Effect of a Recovery Supplement on Weight Lifting Performance, Muscle Fiber Morphology and Muscle Protein Accretion

The purposes of this dissertation were to examine the effect of a protein and carbohydrate recovery beverage versus a placebo on weightlifting performance, its effect on muscle morphological changes and specific muscle protein accretion. The following are major finding from the dissertation: 1) Protein and carbohydrate recovery supplementation does not appear to have influence on performance measure in trained weightlifters. This finding may be associated with the short-term nature of this study and the trained population used. 2) Compared with placebo, a protein and carbohydrate beverage provided greater benefits on cross sectional area of type I and type II muscle fibers. Additionally, the block periodization protocol incorporating phase potentiation improved cross sectional area of both groups compared to baseline. 3) Finally, protein and carbohydrate supplementation provided greater benefits on total mTOR and myosin heavy chains 6 & 7. These findings indicate that a protein and carbohydrate beverage provide greater benefits compared with a placebo on cellular signaling, myosin heavy gene expression and muscle fiber increases in trained weightlifters. Improved cross sectional area and increased myosin heavy chains indicate positive adaptations to resistance training combined with supplementation and may indicate improved skeletal muscle qualities necessary for increased power output. The mTOR pathway is the master regulator of cellular growth and increases in total mTOR indicate a greater proclivity for cellular growth and greater activity resulting from resistance training may increase synthesis and accretion of muscle contractile proteins. This dissertation highlighted several benefits of recovery supplementation, however further longitudinal studies utilizing block periodization and well-trained athletes are necessary to fully elucidate benefits for strength and power athletes