engleski

DESIGNING THE STRENGTH TRAINING PROTOCOL THAT MIGHT ELICIT SIMILAR BDNF RESPONSES AS STANDARDLY RECOMMENDED AEROBIC EXERCISE

Purpose: BDNF that increases after aerobic exercise effects cognition, enhances neurogenesis, neuroplasticity and long-term potentiation, and cognitive performance (Leckie et al., 2014). Very much like in metabolic and cardiovascular disorders, the aerobic exercise has been prescribed as golden standard also in psychic disorders (Tsai et al., 2014), though many people avoid aerobic exercise because of the boredom or inability to run or similar. Some suggested that strength training had no influence on peripheral BDNF but in our opinion it is the type of the strength training that is important. So the aim of this study was to design a strength training program that mimics the intensities of aerobic exercise responses that might be an useful stimuli for blood-borne neurotrophic growth factors (NTFs) like brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in order to elicit double training benefits. Methods: Eight female subjects, volunteered in the study (age 38.3 ±4.7). In the first trial the subjects performed a classical 30min aerobic exercise (65% of VO2max, 80% of HRmax) on cycle- ergometer. The rate of perceived exertion, the lactate levels, the heart rate, as well as cognitive function in remembering the shortly exposed pictures in the last minute of the protocol were monitored. In the next 4 trials (1 week apart from each other) the subjects underwent different strength training regimes. The regimes differed in number of sets, number of repetitions, muscle groups involved and the duration of breaks between the exercises and between the sets. Results: Among the tested protocols we identified that the protocol design that involved exercises for 5 major muscle groups, each exercise repeated 12-14 times with only 30 second break between the sets and 1 min break between the exercises elicited the most similar effect to the desired aerobic training on the parameters monitored. The end lactate levels were 3.7±1.2mmol/L, mean heart rate 78% of the predicted HRmax, and the rate of perceived exertion mean response was 10.1±2.5 on a 1- 20 scale (meaning moderate exertion). None of the values differed significantly from the standard aerobic protocol. Conclusions: The above mentioned training program mimics the aerobic exercise physiological load responses so it might be expected that it would elicit the same BDNF responses like the currently studied aerobic exercise BDNG responses. The benefits might be doubled as it influences the muscle mass as well as it increases cardiovascular response. In the future studies the above mentioned protocol will be used in different populations (especially in depressive patients) in order to evaluate the BDNF strength training dynamics.

strength training ; BDNF ; aerobic exercise

nije evidentirano