Resistance exercise frequency and muscle protein synthesis
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Investigating the Role of Resistance Exercise Frequency in the Regulation of Skeletal Muscle Mass
IRAS ID
232024
Contact name
Brandon Shad
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Birmingham
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Skeletal muscle is essential for completing activities of daily living, preserving metabolic health and maintaining quality of life. Therefore, strategies that build or slow the loss of skeletal muscle mass as we age are of critical importance.
Resistance exercise (e.g., lifting weights) is currently the most effective means of building or maintaining muscle mass. Resistance exercise guidelines generally suggest that those looking to increase or maintain muscle mass should train each muscle group once to twice per week. However, it has been proposed that it may be of greater benefit to train a muscle group with a higher frequency (i.e., four to six times per week) than currently suggested. If true, completing the same amount of resistance exercise more frequently, but in smaller bouts, could prove to be a more beneficial strategy to optimally build or maintain muscle mass. Whilst interesting, this hypothesis has yet to be tested.
Therefore, we will investigate whether manipulating resistance exercise frequency impacts the rate at which our muscles grow in young adults. We hypothesise that a higher resistance exercise frequency will result in greater rates of muscle building processes (termed muscle protein synthesis rates) than a lower resistance exercise frequency. The expected outcomes will help to establish whether resistance exercise frequency can be manipulated as a strategy to maximise increases or minimise losses in muscle size. The future impact of this research could be to inform the refinement of public health recommendations regarding resistance exercise frequency, which could help to slow the loss of muscle mass with age, potentially reducing the incidence of cardio-metabolic disease and insulin resistance and ultimately improving quality of life.
REC name
West Midlands - Black Country Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/WM/0430
Date of REC Opinion
6 Dec 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion