High-load resistance training has always been linked to greater muscular power and strength, while low-load training can lead to greater muscular endurance. Breaking that down further, high-load resistance training can increase adaptations in the myofibrils, while low-load endurance training concentrates on the mitochondria, the powerhouses of the cells.

One paper published in Frontiers in Medicine took a closer look at the two resistance training methodologies to determine which would lead to better overall results. As the paper stated, “concurrent practice of traditional endurance exercise and resistance exercise regimens to achieve both types of muscle adaptations is time-consuming, motivationally demanding, and contended to entail practice at intensity levels, that may not comply with clinical settings. It is therefore of principal interest to identify effective, yet feasible, exercise strategies that may positively affect both mitochondrial and myofibrillar protein turnover.”

Recent studies have indicated that low-load resistance training can be as effective for increasing myofibrillar accretion and muscular growth. At the same time, high-load resistance training can also increase mitochondrial biogenesis, though to a lesser degree than low-load endurance training.

Regarding mitochondrial stimulation, low-load endurance training has proven the more effective methodology. One study on endurance training recorded “a robust increase in mitochondrial protein synthesis rate after low-load resistance exercise performed with a slow and tonic contraction phase and conducted to volitional fatigue.”

Not only that, but endurance training has been linked to higher ATP energy turnover in comparison to high-load training. Also, “fatiguing low-load resistance exercise conducted with slow and tonic contraction phase or application of external restriction of blood flow to the exercising muscle, has been shown to impose a more pronounced decrease in tissue oxygenation compared to traditionally performed high-load and low-load resistance exercise.”

Low-load, endurance training delivers the same, or better, results as high-load training, but with far less strain on your body.

Low-load, endurance training is less mechanically strenuous, reduces the amount of time required to reach volitional fatigue, reduces the required work volume, and stimulates muscle growth on par with high-load training. Simply put: endurance training delivers the same, or better, results as high-load training, but with far less strain on your body.

Regarding sheer mechanics, low-load endurance training is the clear winner over high-load resistance training. Though there is a certain amount of discomfort (that burn in your muscles when you’re hitting 15-20 reps), it’s very likely more effective for both mitochondrial and myofibril adaptations.

Reference:

1. Groennebaek, Thomas, and Kristian Vissing. “Impact of Resistance Training on Skeletal Muscle Mitochondrial Biogenesis, Content, and Function.” Frontiers, Frontiers, 4 Sept. 2017.

The post Analyzing High Versus Low-Load Resistance Training Methodologies appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

We all know that exercise can boost your mood and drive away stress. When we engage in high-intensity exercise (such as HIIT), our brains release Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF), a protein that can boost cognitive function and relax our minds. BDNF can also protect your brain, repair your memory, and reset your mood.

But in a study on opiod release after HIIT Finnish researchers have found that exercise-induced endorphin release in the brain relies on the intensity of the exercise. According to the data, an increase in endorphins can do wonders to alleviate physical and emotional stress, but first, you’ve got to work through the pain.

The study, conducted at the Turku PET Centre, University of Turku, examined the effects of HIIT training on 22 healthy adults. Positron Emission Technology (PET) was used to measure the levels of radioactivity in the brain after the participants were injected with a radioactive compound. The compound was designed to bond with the opioid receptors in the brain.

Essentially, higher bonding with the opioid receptors was proportionate to a positive mood.

The participants were then subjected to a 60-minute aerobic training workout of moderate- intensity, a high-intensity (HIIT) aerobic workout, and a rest period. PET scans were taken of the frontolimbic regions of the brain (thalamus, insula, orbitofrontal cortex, hippocampus, and anterior cingulate cortex), which are involved in pain, reward, and emotional processing.

Moderate-intensity exercise did nothing to increase binding with the opioid receptors in the brain, but HIIT exercise increased the release of endorphins and other opioid peptides. HIIT also led to increased negative feelings, a result of the higher release of endorphins. However, it ultimately led to pleasurable sensations and euphoria, the other result of endorphins flooding your body.

