Friday, October 12, 2012

Fasted Training? Exercise with low glycogen to be a better fuel burner

This is a very interesting one!  Exercise in a depleted state seems to look like it could lead to more mitochondria in the muscle and therefore more capacity to burn fuel and create energy and movement.....  So one up for fasted training?



Recent studies suggest that carbohydrate restriction can improve the training-induced adaptation of muscle oxidative capacity. However, the importance of low muscle glycogen on the molecular signaling of mitochondrial biogenesis remains unclear. Here, we compare the effects of exercise with low (LG) and normal (NG) glycogen on different molecular factors involved in the regulation of mitochondrial biogenesis. Ten highly trained cyclists (VO(2max) 65 ± 1 ml/kg/min, W (max) 387 ± 8 W) exercised for 60 min at approximately 64 % VO(2max) with either low [166 ± 21 mmol/kg dry weight (dw)] or normal (478 ± 33 mmol/kg dw) muscle glycogen levels achieved by prior exercise/diet intervention. Muscle biopsies were taken before, and 3 h after, exercise. The mRNA of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ coactivator-1 was enhanced to a greater extent when exercise was performed with low compared with normal glycogen levels (8.1-fold vs. 2.5-fold increase). Cytochrome c oxidase subunit I and pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase isozyme 4 mRNA were increased after LG (1.3- and 114-fold increase, respectively), but not after NG. Phosphorylation of AMP-activated protein kinase, p38 mitogen-activated protein kinases and acetyl-CoA carboxylase was not changed 3 h post-exercise. Mitochondrial reactive oxygen species production and glutathione oxidative status tended to be reduced 3 h post-exercise. We conclude that exercise with low glycogen levels amplifies the expression of the major genetic marker for mitochondrial biogenesis in highly trained cyclists. The results suggest that low glycogen exercise may be beneficial for improving muscle oxidative capacity.

5 comments:

ProudDaddy said...

Not having the full text, is there some reason they couldn't measure actual mitochondrial biogenesis?

Chris said...

I don't know. I wonder if anyone has the full text?

Purposelessness said...

Dr Andro already wrote about it!
http://suppversity.blogspot.co.at/2012/10/8x-increase-in-mitochondria-building.html

ProudDaddy said...

Yeah, the good professor did note that whether mitochondrial biogenesis is actually increased was left unknown, but he didn't address the reasons why. I'm sure it must be more complicated than looking at cells with a microscope.

Chris said...

Prof Dr andro is amazing. His blog is the best out there.