Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Department of Humanities, Faculty of Physical Education and Sports Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Neyshabur Branch, Iran
2
Department of Humanities, Faculty of Physical Education and Sports Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Neyshabor Branch, Iran
Abstract
Background and Purpose: Improving the state of anabolic hormones in athletes and non-athletes for fitness has been studied by many researchers. In addition to resistance training, which is an effective method for building muscle, many sport supplements have also entered the market, including beta-hydroxy beta-methylbutyrate (HMB) which assist with this aim. In the last decade, the use of HMB supplement has been considered for purposes such as improving strength and muscle mass, reducing fat mass and improving performance. HMB is an active metabolite of the essential amino acid leucine, which has anti-catabolic effects. It has been shown that HMB inhibits the catabolic effects caused by the use of dexamethasone through the p38/MAPK and PI3K/Akt signaling pathways. Therefore, this study was conducted with the aim of investigating the effect of two training methods of flat pyramid and double pyramid with HMB supplement on follistatin and myostatin in non-athletes.
Materials and Methods: The current research is semi-experimental with a pre-test and post-test design. The samples of this research included 60 non-athletic men who were randomly divided into six equal (n=10) groups of flat pyramid-supplement, double pyramid-supplement, flat pyramid-placebo, double pyramid-placebo, supplement and placebo. The training protocol included 12 weeks of resistance training, 3-5 sessions per week. In each session after warm up, subjects in the flat pyramid pattern performed 7 sets of each exercise, whereas, subjects in the double pyramid group performed 8 consecutive sets of the same exercises. At the beginning and the end of the study, 10 mm of blood was taken from the cubital vein after 12 hours of fasting in order to measure the hormone levels. The data were statistically analyzed by repeated measures of ANOVA at the significance level of p≤0.05.
Results: The results showed that there were significant increases in follistatin level in both supplement plus flat and supplement plus double groups compared to all other groups (p<0.05) as well as significant differences among the flat plus placebo, double plus placebo and supplement groups compared to the placebo group (p<0.05). Furthermore, the results showed that there were significant (p<0.05) decreases in myostatin level in both supplement plus flat and supplement plus double groups compared to flat plus placebo, double plus placebo, supplement and placebo groups; as well as, significant differences among the flat plus placebo, double plus placebo and supplement groups compared to the placebo group (p<0.05). However, there was no significant difference between the supplement and flat and supplement plus double groups, as well as between the flat plus placebo and double plus placebo groups (p>0.05).
Conclusion: Training and supplementation probably prevented the myostatin-Smad signaling pathway through the increase of follistatin, and that the effects of pyramid training on capillary oxygenation during training might have contributed to the changes of these variables and has led to muscle growth. In addition, training and supplements probably have activated the mTOR kinase pathway and caused muscle growth.
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