The investigators’ suggested that CaHMB may have attenuated the muscle damage often observed from running and might have accelerated recovery between training bouts. Further, CaHMB supplementation may have enhanced the training stimulus
of HIIT on VT and RCP by increasing mitochondrial biogenesis, thus improving oxidative energy capacity and efficiency [13, 18, 19]. It appears that HMBFA supplementation is most effective during muscle damaging exercise [20]. Lamboley et al. [19] indicated that they specifically selected running to induce delayed onset muscle soreness, a non-invasive indicator of muscle damage. However, to date, no one has examined the effect of HMBFA supplementation while undergoing a HIIT program on a cycle ergometer. If muscle damage is needed to observe the potential benefits of HMBFA supplementation, then HIIT training
on a cycle ergometer, which produces much less muscle damage STA-9090 cell line [21] than running, may provide no additional benefit. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of chronic (4-weeks) HMBFA supplementation in combination with cycle ergometry HIIT on endurance performance measures in active college age men and women. Methods Participants For inclusion in the study, all males were required to have a VO2peak greater than 35 ml∙kg-1∙min-1 and all female participants greater than 30 ml∙kg-1∙min-1. After initial testing, forty recreationally-active individuals (men = 21, women = 19) between the ages of 18 and 35 were recruited to participate in this study. Three female and two male participants were removed selleck screening library due to health reasons not associated else with the study. One female participant was removed after a family emergency. Therefore, data for 19 men and 15 women (Table 1) were included in the final analysis. All participants completed a GF120918 questionnaire to assess ability to participate in physical activity
and to ascertain any prior supplementation regime. Individuals self-reported to be free of musculoskeletal injury as determined by a physical activity readiness questionnaire (PAR-Q). Following an explanation of all procedures, risks and benefits, each participant provided his/her informed consent to participate in the study. Table 1 Participant descriptive statistics Variable Control (n = 8) PLA-HIIT (n = 13) HMBFA-HIIT (n = 13) p-value Age (y) 21.0 ± 2.4 23.6 ± 3.7 22.9 ± 2.4 0.166 Height (cm) 171.4 ± 5.7 172.6 ± 12.2 173.0 ± 9.2 0.939 Body mass (kg) 76.3 ± 12.8 74.9 ± 16.6 72.4 ± 9.9 0.793 % Body fat 22.4 ± 8.1 19.7 ± 8.6 24.8 ± 8.1 0.301 Training volume (kJ) N/A 1437.0 ± 309.6 1456.8 ± 378.6 0.313 Values are presented as means ± SD. HIIT, high-intensity interval training. HMBFA, β-hydroxy-β-methylbutyrate in the free acid form (BetaTor™, Metabolic Technologies Inc, Ames, IA), PLA, placebo.