Comparison of acute glucose responses following combined arm and leg cycling in non and pre-diabetic males

Abstract

Prolonged and chronic sedentary behavior contributes to negative metabolic health conditions. Recent research has shown that a single bout of combined arm and leg cycling (CALC) can improve acute glucose metabolism in non-diabetic college aged adults. If a short bout of CALC can improve glucose metabolism in individuals that are non-diabetic then one could hypothesize that a short bout of CALC may improve glucose metabolism in individuals that are pre-diabetic. We hypothesized that short bouts of CALC would result in a greater decrease in the 60-min total (tAUC) area under the curve in pre-diabetic compared to non-diabetic males. PURPOSE: To compare acute glucose responses following a short bout of CALC in non and pre-diabetic males. METHODS: College age males were recruited for this trial. Diabetes status was based upon a fasting blood glucose measurement taken after an overnight 12 hour fast. Participants completed three randomized experimental trials. Two of the experimental trials consisted of a 1-min (1M) or 5-min (5M) bout of CALC at a self-selected pace. The third trial was a non-exercise control (CON) trial. Immediately following both exercise trials and during the CON trial, participants completed a 60-min oral glucose tolerance test. A 2-way (diabetes status vs trial) repeated measures ANOVA was done to determine if there were any significant differences between the two groups and the three trials for the tAUC during the 60-min OGTT. RESULTS: A total of 18 college age males completed this study. Fasting blood glucose was 94.0 ± 3.7 and 108.1 ± 4.6 mg/dl for the non (n=8, 21.4 ± 2.4 yrs) and pre-diabetics (n = 10, 22.6 ± 3.9 yrs) participants respectively. There was a significant interaction between trials and diabetes status (p = 0.04) for tAUC. Follow-up analysis showed that within the pre-diabetic group, tAUC was significantly lower in the 5-min trial compared to the CON trial (113.7 ± 22.5 mg/dl, p > 0.001). Within the pre-diabetic group, the tAUC for the 1M trial was not significantly different from the CON or 5M trials. Within the non-diabetic group, there were no significant differences in tAUC between the three trials. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study indicate that a 5M bout of CALC done at a self-selected pace may have the ability to acutely improve glucose metabolism in college age pre-diabetic males when compared to non-diabetic males. Supported by a SIUE Graduate School Research Grant for Graduate Students, the School of Education, Health, and Human Behavior Dean's Grant, and the Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Program. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2024 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.