What does this mean? According to the lead researcher, “Our results highlight that exercise intensity affects endorphin release and that the brain opioid system is involved in both positive and negative feelings caused by physical exercise performed at different intensities.”

The researcher went on to explain, “At moderate training intensities, the pleasurable sensations caused by the possible release of endorphins may promote habitual exercise. At very high exercise intensities, the release of endorphins appears to be linked to increased negative feelings and pain, and may be needed to manage the emotionally and physically demanding challenge.”

So, HIIT will release endorphins into your body, but those endorphins are used to manage the negative feelings and pain associated with the very high-intensity training. Though “such negative feelings may discourage further exercise,” it’s essential that you’re prepared for them when beginning HIIT training. You’ll have to learn to push through the pain and stress of the workout to ultimately experience the high (euphoria) caused by the endorphins produced by the high-intensity nature of the workout.

Reference:

1. Tiina Saanijoki, Lauri Tuominen, Jetro J Tuulari, Lauri Nummenmaa, Eveliina Arponen, Kari Kalliokoski, and Jussi Hirvonen. “Opioid Release after High-Intensity Interval Training in Healthy Human Subjects.” Neuropsychopharmacology advance online publication 16 August 2017; doi: 10.1038/npp.2017.148.

The post HIIT: Work Through the Pain to Reach Euphoria appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

There are many health risks associated with pregnancy: from preeclampsia to gestational diabetes to incontinence to excessive weight gain. While some of these problems are simply the result of the changes occurring in your body, many are the direct result of unhealthy lifestyle and eating habits before and during pregnancy.

However, according to an article from the Journal of American Medicine Association, physical exercise during pregnancy can have significant physiological benefits. But these benefits aren’t limited to you alone—your baby will benefit as well.

In the past, doctors advised against high-intensity exercise for fear of risking the fetus’ health. Pregnant women were also encouraged to eat more to meet the demands placed on their body by the pregnancy. Unfortunately, this often led to excessive weight gain, gestational diabetes, and higher infant birth weight.

However, the new study indicates that “moderate exercise during pregnancy is safe and beneficial for both mother and baby.” Some of the benefits provided by exercise include:

• Lower fetal macrosomia risk
• Reduced risk of pre-eclampsia
• Less chance of gestational diabetes
• Prevention of excessive maternal weight gain, as well as high infant birth weight
• Reduction of lower back pain, urinary incontinence, and pelvic pain

What About The Baby?

What about the baby, you may ask? According to the research, “there is no risk of premature birth, low birth weight or fetal distress; provided that the mother has no medical or obstetric contraindication for physical exercise.”

The study goes on to lay out a simple guideline to follow for exercising during pregnancy: a combination of resistance and aerobic training. Resistance training increases muscle mass, while aerobic training focuses on eliminating body fat. Yoga and pilates are also worth considering, though more for the stress and pain-reducing benefits.

Exercise 20 to 30 minutes, most days of the week. This ensures more than the minimum 150 minutes of exercise per week recommended by the WHO, leading to improved health.

What Exercises To Avoid During Pregnancy

High-intensity exercise (above 90% MaxHR) can increase fetal risk, but moderate-intensity exercise should not produce adverse effects.

Workout no-nos include long-distance running, isometric contraction training, jump training, intense weight training, exercises that involve lying on your back for extended periods, impact exercises, and exercises that carry the risk of falling.

Begin after the first prenatal visit. Exercise should be started between week nine and twelve of pregnancy and can continue as late as week 38 or 39. Follow these guidelines, and you’ll keep both yourself and your baby healthy during your pregnancy.

Reference:

1. Perales M, Artal R, Lucia A. “Exercise During Pregnancy.” JAMA. 2017;317(11):1113–1114. doi:10.1001/jama.2017.0593.

The post Just Follow the Protocols for Exercising During Pregnancy appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Sugar has been linked to a broad range of health problems: from diabetes to obesity to inflammation to acne to an increased cancer risk. In Britain, adults consume approximately double, and in the U.S. triple, the recommended level of added sugar for additional health benefits (5% of energy intake), with sweet foods and drinks contributing three-quarters of the intake.”

