Resistance training improves the inflammatory response to an acute resistance exercise bout in healthy young adults

Abstract

Ten non‐resistance trained subjects (8 men, 2 women, 21–28 y) participated in a 9 mo supervised resistance exercise training 3 times/wk. We examined the inflammatory response to: 1) an acute resistance exercise bout (ARET) and 2) a 9 mo resistance training program by comparing the responses at baseline (T0) and after 9 months (T9). The ARET consisted of 6 × 10 repetitions of squats (75% of 1RM) with 2 min rest between sets. Blood was drawn pre‐ exercise, immediately post, 15 and 60 min after the ARET. Plasma cytokines were measured at all time points both at T0 and at T9. Analysis of the acute effects at T0 indicated that the proinflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)‐1β, IL‐8 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)‐α increased to a lesser extent than the anti‐inflammatory cytokines IL‐1ra and IL‐10 after 60 min. These results suggest that in spite of the large inflammatory response induced by ARET, this is counterbalanced by the body's anti‐inflammatory response in healthy subjects. When T0 and T9 were compared, the area under the curve for TNF‐α was significantly lower after training (T0=105.9 vs. T9=62.9 p=0.029) and it almost reached significance for IL‐15 (T0=26.5 vs T9=38.0 p=0.07). TNF‐α responses were diminished with training at 15m (T0=63.9.5 pg/mL vs T9=60.4 pg/mL p=0.035) and 60 m. (T0=79.7 pg/mL vs T9=34.8 pg/mL p=0.025). These reductions in TNF‐α indicate that resistance training reduces the inflammatory response to an acute bout of resistance training [Supported by the National Dairy Council]