20 Spankin' New Studies
A Report From ACSM New Orleans
by Darren Ellis

After Hurricane Katrina ripped away at her body, New Orleans showed she
still had a strong soul this year at the American College of Sports
Medicine's annual meeting. As the city returns to normality, the
conference organizers staged a top event. I
took a different approach this year to the usual high-powered lectures.
I'd been a little disheartened in the past, expecting insider info on
the latest ways to accelerate human performance. But the truth is that
many of the lectures are an overview of concepts that have been
thrashed to death already. You can't begrudge the scientists though;
they usually have publications in the works that they aren't always at
liberty to discuss. So on this occasion, I spent my time
ferreting around the smaller sessions. Most of these studies were small
in both stature and funding, but big on creativity. The science may be
questionable in a few cases — with some being only pilot studies of
small sample sizes — but at least they made you think. You may not
agree with some of the results, but as Alwyn Cosgrove always says, you
won't get any dumber reading this stuff. Here's a summary.

Leucine and Protein Synthesis Leucine
appears to be the most anabolic amino acid. It seems to be responsible
for increasing protein synthesis all on its own. So, consume more. It's
that simple. [1]

Fat Can Heal Busted Knees! Adipose-derived
stem cells can be differentiated into a chrondrocyte (cartilage cell),
enabling the resurfacing of articular joint surfaces. Advances in this
technology will eventually enable live collagen scaffolding to be built
and implanted into joints. [2]

Protein for Endurance Athletes Addition
of hydrolysed protein to carbohydrate significantly improved time to
exhaustion during a duathlon (run/bike/run). However, increasing the
concentration of protein past 1.2% resulted in no further increase in
time to exhaustion. [3]

Carbs Post-Workout? The
carbohydrate and protein combo has been poked and prodded by hundreds
of scientists in the past. Usually the hypotheses look at any further
ergogenic effect of adding the protein to the carbs. However, this
particular study reversed things and looked to see if adding carbs to
protein increased muscle protein synthesis over and above the effect of
the carbs themselves. The absence of any increase suggests
that those who lift weights to improve themselves aesthetically may get
away with restricting carbs, even post-workout, without impacting
protein synthesis. [4] However, it must be noted that this study stands
in contrast to a number of studies that suggest the opposite.

Move Your Ass More Dr.
John Berardi has often recommended five hours or more of exercise per
week to ensure progress and satisfaction with that progress. That's
reinforced by this study showing that overweight individuals exercising
closer to the 300 min/week mark lost and maintained far more weight
loss than those in the 150 min/week range typically recommended by
health agencies. [5]

Heavy Weight Training, New Muscle Fibers Muscle
biopsies from the quads of strength-trained athletes after heavy
resistance exercise showed an increase in mRNA and protein expression
of a particular myosin heavy chain (MHCneo). Essentially, this suggests
hyperplasia — the formation of new fibers — something that hasn't been
proved conclusively in humans. Only 10 of the 26 subjects
showed this effect, so it may just be luck of the genetic draw. Why
grow your muscle fibers bigger when you can just make new ones?! [6]

Caffeine Increases Bench Press Endurance Twenty
strength-trained men consumed 6mg/kg of caffeine and demonstrated an
increase in repetitions to failure for bench press at 60% of 1RM, but
no increase in 1RM strength. [7] Another
study confirmed the increased endurance in bench press by showing
increased total reps over 3 sets with 70% of 1RM. [8]

Does Creatine Kill Your Kidneys? The
effect of three months of creatine supplementation on renal function
was investigated in recreational subjects. After three months of
consuming 10 grams per day and engaging in moderate activity three
times per week, the subjects showed no sign of dysfunction (various
oxidative stress measures). In fact, it was suggested that the exercise
contributed to improved renal function. [9]

Ultrasound and Recovery from Muscle Damage Disruption
to the extra-cellular matrix (connective tissue) of muscle is thought
to be a major factor in muscle damage. This study showed that
ultrasound may be more effective at repairing the ECM over three days
of intermittent treatment compared with cryotherapy and controls.

BCAAs in Recovery Many
studies that have examined branch chain aminos' role in attenuating
muscle damage failed to correct for the extra energy supplied by CHO
controls. In this instance, untrained subjects ingested either 200
kcals of energy via BCAAs or CHO after exercise. All markers of muscle
damage (creatine kinase, lactate dehydrogenase, and perceived muscle
soreness) were lower with BCAA consumption. [10]


The End of Running in the Army? The
traditional Army physical training program of calisthenics and running
was compared to a more modern program, including flexibility, strength,
agility, speed, and core work. After
seven weeks the soldiers on the more modern program demonstrated better
performance in a range of military physical tests, including 5 kg med
ball throw, vertical jump, and 50m casualty rescue. [11]

A 3-Test Combine College
football players go through a wide range of physical tests during
selection and talent identification processes. This study looked to see
if the testing could be streamlined by removing tests that overlapped
with other tests for the physiological variables measured. For
the running backs-only group, bench press and standing long jump were
the only tests that showed significant correlation with high game
performance. The linemen-only group indicated that the 40-yard dash was
the only significant variable classifying high performance. [12]

Overtraining and Under-eating This
study compared the nutritional intake and training time of overtrained
(OT) vs. healthy athletes (NOT). The OT group had a mean training time
per week of 17.5 hours compared to 11.5 hours for the NOT. After
adjusting intake to activity levels, it was shown that the OT group
consumed significantly less total energy, carbohydrate, and protein
than the NOT group. An interesting fact was the use of a recovery drink
by most of the NOT group and the absence of one in most of the OT group.

Powerlifters and Forced Reps This project was of a single subject design, so it can be taken with a grain of salt. Still, it's pretty interesting. After
reaching a plateau in the squat using traditional linear periodization,
a nationally ranked junior powerlifter went on a six week program of
forced reps one day per week. The
protocol was 3 sets with 1RM + 25 pounds, with 5, 3, and 2 reps
attempted on the 3 sets and 5-10 minutes rest between sets. After six
weeks the lifter's squat increased by 90 pounds or 15.5%. [13]