Now, findings from a study on sugar intake from sweet food and beverages, common mental disorder and depression, have linked high sugar intake to common mental disorders such as depression. The observational study collected data from more than 23,000 people. The researchers analyzed the subjects’ diets, asking them to fill out a questionnaire to assess their food intake frequency and mood.

The data showed that men in the top third of sugar intake had a 23% higher chance of common mental disorders within just five years. Worse, the risk of developing the disorders was independent of other factors. Diet, health behaviors, socioeconomic, demographic, adiposity (body fat percentage), and disease had little effect on the men’s increased chance of developing common mental disorders (including depression) within five years.

Sugar May Act Like A Drug

One theory about the impact on mood is that sugar may act like a drug, like cocaine, giving you a high, and making you crave high sugar products, like junk food and sweet treats, over other foods.

You may be thinking, “Well, wouldn’t depression, anxiety, and other common mental disorders play a role in sugar intake? After all, stress eating or comfort eating can lead to an increased consumption of sugar, right?”

As the study discovered, neither common mental disorders nor depression predicted the changes of sugar intake. Comfort or stress eating played no role in the subjects high sugar consumption, despite the fact that high sugar consumption led to the development of common mental disorders.

“We found an adverse effect of higher sugar intake on mental health cross-sectionally. Further, we found an increased likelihood of incident common mental disorders in men and some evidence of recurrent depression in both sexes with higher intakes of sugar from sweet food/beverages.”

This research drives one important point home: high sugar intake is dangerous for your psychological health. The data proved that there is a direct connection between high sugar intake from sweet foods/beverages and mental/psychological health problems.

The researchers stated, “Over years and decades, it could be that those susceptible to depression tend to increase their sugar intake. With a high prevalence of mood disorders, and sugar intake commonly two to three times the level recommended, our findings indicate that policies promoting the reduction of sugar intake could additionally support primary and secondary prevention of depression.”

Despite the researchers’ findings, according to Dr. Anika Knuppel, there are still many questions that remain unanswered. For instance, whether sugar makes us sad, whether it affects men more than women, and whether it is sweetness, rather than sugar itself, that explains the observed associations. What is certain, though, is that sugar is associated with a number of health problems, including tooth decay, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. So cutting down on sugar is probably a good idea, regardless of whether it causes mood disorders or not.

Reference:

1. Anita Knuppel, Martin J. Shipley, Clare H. Llewellyn, Eric J. Brunner. “Sugar Intake From Sweet Food And Beverages, Common Mental disorder and depression: prospective findings from the Whitehall II study” Scientific Reports 7, Article: 62887, 2017. Doi:10.1038/s41598-017-05649-7

The post Science Thinks Sugar Makes You Sad appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Protein is the most important part of our diet. Not only does it contribute to new muscle growth, but it carries out chemical functions in the cells, coordinates biological processes, stores energy, and protects existing muscle mass.

Age-related muscle mass decrease, also known as sarcopenia, is one of the most significant contributors to aging. As we grow older, our muscle mass decreases, which in turn reduces the amount of energy available for use. This leads to less strength, stamina, and endurance.

According to a review published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition, adding more protein to your diet is the best way to reduce this age-related muscle loss. The study states that the current recommended daily protein intake of 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight is insufficient to prevent sarcopenia among the elderly.

Why is that? Simple: this recommendation is for all adults above the age of 19. It’s grading on the curve, not taking into account the unique nutritional requirements of the elderly. Just getting those 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight will not be enough to protect senior citizens from losing muscle mass as they age.

So How Much Is Enough?

According to the review, elderly people should increase their protein intake by a whopping 50%, up to 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight.

