). Every ladies favorite, the group based dance exercise is yet - once again - trailing third.
References:

• Garber, Carol Ewing, et al. "American College of Sports Medicine position stand. Quantity and quality of exercise for developing and maintaining cardiorespiratory, musculoskeletal, and neuromotor fitness in apparently healthy adults: guidance for prescribing exercise." Medicine and science in sports and exercise 43.7 (2011): 1334-1359.
• Soares Costa de Mendonça, Rosa Maria, et al. "The Effects of Different Exercise Programmes on Female Body Composition." Journal of Human Kinetics 43.1 (2014): 67-78.

Do you want to burn some extra fat during your workouts? Ilex can help. But will it also help you lose body fat?

After the nicotine article a week ago, its about time to take a look at less "toxic" fat burners. As the case may be, researchers from the Faculty of Health and Wellbeing at the Sheffield Hallam University have just published a paper about the ability of Yerba Maté (Illex Paraguariensis | YM) to augments fat oxidation and energy expenditure during exercise at various submaximal intensities (Alkhatib. 2014).

Now, as a SuppVersity Reader youre well aware that an "augmentation of fatty acid oxidation during exercise", alone, is not worth your heard earned money. The question to keep in mind, when were going through the results, is thus: Is Ilex Paraguariensis worth using, or is it just worth writing about in a science magazine?
Alright, now that weve set the scene its about time to take a look at the study design. The study followed a double-blind crossover repeated measures experimental design.

The participants were fourteen healthy adults, seven males and seven females [Mean ± SD: age = 20.8 ± 3.4 yr, height = 171.8 ± 10.0 cm, body mass = 70.4 ± 11.3 kg, body mass index (BMI; in kg/m²) = 23.8 + 0.11]. Participants were assigned randomly to each experimental condition within a period of two weeks.

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Female participants were studied in days 1 to 7 of their menstrual cycle to minimise the influence of cyclical changes in female hormones. All participants were screened prior to the start of the testing in order to determine that they are free from illness and any type of orthopaedic limitation or injury, or chronic disease.

Moreover, none of the subjects consumed ergogenic aids or tons of caffeine regularly (<200 mg/day) - that doesnt mean they never drank more coffee, but they had to abstain from more than 1.5 cups of coffee, tons of energy drinks caffeine containing soft drinks or medications.

A very reasonable request, if you want to measure significant effects from Ilex Paraguariensis which contains 1.5% (according to Alkhatib. 2014) caffeine and roughly 0.12% theobromine (according to Reginatto. 1999).

The tests & supplements

All participants reported to the Physiology Laboratory on two separate occasions following 10 hrs overnight fast, and each testing session (between 07:00am and 10:00am) was separated by at least three days within two weeks period.

During each visit participants ingested either 1000 mg (2× 500 mg capsule) YM or hydroxypropyl methylcellulose placebo empty capsules (PLC). Two capsules with similar coatings of either YM and PLC capsules were placed within an empty water cup and taken in the same way with a 100 ml of water. The YM capsules contained a standardized ground YM leaves (batch number 0422009/2012) with a natural content of approximately 1.5% caffeine (Rio Trading Company, Brighton, United Kingdom).
Immediately following the ingestion of supplement or placebo, participants rested for 60 minutes in a semi-recumbent position in quiet laboratory condition. For the estimation of FAO and CHO at rest and during exercise, breath by breath cardiorespiratory measurements included oxygen uptake ( ) 2 VO , carbon dioxide production, and respiratory exchange ratio (RER), using an online gas analyzer (Metalyzer Cortex 3B, Leipzig, Germany).

The exercise protocol & its consequences

All participants followed the same incremental exercise assessment using an electromagnetically braked cycling ergometer (Schoberer Rad Messtechnik, SRM, Ergo, Julich, Germany). The ergometer was calibrated before use and similar cycling positions were applied in both tests for each participant, which included adjusting the handlebar and saddle height and distance, crank length and toe clip positions during the first visit and re-apply the same position in the following visit.

The cycling protocol consisted of three-minute incremental stages that were initiated at and increased by 0.5 W/kg body mass. Participants cycled at 60–70 rpm throughout the whole test until volitional exhaustion defined as meeting the at least two of 2 peak VO2 termination criteria: RER value > 1.1, heart rate within 10 beats/min of age predicted maximum heart-rate, or achieving levelling-off of VO2 Peak power (P_peak). Similar verbal encouragement was provided to all participants throughout the exercise tests. All tests were followed by a sufficient cool down for at least 20 min, in which participants consumed at least 200 ml of water, and instructed to stay hydrated and consume at least 2 litres of water during the day of the test.
Interestingly, following the 60 min rest after YM ingestion, no significant difference was found for either resting blood lactate contentration (1.4 ± 0.32 vs. 1.5 ± 0.30 mmol/l) or resting respiratory exchange ratio (0.82 ± 0.08 vs. 0.81 ± 0.05) for PLC vs. YM respectively.

In other words: After the workout there were no measurable difference between the active and placebo treatment. The latter cannot be said of the RER during workouts, though.