But it’s not just the amount of protein that matters—the review states that the focus should be on leucine, one of the three branch-chain amino acids that play an important role in building new muscle tissue.

The elderly need more leucine to build muscle proteins. To get more leucine, milk-based proteins—like yogurt, milk, cheese, and whey protein—are highly recommended.

You Need To Exercise.

Of course, there’s one more important recommendation: you need to exercise.

As the lead author says, “I do think that it’s more important to emphasize somewhat like the protein message that being physically active and engaging in whether it’s physical activity in a leisure time, walking or gardening that sort of thing or actually going to the gym and doing structured exercise has a similar effect as protein. It is essentially anti-sarcopenic.”

RDA figures were set as a base that should be achievable and were not designed for optimal nutrition, so to speak. The issue of quality is pretty important, more so than not with protein, but we really don’t have any standards to apply to the general population. There’s a long way to go to providing effective and sound nutrition advice to people across the spectrum.

Reference:

1. Stuart M. Phillips. “Current Concepts and Unresolved Questions in Dietary Protein Requirements and Supplements in Adults.” Frontiers in Nutrition, 2017; 4 DOI: 10.3389/fnut.2017.00013.

The post The Older You Get the More Protein to Stave off Muscle Loss appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Or is it? According to a new study published in the International Journal of Obesity, your body’s resting energy expenditure should change with weight loss, but that during dieting the extent of that decrease is greater than would be normally attributed to what is happening to your body. This process is called adaptive thermogenesis and leads to markedly reduced efficiency of weight So, the trick with diets is to attenuate adaptive thermogenesis.

It may be a good idea to lay off the diet every now and again if you want to see real results.

A team of researchers funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia gathered two groups of participants to undergo a reduced-calorie diet. For sixteen weeks, the participants reduced calorie intake by 33%. However, one of the groups only followed the diet for two weeks before taking a two-week break, repeating this cycle for thirty weeks so they still ended up with sixteen weeks of dieting.

After the diet, the researchers examined the results and found that the intermittent dieting group lost more weight during their diet period. Not only that, but they were better able to maintain the weight loss after the diet finished. They lost eight kilograms more than the control group during the six months after the study period.

The lead researcher explained why this happens, “When we reduce our energy (food) intake during dieting, resting metabolism decreases to a greater extent than expected; a phenomenon termed ‘adaptive thermogenesis’ — making weight loss harder to achieve. This ‘famine reaction’, a survival mechanism which helped humans to survive as a species when food supply was inconsistent in millennia past, is now contributing to our growing waistlines when the food supply is readily available.”

On the flip side, diets that only last one to seven days did not prove as effective for promoting and maintaining weight loss. It was only after the diet was sustained for two weeks at a time that the body adapted effectively. Intermittent days of fasting and feasting “were not any more effective than continuous dieting.”

Want to kick your weight loss efforts up a notch? Try intermittent dieting—two weeks of dieting followed by one to two weeks of normal eating. Not only will this make it easier for you to adapt to the new eating habits, but it can encourage better long-term results as well.

Reference:

1. N M Byrne, A Sainsbury, N A King, A P Hills, R E Wood. “Intermittent energy restriction improves weight loss efficiency in obese men—The MATADOR study.” International Journal of Obesity, 2017; DOI: 10.1038/ijo.2017.206.

The post Overcoming Adaptive Thermogenesis for More Efficient Weight Loss appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Every day, millions of scientists around the world spend their time researching, studying, evaluating, and analyzing. They produce thousands of scholarly articles and research papers every month, publishing them in journals to share with the world.

But how many people actually read that information? As one piece in the British Medical Journal states, “knowledge management has started and ended with the publication of an article, or the rare chance of a lecture or speech at a conference attended by other researchers.”

There is so much information at our fingertips—information on every aspect of fitness, exercise, diet, and health, but if that information is never accessed, studied, and used, it’s never going to improve life. It’s of the utmost importance that the knowledge obtained via these studies is translated, disseminated, and shared.

Thus, the social media culture has bred a sort of intelligent ignorance wherein people believe they know something because they heard, read, or watched a video about it.

The sad truth is that evidence-based practices are always going to compete with the popular or trendy on our modern social media. Many people will believe their favorite celebrity when they say a diet or workout plan works, and they’ll never think twice about researching to find out what scientific literature has to say on the subject. Thus, the social media culture has bred a sort of intelligent ignorance wherein people believe they know something because they heard, read, or watched a video about it.

It’s up to each of us to go beyond the easily consumed content available online today and dig into the facts behind everything. When you read an article that swears by a certain fitness routine, spend some time researching the science that is used to make those claims. When a diet product sweeps the world with its magic pill benefits, take a cold, hard look at the data to back the product up. Don’t swallow information just because it’s presented in a clear, easy to read way. It’s worth the effort to know the facts behind the claims, the raw scientific data.

As the review says, “research has to be of great quality before knowledge translation, and sharing becomes relevant.” Low-quality information readily available online is not a reliable source of knowledge. Instead, you need to rely on the high-quality information found in scholarly articles, research papers, and published studies. This is the sort of information that has gone through all the rigorous scientific methods, rather than some guru or fitness expert spouting their latest theories about health and wellness.

Reference:

1. Kotila, Karen, et al. “From knowing to doing: it takes a village.” Br J Sports Med, BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and British Association of Sport and Exercise Medicine, 1 Oct. 2017. 

The post Is Social Media Culture Breeding Intelligence Ignorance? appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Our bodies are designed with a simple hunger mechanism: hunger pangs trigger the desire to eat, and when our stomach feels full, it’s an indication that we’ve had enough to eat. Pretty simple, right?

Hunger Equals Eat. Full Equals Stop Eating.

Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. According to a new study published in Psychological Science, these associations (hunger equals eat; full equals stop eating) might be learned in reverse. The result: feeling full can cause you to eat more rather than less.

The study took 32 rats and put them through a daily 30-minute conditioning session over the course of 12 days. After being fed, the rats were put in a box that had a lever that fed them tasty treats when pressed. For the following four days, the rats (who hadn’t been fed and were hungry) were put in the same box with the same lever, but the lever produced no treats when pressed.

When the rats were placed in the box again, they were far more prone to pressing the treat-producing lever when they were full rather than hungry. The previous 16 days had conditioned them to believe that the feelings of fullness were a signal that they wanted something tasty. It didn’t matter that they had eaten their fill—they wanted the treats.

But that’s not all. According to the research, “This relapse pattern emerged even when food was removed from the cage before both the learning and unlearning sessions, indicating that the rats’ internal physical states, and not the presence or absence of food, cued their learned behavior.”

You may think, “I’m not a rat; I’m not going to react that way.” Well, the truth is that learned behaviors exist among all animals, including those of us that walk upright on two legs. Our body may drive our food-seeking behavior based on actual physiological needs (genuine hunger), but internal cues and conditioned behavior can also affect our food-related behavior.

The lead researchers explained, “A wide variety of stimuli can come to guide and promote specific behaviors through learning. For example, the sights, sounds, and the smell of your favorite restaurant might signal the availability of your favorite food, causing your mouth to water and ultimately guiding you to eat.”

These stimuli don’t trigger your hunger pangs—hunger is a physiological response. Instead, it will trigger your cravings for something delicious, and that’s the type of response that leads to excessive calorie consumption, weight gain, and ultimately obesity.

Reference:

1. Scott T. Schepers, Mark E. Bouton. “Hunger as a Context: Food Seeking That Is Inhibited During Hunger Can Renew in the Context of Satiety.” Psychological Science, 2017; 095679761771908 DOI: 10.1177/0956797617719084.

The post Are Feelings of Hunger and Satiety Physiological or Learned? appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Wearable technology is all the rage these days. From smart watches to heart rate monitoring T-shirts, to shoes with fitness trackers built in, sports garment manufacturers are always trying to find new and creative ways to marry style and comfort with technology.