Figure 1: Significant decreased RER and higher fatty oxidation rates - two sides of the same fat burning coin and evidence that the ingestion of the YM supplement lead to significant increases in fatty oxidation (Alkhatib. 2014)

As you can see in Figure 1 the effects of the Ilex supplements were significant - statistical significant, but also practically relevant? Probably not. The increase in fatty oxidation was after all paid for with an increase in glucose oxidation (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: The glucose usage during workouts decreases, obviously this leads to greater increases in lactate levels, whether its pro-weight loss is questionable, though. If anything it could increase the time to fatigue (Alkhatib. 2014)

The net energy expenditure, the one thing that really counts, was thus identical. For someone who has to get rid of tons of fat in his blood. The increase in RER may be relevant. For someone who is fit and well-trained, its not really important if he or she burns fat or glucose during the workout - why else would HIIT work so well for losing fat - specifically in lean athletic individuals? Well, the answer is easy: It burns glucose and will thus increase GLUT-4 expression insulin sensitivity and, in the end, also fatty oxidation - to replete the depleted energy stores.
References:

• Godfrey, R. J., et al. "A–Z of nutritional supplements: dietary supplements, sports nutrition foods and ergogenic aids for health and performance: Part 45." British journal of sports medicine 47.10 (2013): 659-660.
• Pang, Jisook, Youngshim Choi, and Taesun Park. "Ilex paraguariensis extract ameliorates obesity induced by high-fat diet: Potential role of AMPK in the visceral adipose tissue." Archives of biochemistry and biophysics 476.2 (2008): 178-185.
• Reginatto, Flavio Henrique, et al. "Methylxanthines accumulation in Ilex species-caffeine and theobromine in erva-mate (Ilex paraguariensis) and other Ilex species." Journal of the Brazilian Chemical Society 10.6 (1999): 443-446.

It takes some effort to avoid making the transition from the sofa to the ICU.

Whats better for heart disease protection - high or medium intensity exercise as it is still prescribed by the majority of doctors? A recent study from the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg (Germany) probed the effects of high vs. moderate intensity training on cardiovascular risk markers of 81 untrained, healthy not exactly lean (BMI 27.2kg/m²) men aged 30-50 years.

The subjects were randomized to either a high intensity interval training or a moderate intensity steady state training group who burnt the exact same amount of energy during their workouts.
In contrast to other studies, the groups did not train at the same time. The study started in September. From September to December, the HIIT group performed high intensity interval training

• at 80-100% of their maximal heart rate during 90s-120min intervals,
• with 1-3 min pauses at 70-75% of the maximal heart rate

so that 40% of the total training volume were performed at high heart rates, 35% at maximal heart rates, and 25% of the total volume at 25% of medium heart rates.

Figure 1: Overview of the study protocol (translated from Kemmler. 2015).

During the first three months, the medium intensity steady state group (MIST) group served as sedentary control (see Figure 1). A control group in which the markers of cardiovascular health rather deteriorated than improved.

Figure 2: Changes in left ventricular myocardial mass (LVMI), cardiovascular fitness (CV), intima-media thickness (IMT, associated with increased CVD risk), body fat, and lean mass (Kemmler. 2015).

What is of interest is thus not really the difference between the control and the HIIT group, but the difference between the HIIT and MIST group. A difference of which the data in Figure 2 indicates that there was a significant advantage of doing HIIT vs MIST training - at least as far as the cardiovascular disease markers are concerned.

What may come as a surprise is that despite the significant improvements in fitness and metabolic disease scores (-2.06 pts vs. -1.6 pts with HIIT vs. MIST, respectively), the amount of fat lost was more pronounced in the MIST group; and that in spite of the fact that they performed only 5% of their training at the maximal heart frequency, 10% at high intensities and the vast majority of exercise, i.e. 85%, at a moderate exercise intensity. In view of the fact that the design of the study required that all participants expended the same amount of energy, its quite interesting that the subjects in the MIST study burned more body fat than the subjects in the HIIT study. In the absence of a strictly controlled energy intake, its yet no reliable evidence that would disprove the rule that HIIT is - specifically for leaner folks - the more effective fat burner. The result of the study at hand should thus not be overrated.

Figure 2: Endothelial function measured as FMD (left); maximal oxygen uptake (right) before and after 12-week high intensity interval or moderate intensity steady state exercise in patients with heart failure (Wisløff . 2007)

Before I get to the conclusions, I would like to point out that having a exisiting heart condition is not necessarily a reason to refrain from high intensity exercise. On the contrary, a 2007 study by Ulrik Wisløff et al. clearly indicates that aerobic interval training is superior to moderate continuous training even in heart failure patients. More specifically, the scientists from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim found that "[e]xercise intensity was an important factor for reversing LV remodeling and improving aerobic capacity, endothelial function, and quality of life in patients with postinfarction heart failure" (Wisløff. 2007).

Yet in spite of the fact that the researchers  highlight that their results would have "important implications for exercise training in rehabilitation programs" - the impact on the real world prescriptions in such programs is negligible.,
References:

• Beniamini, Yael, et al. "High-intensity strength training of patients enrolled in an outpatient cardiac rehabilitation program." Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention 19.1 (1999): 8-17.
• Kemmler, Wolfgang, et al. "Hoch-versus moderat-intensive Laufbelastung–Einfluss auf kardio-metabolische Risikogrößen bei untrainierten Männern." DMW-Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift 140.01 (2015): e7-e13.
• Tanasescu, Mihaela, et al. "Exercise type and intensity in relation to coronary heart disease in men." Jama 288.16 (2002): 1994-2000.
• Tinkham, Michelle. "Health Promotion in Cardiac Rehabilitation Patients through the Use of a High-Intensity Interval Training Protocol." World Journal of Cardiovascular Diseases 4.10 (2014): 493.
• Warburton, Darren ER, et al. "Effectiveness of high-intensity interval training for the rehabilitation of patients with coronary artery disease." The American journal of cardiology 95.9 (2005): 1080-1084.
• Wisløff, Ulrik, et al. "Superior cardiovascular effect of aerobic interval training versus moderate continuous training in heart failure patients a randomized study." Circulation 115.24 (2007): 3086-3094.