One scientist took a closer look at wearable tech from a unique angle: where to wear the tech, rather than what sort of tech to wear. His research examined the practicality, comfort, and of use of wearable tech based on a few factors:

Body movement and mechanics

The wearable devices shouldn’t hinder full range of movement and might be best when placed on parts of the body that don’t move (such as the chest, upper back, or waist).

Movement sensing

In direct contrast to the previous factor, this one is needed for the sensors (such as accelerometers) to function. If the wearables are placed on a body part that doesn’t move much, the sensor won’t be able to detect the full scope of movement and motion. Sensors placed on the lower back, arms, legs, hands, and head will prove most effective at detecting movement.

Type of sensor

A heart rate monitor needs to be located at the wrist, neck, or immediately above the heart. Blood glucose monitors are worn at the waist. Respiration monitors are usually placed over the chest cavity to monitor expansion. The placement of the sensor is usually determined by its purpose.

Proxemics

Proxemics is a human’s perception of self-size. The distance from the body portrayed on this body map indicates how far from the body a wearable device might extend and still be naturally considered part of the person’s self-size awareness. Items extending beyond this distance from the body might take a period of time for a person to adjust and account for the object within their personal self-size envelope.

Social Acceptability

It’s socially unacceptable to use touch-based interactions on regions of the body associated with body waste elimination or sexual activity unless the technology was intended to aid in these bodily functions.

The research is fascinating and provides a glimpse into the most effective ways to incorporate technology into modern clothing. The full range of body maps can be found on this Georgia Tech wearable technology page.

Reference:

1. Zeagler, Clint. 2017. “Where to Wear It : Functional, Technical ,and Social Considerations in On – Body Location for Wearable Technology 20 Years of Designing for Wearability.” In International Symposium on Wearable Computers. Maui, Hawaii. doi:10.1145/3123021.3123042.

The post With Wearable Tech, the Purpose Determines the Placement appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The term middle age spread refers to the amount of weight gained by men and women once they hit the big 4-0. Not only do they pack on a few pounds, but their body fat percentage tends to rise as their lean muscle mass decreases. This is often due to a lack of activity, a decrease in hormones, a slower metabolism, and a decrease in energy output.

One study took a closer look at the middle age spread to see just how much of a threat it posed. A team of researchers at the University of Jyväskylä collected more than 1,000 middle-aged (34 to 49 years) participants and divided them into three groups:

1.  Maintainers, who didn’t increase their daily step count.
2.  Decreasers, who took fewer steps than average every day.
3.  Increasers, who increased their daily step count anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 steps per day.

Both men and women saw an increase in their BMI during the four years of the study. During this time, close to 50% of the participants maintained their step count, while an additional 25% increased their step count by 1,000 steps per day. These activity levels led to an increase in BMI—visible, though not drastic or unhealthy. On the flip side, those who increased their step count by more than 2,000 steps per day either maintained their pre-testing BMI or saw a decrease in body fat.

Get Fitter or Fatter as You Age

No, that doesn’t mean necessarily going to a gym or forcing yourself to take up jogging or cycling. According to the lead researcher,

“The steps accumulate on many instances during the day, if you give it a chance. One does not necessarily need to go for a walk every day to increase the daily step count. Instead, attention should be paid to choices in everyday life. Does every trip need to be made by car or could some of them be done by foot, or could the stairs be taken instead of the elevator.”

The trend in physical activity looks good. International studies have shown that physical activity generally decreases along with age, but here it increased. Even though step counts in general look good, it should be noted that the amount of passive people who take less than 5,000 steps per day did not change significantly during the research period.

It seems like even the simplest things can’t drive some people to adopt healthier practices.

Reference:

1. Kasper Salin, Mirja Hirvensalo, Costan Magnussen, Risto Telama, Nina Hutri-Kähönen, Jorma Viikari, Olli Raitakari, Tuija Tammelin. “Changes in Daily Steps and Body Mass Index and Waist to Height Ratio during Four Year Follow-Up in Adults: Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2017; 14 (9): 1015.

The post Take More Steps to Fight Middle Age Spread appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

A team of researchers from the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg discovered that there’s an ingredient in beer that stimulates the reward center in the brain. This ingredient, named hordenine, is found in beer and malted barley, increases the production of dopamine—specifically in the reward center of the brain where D2 (a dopamine neurotransmitter) is located.

The researchers set up a database of more than 13,000 molecules found in common foodstuffs for the purpose of finding molecules that fit the dopamine D2 receptor. Of the 13,000, only 17 were discovered to be truly effective at activating the neurotransmitter.

“In contrast with dopamine, hordenine activates the receptor solely through G proteins, potentially leading to a more prolonged effect on the reward center of the brain.”

Hordenine was one of the 17, thanks to the fact that it stimulates the D2 receptor. However, it doesn’t work quite like dopamine. The researchers described it, “In contrast with dopamine, hordenine activates the receptor solely through G proteins, potentially leading to a more prolonged effect on the reward center of the brain.”

The researchers are still diving deeper into this fascinating molecule, specifically trying to determine if a beer has enough hordenine to cause significant effects on the brain’s reward center.

Either way, it’s fascinating to discover that this molecule plays a role in the mood-boosting effects of beer. However, you need to understand the way it makes you feel good.

According to the research, “Some foods make us…feel good. That is why we cannot stop eating when we have had enough. Scientists call this hedonic hunger – the drive to eat for pleasure rather than to satisfy an actual biological need. This feel-good effect is caused by the neurotransmitter dopamine – tempting foods stimulate the reward center in the brain where the dopamine D2 receptor is located.”

So, what this means is that beer stimulates the pleasure center of our brain, but it does so in a way that makes us want more beer. This may be the reason behind why one beer usually leads to more—it’s our brain’s reaction to the hordeine and other mood-boosting molecules.

Reference:

Scientific Reports: Sommer, Thomas; Hübner, Harald; El Kerdawy, Ahmed; Gmeiner, Peter; Pischetsrieder, Monika; Clark, Tim. “Identification of the Beer Component Hordenine as Food-Derived Dopamine D2 Receptor Agonist by Virtual Screening a 3D Compound Database.” Scientific Reports (2017), 7: 44201. 

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Most compression garments are used during and in the hours immediately following the workout. However, one study examined what happened when wearing a compression garment overnight — specifically, whether or not a compression garment could speed up muscle fatigue recovery after high-intensity exercise.

Seventeen male college students were gathered for the study and were divided into two groups: those who wore compression garments and those who didn’t. Before going to sleep, the students performed ten sets of ten reps of eccentric and concentric knee extensors. For up to 24 hours after this workout, the maximum voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC) force in their knee extensor muscles was monitored.

When the scientists examined the data, they found that the group that wore compression garments recovered more quickly than those who didn’t. MVIC at the 24-hour mark after the workout was 10% higher in the compression garment group, indicating that localized muscle recovery was improved as a result of wearing the compression garments overnight.

On the flip side, the electromyographical (EMG) variables didn’t change significantly, regardless of whether the students were wearing the compression garments or not. The compression garment had no significant influence on the neurological factors involved in post-workout recovery.

It can enhance localized recovery in the area specific to the muscle beneath the garment.

If you’re looking for ways to speed up your recovery from an intense workout, wearing a compression garment overnight may be a good option. It can enhance localized recovery in the area specific to the muscle beneath the garment. However, it’s not a solution for speeding up whole-body recovery — only in the specific area where you wear the garment.

Reference:

1. Shimokochi, et al. “Effects of wearing a compression garment during night sleep on recovery from high-intensity eccentric-concentric quadriceps muscle fatigue.” Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research: Post Acceptance: July 03, 2017 | doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000002116

The post Does Wearing Compression Garments Overnight Speed Up Recovery? appeared first on Breaking Muscle.